Scotty, the is250 has carbon buildup issues, is the is350 a better bet as a first car with all the power that it has, and the similiar fuel economy it gets.
IS350 is an excellent cat hit for a first car, you better off go for a small Toyota or Honda, if you don't have driving by experience, because of the insurance fees, repair costs, ...
I personally would go with the IS350 because it has port injection (cleans back of intake valves and therefore not susceptible to carbon buildup) while the IS250 is direct injection-only (and therefore can have carbon buildup overtime). Now Scotty answered a viewer’s question about IS250 and carbon buildup and said he hasn’t really seen that issue in his customer’s cars, but I still am weary of owning a vehicle with direct-injection only. I’d go with the IS350.
Now is it a good first car for a 16 year old? - that’s a different issue, and you already know our thoughts on that (no need to rehash here again).
