I have an 05 TL 6sp and my wife has an 02 IS Auto. It's hard to find an IS that hasn't been ragged out. I bought my TL for 26.5K 18 months ago and my wife bought hers early this year for 10K. It's a hell of a car for 10K. I have 3 kids and they all fit nicely in the TL but only two of them will fit nicely in her IS. By the way, my boy is 13 and my daughter is 12. If you put that sport mode on in the IS it moves very well. And if you wanted it to really move turbos are readily available. Which isn't the case in the TL. You tube the is sometime PLENTY of them are 500 hp plus. I've even seen a few 700 hp IS on there. NO TL will ever do that. The IS rides like it's on rails. Very similar to the 350Z in my opinion. The leather/suede combo in the IS holds up better. You can condition it all you want. It's still gonna crack. Funny how that didn't happen in my 745Li... Ultimately, it comes down to this: when I want to bend a few corners I take IS. When we go on a trip, we take my TL. When I wanna do
180 mph, I take my GSX-R 1000.
Hope this helps.

 

Stronger internals but not more reliable stock vs stock.

 

This is the sentiment that seems to be common among those that have access to both cars that have replied in thread. Very interesting and helpful. Now some other jerk that replied has got me peeking at 05 RLs

Also seems to be a little out of my price range, but worth the looks nonetheless!

how many miles were on your wife's IS? Any issues or common problems that you have noticed?

 

After riding in my friend's corolla, I can see so much of it in the dash, the shifter, and the overall shape of the IS300 and IS350. When I had my 05 TL 6MT, I raced a guy in an IS300, when the race was over and I he pulled back up to me, he asked, if my car was modified, I told him no, it came from the factory running right. Anyway, the op wants the car as a family car, definitely would go with the 3G TL

 

The TL is way better. The IS300 is slower then my 07 Civic Si.

 

IS300 = epic win turning radius. TL = FAIL! ..my girlfriend has an is300 and it does a terrific job when it comes to making a u-turn.

 

yea u can drif that shit.lol

i totalled my is300 =\ once u lose control on that car, it's game over

 

70K miles. No problems as of yet. The IS has been a flawless car.

 

If it's going to be a family car, just get the TL, forget about the "differences" between the cars unless you're going to buy a 09' one. But then we could get a 09' TL and it would be still bigger. TL is reliable, a honda product, and fast too. Forget about the "uturns" or the racing feel/ fast throttle response, since this is a family car also why would you wanna drive that fast, that crazy with kids in your car *unless you consider kids to be like 16+*

TL wins for family/looks/luxury
IS wins for racing feel/lexus product