That's Auto Express's own words, their marketing puff - why are you paying attention to it?
Here's some marketing puff (paraphrased) about the IS200 I read in Australia once, which were also not the words of the manufacturer as they tried to flog me an IS200:
"The IS200 is dog slow, and features an weedy, outdated engine made of pig iron."
There. Now go sell your rebadged Altezzas at once :).
If Lexus wanted to sell more cars, and Toyota didn't have a diesel motor good enough for the mini-exec market, buying in the BMW's drivetrain would be a good place to start. L-R, and GM Vauxhall already have. You would also get a six-speed box, so current IS200 owners won't feel short-changed (as they would with a 318i or 320i), and you get the following performance figures (assuming kerb weights and final drive ratio are similar):
0-60 mph: 8.4 sec
0-100: 23.8 sec
30-70 in 4th: 7.8 sec
top speed: 129 mph
Figures an IS200 owner can only dream about, I'm sure you'll agree.
If you are willing to consider a diesel, and I appreciate there a some who never would, the question is: would you have sufficient strength of character to handle the fact that your diesel IS200 (DS200?) has a - wait for it - *BMW* (spit) engine?
