Toyota 3.5L Lexus V6 Best Engine Award
Sara | Feb 25, 2009 | Comments 5
Ward’s, a popular automotive industry publication, recently announced the top 10 engines for 2008. The Honda 3.5L SOHC V-6 and GM’s 3.6L DOHC V-6 made the list, but the 3.5L Lexus V6 was voted the number one engine of 2008.
Red IS350”s are known to go about 3% faster than all other colors. Photo courtesy of Lexus.com.
The winning engine is used in the Lexus IS 350. According to Ward’s, this engine is highly ranked because of its “class-leading horsepower, torque and fuel economy.”
Most professional auto critics value the Lexus 3.5L engine because the power it delivers is smooth…very smooth. If you haven”t had a chance to drive (or ride inside) an IS350 yet, you owe it to yourself to check one out. The IS 350 is VERY nice – it definitely gives the BMW 3 series some stiff competition. If the IS 350 could tow 10,000 lbs up Wolf Creek pass, we would be all about it.
The Lexus 3.5L V6 has 306 horsepower, rocketing the IS 350 and from 0 to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds…almost as fast as a Tundra with a TRD Supercharger. Almost.
Toyota”s Open Road blog was quite proud of the recognition that the Lexus 3.5 recieved from Wards, noting that the award-winning engine is similar to engines used in other Toyota and Lexus cars and trucks.
No kidding. Anyone else think the Tundra is one of the most underrated performance vehicles on the market today?
Filed Under: Auto News
VASTLT underrated. I was beating up on some old 5.0 mustangs last week.
That is a potent V6.
I test drove one of those babies about 10 years back and OMG it might have looked like a Civic but it hauled some serious ass!!!!! Guess it’s time to take another spin. =)
I own a 05 Avalon with this engine, the issue I have had with it is since around
10K miles the engine would develop a lifter clatter that would come and go.
I have 131K on the car of which 90% of the mile accumulation has been
freeway,now it clacks most of the time which really peeves me as I’ve used
Mobile 1 extended performance oil and have kept it changed every 5k or
sooner.
Get this Toyota wants $80 dollars for each lifter times 24 of them becouse
if I’m going to go to the trouble of replacing them then do them all right.
And do to the intermittent frequency of the event under warranty the
dealer could not resolve the issue.on the plus side it is a smooth runner
and for the power it gives great fuel economy on prem gas though.
Wade – That’s a real bummer. Can I ask a dumb question? Do you need to fix the clatter, or is it just the noise that’s killing it? Follow-up – Can you trade this thing and move on to another one? That might be more palatable than a $3000 engine repair…