Lexus IS XE10 (first generation)

The first generation of the Lexus IS, the XE10 series, was sold in Japan as the Toyota Altezza and elsewhere as the Lexus IS. Toyota produced it as a direct competitor to the luxury sports sedans of the leading European luxury marques, and designed it with greater performance emphasis than was typical of earlier Japanese luxury vehicles. Nobuaki Katayama led the engineering from 1994 to 1998 under the program code 038T, and Tomoyasu Nishi's design of 1995 was frozen in 1996 and filed as patent number 1030135 on 5 December 1996. In Japan it was sold only at Toyota Netz Store dealerships until Lexus was introduced there in 2006. The Altezza was launched in October 1998, the IS 200 reached Europe in 1999 and the IS 300 North America in 2000, as a sedan and a wagon.