How to... upgrade your car's stereo - Mark Levison in Lexus IS

Lexus IS 250 SE-L £28,088

UPGRADE Mark Levinson
COST £2710
PCP COST £77 per month

The system you get as standard in this Lexus is a quality affair; with 13 speakers, an in-dash six-disc CD changer and iPod provision, it's a cut above most standard-fit systems in terms of both specification and performance.

Still, there's much to commend the upgraded Mark Levinson set-up. With 14 speakers, 300 watts of power, and a six-disc in-dash CD/DVD changer, it's part of a Multimedia pack, which includes sat-nav and a seven-inch LCD display.

Uniquely in this test, the Lexus system includes 5.1 channel surround-sound, as found in home cinema systems. This, coupled to the changer's ability to play DVD movies, means the car can double up as a mobile cinema set-up.

Music performance? It's even more involving than the standard-fit system, but not enough of an improvement, in our view, to justify the outlay. Were you able to choose the Mark Levinson audio without the sat-nav pack (which would make it cheaper), it might have fared differently.
RATING ***