The later year IS300s came with this as well. They learned their lesson after the first year. But I personally liked the open tray on my 2001 IS.I'm surprised (and disappointed) they didn't do this in 2011 as well. It's not as if they haven't done it before. My 2001 IS300 had a tray which apparently had a cover in the Japanese version. I bought the cover and made it into a useful storage compartment. The CT is lacking in storage IMO.