530E60NL

I went to the introduction of the Lexus GS yesterday. I took one for a spin and this is what I experienced:

- Enginepower is nothing more then my 530i. The sound of the engine at high RPM sounds cool.
- I thought a lexus would be more quiet. The cabin suffered from a lot of windnoise and the non-runflat tires mad a heck of alot noise..
- Loads and loads of buttons while there is a touchscreen navigation on the dash.. C'mon lexus.. Why not use the touchscreen to handle all the options.
- A very strange flip open tray with more buttons at you left knee. Those buttons are for the electric foldable mirrors, to adjust the mirrors and for the sunscreen in the back.
- I thought it drove like a Mercedes E-Class.. Not very communicative and the suspension was a bit bouncy..
- One cool feature is the backup camera for when you park Reverse. It has these cool lines on the screen wich show exactly where you are. I liked that a lot.
- Soundsystem: No bass, a lot of treble and it didn't sound half as good as my logic7 does.

Overall the car has a nice front end. The rear looks awfull (1995 toyota corolla hatchback).

This car is definately not in the league of the E60 and is no compitition..

IrishEyes

Interesting, a road test in Autocar last week gave it a very good write up. I was almost going to go out and buy one myself on the strength of it. Basically, they reckon it's engineered like no other car, quality betters the Germans, panel gap's are almost non-existant, perfectly matched engine and brakes, masses of kit, low consumption - the most complete Lexus yet. Sound of the death knell for the Germans.

garehaan

Interesting, a road test in Autocar last week gave it a very good write up. I was almost going to go out and buy one myself on the strength of it. Basically, they reckon it's engineered like no other car, quality betters the Germans, panel gap's are almost non-existant, perfectly matched engine and brakes, masses of kit, low consumption - the most complete Lexus yet. Sound of the death knell for the Germans.


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Is this another one of your jokes?
Do you realize it's a Toyota?

You get red carpet treatment and probably one of the best built cars on this planet, but it will always remain a TOYOTA

IrishEyes

Unfortunately, no it's not a joke this time. It's a bit disconcerting all right. Toyota Mo Co have so much surplus cash that they could afford to buy BMW complete a few times over. With their loose change. Ford and GM in the US are going nowhere but down (all all due to the heaps of sh1t they are trying to flog) and fairly soon Toyota will not only become the richest but the biggest car manufacturer on the planet.

I know it's a Toyota (now) but with that amount of spare money, they have to be able to engineer something decent. I think when people say 'it's a Toyota' are trying to denegrate the attempt because maybe they ARE getting too close for comfort to the established luxury/executive manufacturers. They've come a long way since the LS400 in 1990 (although they seemed to have slowed down over the last few years) but whats about to be unleashed is probably more worrying for the likes of BMW, MB, Jaguar et al.

:'(

530E60NL

Irisheyes,

The quality of the plastic in the cabin and the buttons is really below par compared to the E60. Not because I have an E60 I posted this thread. When I saw the first pictures of the GS300 I told my wife I was going to get one. The quality and quietness of a Lexus apealed to me a lot.

Yesterday was really dissapointing. I thought it would be much more upclass and sophisticated in terms of interior fabrics and ride quality. Honest, it did feel like driving a big toyota. The buttons looked very cheap and they used different displaystypes to show outside temperature and the boardcomputer (Led vs the same system we have in our cars between the revcounter and odometer). Also the brakes and the steering where not as grippy as my current car. I told my wife that I am spoiled by BMW and that another car has to have good credits to beat it.

I hope you make a testdrive and give us your comments. Maybe I was to anal about the tirenoise and windnoise. But my wife was with me and she agreed (while there was a salesperson in the rearseat hahaha).

Again, I was disapointed by the experience. I expected a lot more from lexus.

IrishEyes

I haven't seen a GS in the steel but I suspect that u are right. I was playing devils advocate a little in the previous posting. I was never a fan of Japanese internal design or material choice. However, I had an occasion to travel in a current Toyota Avensis and it was much better than I expected. This is far in excess outselling the other class contenders in Ireland, Mondeo, Passat, Vectra etc. If they can improve that much over the previous generation Avensis (admitedly a poor piece of crap), then how much improvement can they dial in to the Lexus range. By your description, it looks like thay haven't.

I agree, the front is probably the best aspect of the GS wheras the back looks like something I've seen on a Korean import.

BTW, I'm not suggesting the the E60 is the most attractive car on the road. There are one or two areas of the design that are not fully resolved. Also, panel gaps are too big almost indicating that they cannot get the precision that a humble Avensis seems to take for granted. I hope the E60 exterior design doesn't date too quickly either.

On the interior, there's a lightness to the design of the E60 that, to a point, makes other car interiors (such as A6, GS etc) seem conventional and ordinary. However, I think that the design, although built impeccably, looses something in it's ability to exude a sense of quality that an A6 carries over without really trying. Whether it's the actual materials or 'quality not designed in' I'm not too sure. I also think BMW have used slightly below par plastics in some areas expecially around the window switches.

To my mind, BMW have NOT scored a perfect '10' with the E60 but I reckon it is still better than the competition. That's why I bought one. How much of a lead do they have to play with - I'm not sure. Wheras the E39 seemed to enjoy a fantastic lead over the rest of the field, I don't think the E60 is in the same position.

530E60NL

Good write up for a guy that has such good jokes !!!

I agree with you 100% in terms of interior quality of the E60 compared to other marks..

If you make a testdrive with the GS gives us your experience. I think it is valuable for other owners or people that are still doubting!

IrishEyes

Hi again 530E60NL,

Yep, at the first available opportunity, I must go to my local Toyota - sorry - Lexus dealer for a flit in the GS.

When u test drove the GS, was it at the dealer launch? Did u get an invite or just mosey on in for a look. Did the dealer see what u came in ?

alohalc

have you guys read one of the articles in the current automobile magazine? the gs ranked higher than e500 but one lower than the winner, a6 . 545 is...sigh . well, who cares . as long as we all know what is the best out there .

530E60NL

It was at the importer. I just called lexus and told them I was interested in the GS. I got an invitation for the introduction in the Netherlands.

It was nice. But not as nice as the introduction of the E60 in the Netherlands. That was a hell of a party whooohooo!!!