2013 Lexus GS 350′s passion found in the performance, not looks
Like first-timers during a pivotal celebration or a cheesehead’s trek to Lambeau, Lexus is on a query for passion and it couldn’t come during a some-more vicious time.
Toyota’s oppulance multiplication mislaid a pretension of America’s bestselling oppulance code in 2011 for a initial time in 11 years. Lexus righteously blames Japan’s trembler and tsunami and their outcome on supply chains, yet have we driven a company’s product line recently? A $400,000 supercar notwithstanding, my daily play of Grape-Nuts is some-more exciting.
Which brings us to a 2013 Lexus GS 350 sedan.
With it, and a thespian LF-LC judgment automobile shown during a Detroit automobile show, a association is finally looking to interest to a buyer’s passions some-more strongly. The wish is, a small some-more risk and a small some-more leg competence usually outcome in a small some-more fitness with sales numbers.
When noticed in this context, a new GS gets both a bullion star and a demerit. From a pristine pushing standpoint, this Lexus positively moves a tension needle. This is no easy charge given a coward chronicle that preceded it and a register of competitors that includes BMW’s 5-Series, Audi’s A6 and Infiniti’s M.
Sadly, a new design is a missed opportunity. Like a 12-year-old thwart in a dollar-store thermos, it falls brief of relating a car’s opening and a maker’s ambitions.
The GS’ aesthetics start out easily in a front. More kind in chairman than in photos, a nose of a automobile facilities what Lexus calls a shaft grille, a pattern underline that literally and figuratively leads a approach for a destiny of Lexus’ vehicles. Complementing a angles this grille introduces is a bent fender and reduce fascia that’s one brush cadence bashful of over-styled.
Move past a front finish and you’ve changed past all a character value mentioning. The back finish is plain and unadorned; a chrome-tipped tailpipes are a usually component that spirit during passion or originality. The rest is a nearby CO duplicate of Lexus’ obtuse IS sedan, or if we might be so pretentious to contend so in a oppulance automobile review, a Hyundai Sonata.
Fortunately, this default of cultured moxie doesn’t trickle into a GS cabin. It’s handsomely designed with a horizontally oriented layout, a centerpiece of that is a large 12.3-inch, high-resolution screen. It’s yours for $1,735, yet scarcely any new GS will come with it (my exam automobile went for $50,910).
Two-thirds of a arrangement is generally for navigation purposes, with a other third for possibly audio, meridian control or outing data. The complement is tranquil by what looks and feels like a mechanism rodent glued to your core console. It uses a joystick-like doorknob to submit commands, and once we get used to it, it’s some-more organic than a normal dial.
Below a extra-wide shade is an analog time surrounded by appealing brushed steel trim and surplus buttons for a meridian control. The rest of a cabin has pieces of identical steel around and can be interconnected with several opposite matte timber trim options. The always-welcoming seats can be systematic with treated leather; leather also covers a interior panels, a steering circle and a change knob. Space is about a same as a prior GS, yet a case grows by 11/2 cubic feet.
Other facilities embody LED cabin lighting and a text-to-speech underline that will review your incoming emails to we and concede we to respond with fixed answers like “I’m using late,” “See we in 5 minutes” and, if your 14-year-old daughter steals your automobile and a cops email her, “LOL.”‘
Available options embody a night-vision system, a heads-up display, radar journey control, line gripping support and a 17-speaker, 835-watt Mark Levinson sound system.
The whole outcome is a courteous change between old-world oppulance culled from cows and trees, and a modern, tech-heavy menu appreciated by a demographic Lexus is anticipating to lift into a GS.
Powering this connection is a 3.5-liter, direct-injected V-6 that’s mostly a carry-over from a prior GS 350. In this generation, it creates 306 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque, gains of 3 each. This indent moves a back wheels (all-wheel expostulate is a $2,550 option) around a six-speed involuntary delivery with primer changeable and paddle shifters. Lexus says a rear-wheel expostulate chronicle is good for a 5.7-second zero-to-60 acceleration time.
The GS 350 is rated during 19 miles per gallon in a city and 28 on a highway. In roughly 400 miles of testing, we averaged 21 mpg.
On a road, a GS 350 is finally a Lexus that can dance. The steering is discerning and responsive, and it provides good feedback to a driver. The automobile itself is easily offset and poised, even underneath thespian circumstances. It moves with a energetic certainty that earns a moniker “sport sedan,” rather than abusing a tenure as a platitude. Agility is adored over tender power, yet a GS could use a small some-more of a latter.
In true lines and turnpike cruising, a delivery shifts are pointed and smooth, while acceleration is uniform and measured. The engine emits into a cabin a soothing croon by approach of something called an “intake sound generator.” When we was a kid, a engines done a sound, yet with layers of sound dampening to keep out highway and breeze sound (which this GS does utterly well), this is what we’re reduced to.
If a general GS 350 isn’t adequate sugarine for your coffee, cruise one of dual variants. A GS F Sport adds to a GS 350 equipment such as incomparable wheels and front brakes, a re-tuned suspension, variable-ratio steering and a some-more assertive front fender and filigree grille. Look for it to be a promotional heavenly of Lexus advertisements. The GS 450h hybrid (no V-8 will be offered) creates 338 horsepower, and it is rated during 29 mpg in a city and 34 on a highway.
Returning to a categorical course, a GS 350 is best judged from a driver’s seat, or anywhere else in a glorious cabin. Lexus should be commended for a latest grant to a sports sedan ethos. Yet step outward and perspective a car, and that conformity dissolves. Passion involves concentration and risk, both of that a GS needs some-more of. But it’s improved than Grape-Nuts.
david.undercoffler@latimes.com
