My Epinion GS400 car review submission
01-01-03, 06:22 AM
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My Epinion GS400 car review submission
Pros
Styling, powerful acceleration, quality build, very quiet ride inside.
Cons
handling, rims too small for huge sedan. Paint chips easily upfront.
The Bottom Line
For the money , you can't beat the quality and performance of the Lexus GS400. Very solidly built car and comfortable to drive. After all it is a Lexus.
Full Review
This is my first Lexus and first luxury car . I have the 99 GS400 (V8). Bought it used with 34,000 miles. Immaculate shape. The car drives like dream. Very smooth powerful and peppy 300HP V-8.
Exterior: Love the shape and front end of the car. The oval head lights lenses with the HID head lamps screams luxury. The factory HID head lamps was an important option I required. It makes regular head lamps look dull and yellow.
The only drawback which Lexus should have included from the factory are larger rims. Mine came with 16 inch rims which look puny on a big four door sedan as the GS. I upgraded to after market 18's which still look a tad too small. 19's would be the best fit.
Now my car had 34,000 miles when I bought it from the first owner. It is beautiful alpine silver. However, the front of the car has all these little rock chips. Not sure if the previous owner drove behind a lot of gravel trucks or the paint chips easily. As a comparison, my 91 300ZX has 60,000 miles and has no where near has many rock chips.
Interior: I have black leather interior. The seats are very comfortable as expected and quality is superb. The heated leather seats come in handy in the winter time. Not much in instrumentation. The GS has minimal gauges, tach, speedometer, water temp, fuel level that's it. Oil pressure gauge would have been nice.
The GS400 is very quiet inside while driving or sitting at idle. In fact, at idle you can't hear or feel the engine running. When I first got the car, I would forget the engine is running and hit the starter. Now, I always look at my tachometer to make sure. Also, you can be driving 60 mph or 100 mph on the freeway and car is relatively quiet and smooth. It's easy to speed in this car if you aren't paying attention.
Performance: Love the V-8 grunt smooth torque and power. Very responsive to the gas pedal when needed. The transmission shifts very smoothly. It's a slide and glide type of shift. I like firmer shifts for my taste. Lexus tuned the transmission for smoothness and comfort rather than performance. The e-shifting on the steering wheel is nice to have.
Handling: Lexus fell short in this area. The suspension has a floating feeling. Quick lane change will induce body roll. Lexus should have put firmer sway bars and springs. It's mostly about comfort than handling with the GS. Also the car sits with a 3 inch gap between the top of wheels and the fender which doesn't help handling either. I am installing after market adjustable coil overs and lowering it 1.5 inches. This would give the car a more aggressive stance.
Styling, powerful acceleration, quality build, very quiet ride inside.
Cons
handling, rims too small for huge sedan. Paint chips easily upfront.
The Bottom Line
For the money , you can't beat the quality and performance of the Lexus GS400. Very solidly built car and comfortable to drive. After all it is a Lexus.
Full Review
This is my first Lexus and first luxury car . I have the 99 GS400 (V8). Bought it used with 34,000 miles. Immaculate shape. The car drives like dream. Very smooth powerful and peppy 300HP V-8.
Exterior: Love the shape and front end of the car. The oval head lights lenses with the HID head lamps screams luxury. The factory HID head lamps was an important option I required. It makes regular head lamps look dull and yellow.
The only drawback which Lexus should have included from the factory are larger rims. Mine came with 16 inch rims which look puny on a big four door sedan as the GS. I upgraded to after market 18's which still look a tad too small. 19's would be the best fit.
Now my car had 34,000 miles when I bought it from the first owner. It is beautiful alpine silver. However, the front of the car has all these little rock chips. Not sure if the previous owner drove behind a lot of gravel trucks or the paint chips easily. As a comparison, my 91 300ZX has 60,000 miles and has no where near has many rock chips.
Interior: I have black leather interior. The seats are very comfortable as expected and quality is superb. The heated leather seats come in handy in the winter time. Not much in instrumentation. The GS has minimal gauges, tach, speedometer, water temp, fuel level that's it. Oil pressure gauge would have been nice.
The GS400 is very quiet inside while driving or sitting at idle. In fact, at idle you can't hear or feel the engine running. When I first got the car, I would forget the engine is running and hit the starter. Now, I always look at my tachometer to make sure. Also, you can be driving 60 mph or 100 mph on the freeway and car is relatively quiet and smooth. It's easy to speed in this car if you aren't paying attention.
Performance: Love the V-8 grunt smooth torque and power. Very responsive to the gas pedal when needed. The transmission shifts very smoothly. It's a slide and glide type of shift. I like firmer shifts for my taste. Lexus tuned the transmission for smoothness and comfort rather than performance. The e-shifting on the steering wheel is nice to have.
Handling: Lexus fell short in this area. The suspension has a floating feeling. Quick lane change will induce body roll. Lexus should have put firmer sway bars and springs. It's mostly about comfort than handling with the GS. Also the car sits with a 3 inch gap between the top of wheels and the fender which doesn't help handling either. I am installing after market adjustable coil overs and lowering it 1.5 inches. This would give the car a more aggressive stance.
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