jjbenzo

My wife and I went up to Lexus of Orlando this afternoon to check out the new GS350 F-Sport. They have a pearl white/cabernet sitting in their showroom and about 20 others sitting out back. The colors I saw in person were, black, pearl white, brown, dark blue, silver, grey and red. Also saw each interior color. I must say, the cabernet red is beautiful. We were told that we could not drive it just yet as Lexus will not allow them to sell the new GS for another couple weeks. The GS looks great and I can't wait to get my hands on, hopefully later this year.

Mr. Burns

What were your "in person" impressions of the design, especially compared to photos?

jjbenzo

From the start, I thought that the regular GS350 looked plain in photos. After seeing it for the first time in person, my opinion remains the same. My main focus was to see the F-Sport up close. I love it overall. The size is what we are use to in a GS, the stance is nice, the front and rear bumpers are great looking. The headlights are nice when turned on (projectors and LED's). If I were to nit-pick...the car is too similar to the IS in design cues. I am the type of buyer/enthusiast who would rather have certain models be a bit more independent in design from the rest of the line-up in order to stand out more. It looks like a big brother to the IS. However, it looks great in F-Sport trim. I had zero dislikes with the interior. The interior is the nicest I have seen in a Lexus to this day.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I was riding next a the new Camry today and thought how much it reminded me of the 4GS.

jjbenzo

One other note, I do feel as if Lexus should have had the middle reinforcement bar in the front bumper painted black (Audi like I know).

natnut

The only way to make a fair comparison is if you see the 4GS in the flesh. Comparing a car you saw from a a few feet away( Camry) to one you only saw on internet photos( 4GS) hardly seems fair.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

Well, you may be right....but I just don't like the car. I can't believe this is what Lexus came up with. Getting the GS right was very important. Instead they create this thing....where some will like it but many won't.
Toyota can play around with the Camry all they want, it's a top seller. The GS needed a sure winner and this ain't it.

I may start to like it some after time passes but a sure winner attracts most people right from the first view.

jjscsix

There will always be people who don't like new stuff, and at 59 years old I'm falling into the class who doesn't care for a lot of what comes out today as it's typically aimed at a younger demographic. But I'll bet that overall, you are wrong and that the new styling and overall direction of the car is exactly what it needs.

Having said that, it takes time to win over converts - a lot of BMW and Mercedes owners are very much into the status of those cars. I used to think that Lexus had the same cache, but they lost a lot of momentum the past few years.

spwolf

thanks for the impressions!

Joe Z

iTrader: (10)

Just kidding..

and

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.. !!!

~ Joe Z

jjscsix

I stopped by the local dealer today (Houston area). There are no cars in Houston yet. I did talk for a while with the sales manager who I've talked to in the past and I see no reason to doubt what he told me. A few comments....

He said there will be less markup to the dealer (invoice to MSRP) so there will not be as big discounts as there have been in the past even when they do get to dealing on them. As he said, we'll know for sure when Edmunds posts the information.

He said they plan to stock and sell more units - he pointed outside and said "we'll have lots of them lined up out there".

He said he expects them to be at MSRP for a while - he has one on order for his wife and says he'll be paying MSRP himself (not sure I totally buy that!).

He said that Lexus will be more aggressive on leasing with much higher residuals - meaning your payment will be lower than we might expect.

He told me what he has on order - a black with/Cabernet (red) interior F-Sport got my attention, even though I've sworn I'll never own another black car (I've had eight). I suggested a Silver/Red will be killer looking. He said he has on order a F Sport with Levinson and he expects it to list around $61-62K, but he admits he does not have the pricing yet. I know he said it has a few other options, but I don't recall exactly what. I think he'll be pretty close on that though.

They are going to have the traveling introduction show in two weeks, but those are factory cars - and he does not expect to even have on in stock by then. BTW, the Houston auto show starts this Wednesday and he did say there will be a few of them there. Can't wait to see them.

jjbenzo

When looking at most of the GS's on my dealer's back lot, they all seemed to either be $53k, $57k or $60k. The $53k car is a base GS350 with navigation, the $57K car is a F-Sport with a few options (navigation, ML audio, blind-spot monitoring), the $60k car was a F-Sport with nav, ML audio, blind spot monitoring and rear dynamics package. None of the cars I saw had the lane keep assist or driver alert monitoring system. I am wondering if Lexus is not building any of the initial allocation with those features. All of the cars had a couple other options/accessories that added to the price that I do not recall at this time.

jjscsix

WHAT??? You didn't tell us they had window stickers and prices. GET YOUR *** back down there and take pics of all the window stickers and post them.....NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jjscsix

BTW, this past weekend I did quite a bit of research on cars in this class. I know cars pretty well, but I wanted to run down the numbers a little more carefully. The new Lexus, comparing comparable equipment, is priced almost right on top of the Infiniti M37, about $10,000 less than a BMW 535, and about $5,000 less than a Mercedes E350 (although I admit I didn't do as exhaustive research on the E350 because I have no interest in that car, but I did stop at the dealer and look at them).

I also did a quicky look at the Audi A6, and I think they are somewhat comparable to the Lexus, despite what some folks have said. Some of the German cars have some expensive options, so it's a little more difficult to be sure you are comparing apples to apples. The two cars I looked at the most closely are the BMW 535 and the Infiniti M37.

The elephant in the room if you are not status crazy is the Hyundai Genesis. It blows them all away, even if you put the 5.0 liter 429hp engine in it - it's about $10,000 cheaper than the Lexus, and they deal on them a lot from what I have read.

jjbenzo

Well, I do have an appointment this Friday to bring my GS430 in for service. If my son is in a good mood, I'll try to get some pics before I leave.