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My biggest beef with Lexus is that they have tuned the new eight speed transmission to not downshift at part throttle without thinking about it and phoning a friend before it agrees to be in the right gear. I had a 2010 GS350 that always felt lively and responsive. I was dumbfounded at the lack or response on our 2014. I have to drive it in sport plus to have the responsiveness of the 2010, but it's like a pit bull on crack in sport plus, and regular sport is not a lot different than comfort.
In all honesty, the last BMW I drove was a 335is and it had lots of turbo lag. Glad to hear that your 550 has none. Also, my '13 GS only had the 6 speed tranny which is evidently more responsive than the 8 speed.
Does it make a difference when u floor it to drag in Sport+ VS Normal? I mean WOT is WOT right? I need more open roads to test this car and see its full potential. Too many cars by my area.
Just about any recent BMW I've driven (528i, 535i, 550i, 335i, 428i) had more torque off idle up to mid range than my past 2008 GS350 and my new 2015 GS350. There's just something about the onset of the boost and the wide torque plateau that you feel driving the cars. Of course the GS350 V6 starts to wail once the horsepower comes on (after 3500 RPM) but for anything less than WOT, even the smaller BMW turbo engines just feel more torquey. Turbo lag? hardly feel it...especially in "sport +" mode when "drive train" in configured. If you test drive these cars, you'll see.
I've driven the Audi A6, and (outstanding) S4 and the same comments I would make about those supercharged engines (3.0 V6).
But alas, as much as I lust for the torque of a turbo engine, I come to a point in my daily driving needs where I have to have a very reliable car. That's why I'm back in the Lexus camp
^^That's hilarious! The GS is low on torque for sure. Thankfully it's curb weight isn't all that bad, otherwise we'd really be complaining. Most Japanese cars are that way. It reminds me of our MDX we use to have. Very much so down on torque but dang that thing was fun to ring out.
Unfortunately Sport/Sport+ will do nothing for off the line acceleration. It sharpens throttle response, which might make it react quicker when you floor it but it does not give anymore torque or gusto when accelerating. The GS makes its peak amount of torque at 4800 rpms. That's relatively high, so you're not going to feel all of your power until you hit the 4k rpm range.
Lately I have been feeling that, well, the GS is slow. When I first got it, I disagreed with all of the naysayers. I appreciated the 19/29 EPA (which is almost impossible to achieve) and the fact that it's easy on my insurance being 22. But now I just want more oooomph. And less issues with my car of course.
I feel like this car is a little slow at take offs, once it hits its peak RPM the power starts to kick in. What's the sweet spot for the torque? 4500 RPM?
Maybe if it has 300 ft-lbs of torque it'll pull better.
How is it compared to the Germans? Heard they have good low end power.
glad i am not alone. in a way i am more used to higher power / v8 cars, so getting into the gs350 i knew it's not going to be as punchy.
i agree the 8-speed is not really a smart move on the gs350. the engine just doesn't have enough low end tq to allow the 8 speed to in higher gears and lower rpm. the 8 speed programming isn't responsive either, so it's harder to get it to down shift and get back on power band. compared to my 08 gs350 and 13 gs350 with 6 speed, those cars feel more responsive and able to get on it easier.
if there is a rear diff gearing that might noticeably change the responsiveness of the car (like my gs400 with diff changed to supra gearing), of course with a drop in gas mileage as well.
i have a feeling unless there is FI, it's hard to get more low end tq on these NA engines.
02-01-15, 08:34 PM
