Its the last year of production so it will be a collector's item.

 

The plan was to keep the 19 long term (8-10 years) but I really regretted my color choice and had an opportunity to swap it out for my preferred color so I went for it. The GS is an older car and it's discontinued, but it's been incredibly satisfying to own, so now I am all set for years to come.

 

Do you mind if I ask how much extra it cost you?

 

I got a very strong trade in offer on the 19, which made getting out of it very easy. Then on the new one I was able to get a better discount than I had gotten with the 19, so that also helped. Then, lastly, the loan terms were much better on the 2020. I was paying interest on the 2019, but for the 2020 I took advantage of the 0% financing for 60 months that Lexus Financial is currently offering.

Overall, I am incredibly happy.

 

Congrats. Sometimes you just gotta take the deal. And with the GS being discontinued, it's nice to say you have the latest/last one.

 

Thanks. Sometimes you've just got to do it!

 

that's awesome!

 

Test drive of IS350 AWD in English

 

Yeah...doesn't really sound any different than my 2015 IS350. He was flooring it all over the place and its still looks slow as hell. The infotainment response is at least a huge improvement but overall, it just looks like the same car.

 

How long does Lexus plan on using the tried, true and ancient 3.5 V6?

 

Japanese Mag-X says till 3.5IS is replaced by e-TNGA.

 

When is that going to happen only thing I've seen are renders and concepts. Subaru is partnering with Toyota to make a BEV, Subaru says they will be fully electric by 2035 is that Toyota's plan?

edit - found this

 

Yes, I guess the 3.5IS will have to toil for 5 years till e-TNGA is released in 2025.
Just like 4.5LS had to toil from July 2012 till December 2017 when 5LS was released in Japan, and February 2018 when 5LS was released in the US.

 

That's scary, imagine where Tesla will be in 5 years. In that article they insinuate that the Toyota plan is wait for the technology to get better then jump in to the EV market. That is a road map to Failtown.

 

Depends on the company's core values.

Toyota core value(or at least one of them) is reliability and glitch-free user experience. That's what brought them to the table of multi-billion dollar auto companies and that's why it's understandable why Toyota sticks to that principle. I'm not saying it's the only way to do business but different strokes for different folks.

For example Tesla core value(s) is obviously innovation and creative technological leaps. It works for Tesla because Tesla core customers value and indeed crave such a quality from Tesla products. If Tesla stopped innovating, Tesla customers would revolt; same for Toyota if Toyota/Lexus abandoned reliability and a smooth user experience as it's calling card.

Back to the 2021 IS350. On a related note, Lexus' decision to stick with the 3.5L V6 is now understandable given what I just said about Toyota's core values. The 2021 IS350 underwent extensive chassis changes. Lexus philosophy is to minimize risk of glitches, so it kept it simple and changed only one thing : the chassis/suspension. That's how it keeps a firm lid on potential areas of malfunction and maintains quality control.

Imagine if it changed both the chassis AND the powertrain (for eg the 3.4L TT V6) which would also require a new transmission. That's 3 new components that could potentially go wrong. That would be completely uncharacteristic of how Toyota/Lexus does business.

Seems to be there is a very typical cadence to how Lexus updates/refreshes/facelifts its cars while adhering to the overriding principle of maintaining reliability :

upgrade the chassis/suspension,
change the exterior/interior UI/electronics,
change the engine/transmission

not necessarily in that order but almost always in separate spaced-out waves and sometimes two things at the same time but never these three things simultaneously.