Finally drove it today. Getting a little road time before the next snow storm hits this afternoon. Definitely seems quieter than my 15 did, but today I noticed that the steering wheel doesn't get near as warm as it did on my 15. Win some, lose some I guess.

 

Are there any quality differences that you see? Any little annoyances or oddball items like the heated steering wheel that are showing up when compared to the pre-refresh? I don't know if i'm remembering correctly but I through I saw the refreshed GS's got a slightly lower rating from consumer reports in terms of their overall score/reliability rating...

 

I don't have many miles on it yet, but definitely not any quality issues so far. A few items feel a bit more robust, like the RTI and the window switches. I'll keep you posted as I spend more time with it.

 

What is RTI?

 

The Remote Touch Interface. In other words, the navigation mouse/controller.

 

I complained about this here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...l#post10368707

 

 

not that i really need it but they forgot to add it on my. maybe 10 days so far I wish i had it lol

 

I've found that I really like the 'enter' buttons on the side of the mouse.

 

I keep forgetting about those, but I do like the new wrist wrest and I love the "back" button.

 

I've had the car for about a week and a half now. We've had record snowfall here in western Washington during that time, so the car has been parked in the garage for the bulk of it. I am never buying a new car in February again! I decided today that I'd had enough so I drove it to work. Performed wonderfully as expected.

Mad props to the gorgeous Stinger parked next to me at work this morning. As many of you know, that's what I had actually planned to get but had a last minute decision to stick with the GS.

 

Good choice to stick with the GS - personally like the styling of the GS better than the Stinger.

 

Thanks! I still LOVE the Stinger. Such a fun car to drive and there are screaming deals on them right now.

 

And the Stinger is about a full second faster to 60 mph than the GS, and one second is a lot...if you care about such things!

 

Indeed. It's a very fast car.

This ended up being a very tough decision for me.

The Kia has a lot going for it. That amazing power, the rear hatch utility, the styling, and so many features - many of which are not available on the GS, like panoramic camera, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, VGRS on AWD, and a few others. I was working with a few different dealers on them to find a 2019 GT2 AWD in red. For whatever reason, there have been no red 2019s up here in the PNW at all.

I spent lots of time discussing it here, with a couple forum members who own Stingers, and spent some time on the Stinger forum to get some real, honest feedback of the car. Owners definitely seem to love them, but I have to admit that I was a bit concerned by the talk of rattles, heat issues, head unit troubles, etc. Nothing huge, but annoyances none the less.

Waiting for my red 2019 Stinger to come in gave me more time in my 15 GS. Every time I drove it I just felt like this is the first car I am truly going to miss. While the Stinger is faster, the ride is nowhere near as refined as the GS and the interior, though nice on the Stinger, just isn't in the same class. One day it hit me that several of the features that I've been wanting that are on the Stinger but not my GS are indeed available on the newer GSs. The thought of getting one of those really resonated with me. I contacted my Lexus salesman (I've used him many times) and made an appointment. The rest is history.

As I think I mentioned up-thread, the things that the 2019 had that I wanted were the HUD, full safety suite (particularly all-speed radar cruise), and the power trunk (though I admit it's a bit silly). I did want a panoramic camera, which isn't available on the GS, but it wasn't a deal breaker.