Published Date: 3/7/05
2006 LEXUS GS 300
ON SALE: Now
BASE PRICE: $43,550
POWERTRAIN: 3.0-liter, 245-hp, 230-lb-ft V6; rwd, six-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT: 3536 lbs
0 to 60 MPH: 6.8 seconds (mfr.)

You’ve heard comparisons listing the relative computing powers of Apollo 11 and various modern automotive functions. (e.g., “Why, the key fob alone could have landed our astronauts on the moon!”) Well, the new Lexus GS has more computing power than the space shuttle, the International Space Station, the Hubbell space telescope and any leftover Russian and Chinese space junk crashing through orbit today.

Or at least it seems that way when reading the spec sheet.

While the rest of the all-new car has the improvements you’d expect in a new Lexus—more power, longer wheelbase, wider stance, new body panels, etc.—it’s the technology onslaught that stands out and overwhelms.

There is everything from VDIM to PCS, and even things you’d never think of, like the function with no acronym that automatically countersteers the car into a crosswind. (Crosswind Resistance Adjustment Program?) Every letter of the alphabet gets a workout in this car. To cover it all would take two more pages of the magazine. Why all this gizmometry? The all-tech, all-the-time BMW 5 Series was the benchmark in development of the new GS.


“We did not set out to build a better 5 Series,” said chief engineer Shigetoshi Miyoshi. “Our goal was to create something different, and in its difference, something superior in overall performance.”

Superior to the 5? Hey, man, that’s talking some serious smack, Miyoshi-san. To gauge whether he succeeded, let’s have a look at these new cars, the GS 300 and the GS 430.

We might have expected the 300 to be a 330 and to share the same 3.3-liter V6 with other Toyotas. Instead, it gets a new aluminum alloy 3.0-liter V6 to replace the old iron-block straight-six. The new V6 shares its block and a few other items with the Avalon and 4Runner, but gets its own heads, direct injection and variable cam timing on both the intake and exhaust. The engine makes 245 hp at 6200 rpm and 230 lb-ft at 3600.

Like the GS 430, the 300 is mated to a smooth six-speed automatic with a sequential shift option. All-wheel drive is a new option on the GS 300, with front, rear and center differentials. Power is split 50:50 front-to-rear on launch, during heavy acceleration, or when the wheels detect slip. It’s 30:70 the rest of the time. There is also electronic traction control on both the 300 and 430, which brakes individual slipping wheels.

The GS 430 gets the carryover engine, but it’s still a heck of an engine. It makes 300 hp at 5600 rpm and 325 lb-ft at 3400, both figures spread wide across the graph thanks to the variable timing on both cams. Lexus says the 430 gets you to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. Last time we tested a 5 Series with the 4.4-liter V8, we got 5.63 seconds 0 to 60, so, given the Lexus number is from Lexus, we might have a new comparison test to do.

The GS 300 gets to 60 in 6.8 seconds, which Lexus claims is quicker than the 530i. Could be. But straight-line acceleration is just one measure of a sports sedan. Curb weights come into performance play, as the 300 weighs just 3536 pounds vs. the 430’s 3745 pounds. That is within tens of pounds of the 5 Series. The difference here is the 300’s weight is distributed 53/47 front/rear, the 430’s 54/46. The 5 Series is a perfect 50/50.

Suspension, often highlighted extensively in sports sedan intros, was almost glossed over at the GS intro in favor of acronyms, something a sports sedan maker wouldn’t do. It’s a double-wishbone setup in front and upper and lower control arms in back. That is promising, as so many sporty cars go with inexpensive struts up front and various multilink setups in back that hop when the going gets twisty. This one didn’t, though neither did it feel like the best-connected in class, either. Like everything else here, the suspension is controlled electronically, with four driver-selectable modes.

Summer tires are standard in both the 300 and 430, all-season run-flats are optional. The BMW has variable steering and so does the Lexus. Lexus’ version is called Variable Gear Ratio Steering, which varies from 3.3 turns lock-to-lock to 2.7. Variability comes at the rack itself, which is electrically operated.

The brakes are vented discs front and rear with high-friction pads, the performance of which Lexus described as “about like throwing an anchor out of the trunk.” We found them way too touchy at all speeds. Lexus said it was reworking the amount of boost to the brakes. Electronics plays a huge part in braking, perhaps bigger than with any system on the car, including ABS, Electronic Brake Force Distribution, Brake Assist to add force when necessary, the TRAC traction control and Vehicle Stability Control.

Just about the whole driving part of the car is controlled by the Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system, sort of the mother of all acronyms. VDIM integrates most of the above-mentioned systems. Using its giant brain, it compares your vehicle’s intended motion with that of its actual motion and makes whatever desperate electronic corrections it can to save your fenders. Should it, using the radar system from the cruise control, surmise you are determined to kill yourself, it will, via the Pre-Collision System, stiffen the suspension, tighten your seatbelt, sound a warning and even begin braking for you.

But it can only do so much. The idea with all the electronic controls is to perform their functions without being intrusive. At this goal, Lexus has generally succeeded. Though we never got a chance to violently flail the car around to see how it would react in severe under- and/or oversteer situations, throughout a long day’s drive on twisty, rainy mountain roads we never got the sense the systems were nannying us, nor that they were even working most of the time. And we never hit anything. So it must work, right?

We’d like to toss it around on our test track and through our slalom to see how all this plays out. While it feels sound and fun now, we will withhold judgment until we can thrash it without adult supervision.

At the end of our half-day drive in the GS models—the 300, awd 300 and 430—none jumped out as being a BMW-beater. That 50/50 BMW balance has a lot to do with that, as does a more tightly controlled suspension, born of looping Alpine passes 50 years ago. The Lexus is good, but we would like a car that is good first of all without those electronic life-savers, as the 5 Series was when it was born, and then adds the electronics afterward, instead of depending on it to get there.

We will get back to you after several more drives in the new GS as to exactly how close it gets to the iconic 5. Maybe we can even do one of those DoubleTake features. (Are you listening, Road Test Editor?)

In the meantime, cars are in showrooms waiting for you to make your own decision—there are plenty of Lexus loyalists out there who won’t care about what anyone says about the BMW alternative. The GS is priced from $43,550 for the base 300, $45,500 for the awd 300 and $51,775 for the base 430. That’s before you pile on options like the fabulous Mark Levinson stereo system.

After a seven-year wait, this is a lot to cram into one car, and it is a car we look forward to driving a lot more.