Second, to entice those in cold climes who until now had to look elsewhere for an all-weather passenger car, Lexus is offering an all-wheel-drive option for the GS 300. More than one-third of all new GS sales are expected to be AWD models, most headed for the northwest and northeast United States.
Finally, Lexus made sure the top dawg of the family, the 430, had the bite to wrest bragging rights away from the Germans, not just by matching but exceeding the high-end performance recorded by the BMW 545i. Simply put, Lexus fine-tuned its 4.3-liter V8, paired it with a wonder of a transmission and cloaked the drivetrain in a slippery coat of sexy metal. Result? The GS 430 runs in realms never reached by a Lexus, and it's quicker than the BMW.
However, the primary target of this new, longer and wider GS isn't all that important, because Lexus is confident its four-door sedan's combination of driving fun and creature comfort is unequalled among its many peers and will do much to spread the badge across the land.
The outgoing GS was six years old, so it was expected that the new GS would be more than just a freshened take on a familiar theme. Lexus hasn't disappointed, adding more than a dash of driving spice to the family virtues of smoothness and refinement. But there is another, major question to be answered: Is this Asian upstart delivering where it counts most. Does a Lexus GS feel like an ultimate driving machine? Next Page