Base price: $54,900
As tested: $65,594
340-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6/electric drive motor
25 city / 28 highway
More info: www.lexus.com
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From a little bland to a lot badass. That's the recent trajectory of the look of the mid-size Lexus GS sedan. In short, Lexus designers have knocked the stuffing out of its stuffy reputation. What was once a slightly flabby and generic looking Japanese luxury car with ridiculously clumsy taillights is now a trim, energized chariot that can go toe-to-toe in the looks department with its similarly sized competitors from BMW, Benz and Infiniti. Everything on the car looks better, especially the sloping nose, higher window line and perfectly tapered rear end. One complaint: Our tester featured the new gas-electric combo motor, and the hybrid badge on the side looks ticky-tacky and overplays its green credentials.
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Pretty much what you'd expect -- understated elegance with plenty of leather and classy wood trim. Front and rear passenger room is generous, but the boot is tight. Like the 2007 ES we recently tested, this GS had a cassette deck, which was beyond perplexing. By far, though, the coolest concept inside the new GS is a sweet little pop-down panel to the left of the steering wheel. A ton of the car's controls are centralized here, including trunk release, side mirrors, gas cap release and the headlight washer. It's conspicuously inconspicuous, but once we found it and figured out what it was we were totally wowed.
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At the beginning of the hybrid craze, green meant clean, but it also meant pokey as hell. The new GS450h blows that perception to hell. The sedan features two power sources -- a 3.5-liter V6 and a "high-output, permanent magnet, electric-drive motor" -- that, combined, kick out 340 horses and propel the GS to 60 in just over five seconds. To give that some perspective, the gas-powered GS430 sports a 290-horse, 4.3-liter V8 that goes zero to 60 half a second slower and gets worse mileage in the city (18 vs. 25) and on the highway (25 vs. 28). The era of the mean green machine has arrived.
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Stylish, powerful and green -- you'll need to buy a new black book to write all their names down.
-- John D. Thomas |
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