djanderso

I wondered if this was the case too. I'm guessing that the GS430 will also be discountinued given the GS450H. Kind of makes sense - GS350 and GS450H. Residuals won't necessarily fall - not everyone wants a large 3.5L engine. Now, if only they would stick that engine into the IS!

Ahem, 8.3 and 218 bhp for us Mk2 owners! :duh: And 7.2 and 245 bhp for us Mk3 owners! :winky:

Well just back from a few days driving around the highlands and had no issues. Got home, car wouldn't lock! Tried to start "KEY NOT DETECTED" displayed! Arrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhh Will be contacting Lexus about this - they MUST fix it otherwise I could well be the shortest ever Lexus owner.

Well here is an interesting update... After I had the problems this morning at home I went about my business today with no problems. I got back to the house at 230pm for similar problems to occur again. I decided to visit the dealer and of course it all worked fine. So the guy on reception spoke to a technician and apparently this is a known fault (albeit only a handful) - They are blaming Sky Satellite for this. Now this does sound like a lame excuse, but given I only had the problems when the car was outside my house this could be plausable. I'll give Lexus CS a call tomorrow and find out more. Absolutely bizarre.

Yup, it's done it again - so I tried the second key fob and it's the same. The car wouldn't lock by pressing the button (on the handle) but when I left it for 5 minutes and went back it locked fine! Think it'll be a trip to the dealers!

I had a weird problem with my GS this morning - the car wouldn't unlock using touch button on the handle - I had to use the fob, then once inside I pressed the start button and the dash displayed said "Key not detected" and the car refused to start. I had to get out, lock all the doors again, unlock them, get back in and try again (it worked 2nd time). Then when I reached my destination the car wouldn't lock by pressing the button on the handle. Anyone had or heard of anything similar? I'll see how it goes, but I'll be extremely p'd off if after 3 weeks of ownership the mechanism has failed.

I've had a quick scoot around LOC to see if others have mentioned this in the past but can only find similar problems detailed for the IS220/250. The sat nav volume is so low that to be useful I have to turn the volume of the CD/Tuner down so low (kind of defeats the point of the excellent ML sound system). The nav voice volume is set to maximum though. Anyone else have this problem or is there a fault with my car? Cheers.

Yup 10 of 10 from me too.

It'll be interesting to compare the residuals values of the GS430 and GS450h after 3 years and 1 day. Once they are out of warranty, I wouldn't be surprised if many people are put off by the hybrid - who wants to have problems with all that electronic wizardry. Now yes, this is a Lexus, and unlikely, but still.....

These cars are also in Year 1 - the first year is always the steepest for residual value loss. Over the 3 years the GS holds it's value as well as it's direct competitors - hell, think of the suckers who will buy a C6, Vel Satis, or some other pseudo-executive car.

I wouldnt be sure of that. Yes it would - a "normal" 300BHP Z runs the M3 close.

Good choice - 350Z is a cracking car. There is a chap in the Z owners club got his twin turbo'd up to about 420HP if I remember correctly.

V8 engine?

Cheers chaps. I'll try and get some pictures up soon...

I wrote the following "road test" for another forum I'm a member of, but I thought you guys might be interested in my first 10 days. I'm sure some of this will be nothing new but what the heck... I picked the car up from Lexus Stoke on Thursday 22nd June. The handover took an hour and 30 minutes (seriously) the attention to detail on the handover is astonishing but then to be honest there is so much to go over (I'll cover that later). The first thing that struck me was just how big the car actually is. In a showroom next to other Lexi' it doesn't appear as large - out in the car park it was. So... There is no key to gain access as such - as long as you have the key fob in your possession the doors unlock and you can jump in. The car will not lock if the keys are detected inside the cabin. You can also use the key fob to open from a distance, at night this turns on the "mood" lighting in the car - all of the interior lights (and there are 15 of them distributed around the cabin are white LEDs - no horrible yellow lights here!) and the exterior lights under the door sills and wing mirrors come on (again all LED) The key fob also allows you to open all the windows and "moon roof" from a distance. Similarly locking the car either using the fob or the lock button on the door handle will close any open windows or sunroof. The cabin quality really is top notch (although I'm sure some former members would disagree ). Lexus have moved cabin quality on since I owned my last Lex a few years ago - it's solidly built with high quality soft touch plastics and (real) wood (Craig mentioned it was polished by Yamaha Piano company in his report) There is just enough wood to give it a "luxury" feel without going over the top that some mainstream (i.e. Korean) manufacturers would feel the need to fit. Dominating the centre console is the 7" touch screen. There are a few buttons mounted around it to control basic functions of the heating/audio/navigation etc, but most require to be set using the touch screen, with the seat heating/ventilation switches hidden under the sliding centre armrest. The remainder of the buttons are hidden in a drop down panel just above the drivers right knee - great idea I think. Starting the car is just a case of putting your foot on the brake and pressing the Engine start button mounted to the left of the steering wheel. The 3L V6 comes alive with a muted V6 howl - not too quiet, not to loud - just enough. Once the engine settles after a second or 2 the quietness of the car becomes quite eerie. The aircon system adjusts itself, the seat ventilation comes on, and the massively impressive 14 speaker Mark Levinson sound system drowns out the faint hush the engine is making. The system continuously adjusts the settings dependant on a number of factors, including number of people in the car, background noise, etc. Programming the sat nav is very straight forward; there are so many options for Points of Interest, etc. The screen can be configured to show as much or as little as you want. I have it set to show a close up area of where I am on one side, and a "view from higher up" on the left. This is so that I can see the icons for traffic "incidents" well in advance of when I might actually meet them. Touch the relevant icon and it brings up details of the "incident" e.g. the other day it told me "Rescue and Recovery work in operation" on a road that had been closed. Driving back up from stoke I was informed that "In 5 miles, torrential rain" - Sure enough, 5 miles later it was ****** down. Another good feature of the navigation is the ability to "mark points" by hitting a button on the map display. I.e. if you come across something you may want to mark its location so that you can return to it. I've thought of a more sinister use for this - marking the location of speed cameras! As you approach a marked point it "boings" to let you know - could be useful. The voice activation (for just about everything) works really well too and so much better than the version I had in my 350Z for the phone (although to be fair, there was just too much roar in the Z for the voice activation to work effectively). Pressing a button on the steering wheel and saying something "Twenty Two Degrees" will set both sides of the dual zone climate to, surprise, surprise, 22 degrees. The built in Bluetooth phone system works very well, although it doesn't dynamically read the phonebook of my phone - you have to transfer numbers to it via Bluetooth. This is OK if you have a phone that can bulk transfer more than one number at a time - mine can't so I've had the tedious task of transferring them one by one. My only other criticism of the phone system is that the volume can be too quiet when on the move (something I know 4car long term test has picked up on too). That said, there isn't that much noise anyway - the only time you hear the engine is when you boot it and even then it's not intrusive at all. The memory seats for both passenger and driver and a neat touch and although we tend not to drive each others cars that often, it's reassuring to know that when Mrs A has been in mine I can reset it exactly as I want. As for on the move, well despite weighing in at 2 tonnes, it doesn't hang about. The engine is torquey and the 6 speed (with manual override) suits the engine well. 245HP and 317NM of torque is plenty. I've managed to convince myself that buying the 4.3 V8 version wouldn't have made (too) much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Despite being larger than the Accord, the boot (or trunk as the dashboard display likes to call it) is no larger - I guess that the RWD gubbins steal some boot space. There is an emergency spare wheel and the amplifier for the ML sound system is also in there under the floor. The self-closing boot lid is a nice touch. So, to sum up: :) Good Points - Refinement, performance, kit, ventilated seats! :( Bad Points - Car has to be stopped to program satnav or use phone system (although you can set up 18 one-touch numbers that do work), not much else.

I have it on good authority that BMW are struggling to shift new cars too and that residual values of these are falling too. Depreciation on large cars is always worse than smaller ones because there isn't such a demand. Writing to magazines might make you feel better, but all you will do is hurt the image Lexus has worked hard to built and the rest of us will suffer too.

Thanks chaps - I really am enjoying it! :)

Well I picked up the new GS300 on Thursday night. I'm absolutely delighted with it and I'm still discovering things I never knew it had (some aren't even detailed in the brochure). I love the automatic rear blind and the auto open/close of the windows/sunroof. And for such a big heavy car the power from the 3L V6 is very good. It's a great car for crusing at the journey back up (300 miles) from picking it up was great, taking full advantage of the excellent ML audio system. Sat Nav system is a bit more fidgety that that in the 350Z or Accord but works well and the integrated traffic system is cool - loved the fact it warned me of "heavy winds 5 miles ahead" on the M6. Just a shame you have to stop the car in order to program it - similarly, the phone only fully works when the car is stopped, although you do have 18 "one touch" numbers you can store. Just a shame Lexus didn't think to read the phonebook directly from the phone rather than having to pre-load it and especially as my phone can only transfer one number at a time. I'll try and get some pictures up - but I'm sure we all know what a GS300 looks like! :D So far 10/10 !

Absolutely fantastic! I really miss it. Had so much fun in it and will buy another one once Angus is a bit older.

Thanks chaps. Just noticed my come back date is exactly 4 years after joining up here! Spooky! Meant to ask, I'm getting the car from Lexus Stoke - anyone here bought from them before?

Hello all! Some of the "older" members of the forum may remember me from a few years ago. I ran a 2000 IS200 SE From 2000 to 2004 before replacing it with a 350Z. Unfortumetly, I had to let the Z go as my wife and I had a baby boy in January. So once I knew he was on the way I sold it and replaced it with a very sensible Honda Accord 2.4 Executive which has been a great car and although there is nothing wrong with it, the pull of another Lexus was just too strong. So over the past few weeks I've been roadtesting GS300s and IS250s - In the end I plumped for a GS300 SE-L in Paladio silver with grey leather. Picking it up next Thursday (all going to plan). So looking forward to that. Really looking forward to getting back into Lexus ownership!

Yup, the IS200 is still the best car I have ever owned, as although not out and out fast, it could hold it's own, was comfortable, good looking, fully loaded (how times have changed, eh, Lexus), and just a general all round great car! The 350Z on the other hand is a fantastic car too, in a different way, it's brutally fast, not that you'd know it though as the power is fed in a linear fashion, but a glance at the speedo, and you realise it's going seriously fast. If it wasn't for the pending child on the way I'd be keeping the Z, but sadly it has to go soon - I was holding out for the IS250, but as I've documented already on this thread - I'm not prepared to pay Lexus what they want now for it.

I see specifications are now confirmed too - I still maintain that the price versus spec is too high, but we'll see how it suceeds...

Can you imagine walking into Pizzahut and being told "If you want tomato, you can't have onion, and tomota only comes with peppers, so you'll need to buy tomato and peppers" - Well, that is exactly what Lexus are doing with the new IS! That, everyone, is where BMW and Audi win hands down - you can get what you want on every model - you can have your tomato and onions!

Add me to the pro-Aztec fire mob. My previous IS200 was this fantastic and unusual colour: