Quote from: DaveBSC on March 29, 2013, 04:37:20 PMYou gain about two mpg for your trouble, much like the laughable previous generation Lexus GS hybrid that was probably the dumbest luxury car on sale at the time.How so? The performance gain from the Hybrid GS was quite noticeable and enjoyable. Lexus largely tunes their hybrids for performance, not mpg. That's what Toyota is for.NiMH is pathetic?
You gain about two mpg for your trouble, much like the laughable previous generation Lexus GS hybrid that was probably the dumbest luxury car on sale at the time.
Nope, not mine but the model and color is right. Looks like that w/o the big spoiler, tow hook, splitter, blue painter's tape and pink aftermarket STI 'Pleiades' badge and no holes drilled in the front bumper.I decided not to touch the suspension to preserve the cushy ride for cruising though it floats more. Want the extra ground clearance too for daily obstacles. I might see about an adjustable Tein suspension that I can tweak electronically from inside the car but will not touch the sway bars and compromise the independent suspension for daily use. Sway bars really need to just die and go away tbh. I do have upgraded Hawk Blue HPS pads that scare away animals and young children due to brake squeal. I made a young girl cry who was crossing the street once, it was awesome! They actually bite so hard I sprung an oil leak due to the motor mounts being too soft and the block shifting around. They aren't even the track pads either!
Quote from: Analixus on March 30, 2013, 01:22:11 AMQuote from: DaveBSC on March 29, 2013, 04:37:20 PMYou gain about two mpg for your trouble, much like the laughable previous generation Lexus GS hybrid that was probably the dumbest luxury car on sale at the time.How so? The performance gain from the Hybrid GS was quite noticeable and enjoyable. Lexus largely tunes their hybrids for performance, not mpg. That's what Toyota is for.NiMH is pathetic?Lol ok. Let's breakdown some numbers here. The original 450h was $10,000 more expensive than the 350. Trunk space was cut almost in half, from a terrible 12.5-ish cu.ft. to a "you've got to be kidding" 7.5 - about what a typical rag top convertible has. So.. as say a car to take more than two people anywhere, it was completely useless. I guess you could ask your rear seat passengers to hold their suitcases on their knees in your elegant luxury automobile. Beyond that, it was 400lbs or so heavier than the 350, which blunted almost all of the acceleration advantage over the standard V6, and it would get smoked by a BMW V8. So it's hyper expensive, has laughable practicality, is way heavier so handling will suffer (over the already very blah handling of the last gen GS), and oh yeah, you gain about 2mpg over the GS350. OMG sign me up!!! I mean how could you not? You'd be better off just burning the $10,000 instead of heating oil for your home. The first gen 450h was just a stupid, useless car. I have to imagine that European shoppers that have access to 535ds and A6 3.0TDis would die laughing at it. Introducing a car for the 2014 MY with NiMH batteries is kinda pathetic, yes, just like anybody who is still selling a car with a 4-speed automatic.
Maybe some people prefer a reliable form of transportation that isn't a German or Hungarian PoS that has to be traded in every 2-3 years, or will last more than 150k miles? Maybe people care about arriving at a destination more than being a dyno queen, or maybe they might even prefer how it looks? I know I did. Maybe people would want a car that can pass its own manufacturer's pre-delivery checklist? Or how about a car that doesn't have iDrive lock you in and suffocate you to near death w/o a manual release like happened to a pair of Singaporean govt. ministers? Maybe someone really liked a GS350 but then liked the 450 performance and features even more! Maybe most people that own sedans usually travel with only two people rather four adults so they don't care how many golf bags can fit? Maybe some people think a Lexus is a more comfortable drive on a long commute than being shackled to a Teutonic butt raper for 500 miles while gazing at a Bavarian interior inspired by Ikea. Just a thought.Oh btw, you forgot to figure in the cost of saving on brake jobs every 10k miles due to regenerative braking (a common Hybrid math mistake). Our Prius has not had one brake job performed in 150K miles! Pretty common for Toyota hybrids actually. I do not drive lightly either. So take the cost of an average rotor turning/replacement w/ pads for the non shade tree mechanic that must go to BMW's service dept and multiply that $$ by 10-15. Plus the 450h was 0-60 in 5.2 which is faster and more fuel efficient than both the V-6 and V-8 GS models, and the trunk went from 15 to 10.5 cu ft.God, do you compare everything based on spec sheets? Don't be a dyno queen.
Actually most customers in the midsize lux category lease, these aren't the same people that are desperately trying to find ways to afford a 328i, so I think the prospect of lasting past 150K miles is entirely meaningless to them. By the time a 535i or E350 is at 150K miles it's probably on its 3rd owner, a smart CPO buyer would've gotten out at 100K.Lexus type buyers tend to be buyers, not lease swappers by comparison. German car buyers tend to be very different fin frame of mind from Japanese buyers. That's why it's not so simple to make basic comparisons. People who buy German have low reliability expectations and tend to be higher rollers that can consider a German luxury car as disposable. LExus/Toyota buyers have very different expectations, often ludicrous expectations of build perfection for less money. Oh, your land rover has a leaking dome light? normal. Your AMG blew its $100,000 motor? Common swap. Half of your electronics fail on a BMW? Typical. Hearing a gnat fart from the left rear 1/4 panel after running over a crater on the 405? OMG, my Lexus is broken, I need a new one!! Where are you getting your numbers for space? For what I'm seeing for the 2006 gen car, it was 12.7 for the V6, 7.5 for the hybrid. Edmunds:http://www.edmunds.com/lexus/gs-450h/2011/You lost me on "comfortable on a long drive." My mom has owned an RX300 forever, some of the absolute worst seats I've ever experienced. Lower back in good shape? Sit in an RX300 for about an hour, and it won't be anymore.The seats in my very own SC300 were similarly horrendous. The seats in my A6 are not a match for a good Volvo seat, but compared to Lexus' torture thrones, they are fabulous. First, you need to realize the RX300 and SC300 were not Lexus products but rebadged Toyotas. Second, I've driven a friends RX300 for more than two hours w/o problems. Was more comfy than the 2014 Porsche Cayman I was just in. The RX350 is definitely more comfy as I've taken that to Yosemite and Vegas w/o issues over 4-7 hours drives. The most uncomfortable car seats ever IME were the last 2 gens of rear seats in the BMW 7series! Why is there something like an Alien chest burster trying to jump through my ass?! Most Merc seats feel like a concrete park bench and have for the past forever.The last GS had no interior inspiration, and yet that was somehow better than the '98 before it, which had the worst interior in the history of the Lexus brand. The IS300's was awful but it at least matched the "grown up Lancer Evo" design of the car, the gen 2 GS300/400 was just a soulless blob with a soulless blob of an interior. I really liked the last gen interior too more than an S-class, though Iv'e usually been fond of the CLS interior even if it has a coffin like feel due to the high belt line. I like the first more than the second. I even like my 7 year old Subaru interior better than the Bimmer which does not exude luxury to me but Volkwagen.BMW pays for your pads and rotors. The cost for brake service for the first owner during the warranty period is $0. Lexus makes you pay for that You won't have to if you get the hybrid. Warranty period is 30/60k, not 150k. But almost nobody is going to do 150k in a BMW right? I'm sure that's what LS owners tell themselves when a CLS550 flys by them, what a dyno queen, gaawwwd.Nope, they say, "What a dickhead" as the Benz driver straddles lanes, fails to use blinkers, rolls through stops and makes up whatever fucking rule Benz drivers do during their self-absorbed and incompetent and arrogant display of bad driver behavior. MB drivers are the highest proportion of cocksuckers per capita on the road here in So Cal. The LS has zero problems with high speed and is infinitely more comfortable and quiet than perhaps even a Maybach.
That E is sexy. Even the seats 'look' better, butt I won't know till I try them. I've always been a fan of triple clusters and especially with center mounted tachs. The new GS also has that oddly deliberately stepped panel gap on the wood below the center console. I wish the krauts would drop the freaking numberpad already, who still uses that? The center console could use more wood trim on the borders to connect the top and bottom. Too much empty beige. A touch of wood on the steering wheel would be nice too, they don't have to always worry about putting it on the ring's control surface.
