stk

What I am about to say will probably be argued strongly against by others in this forum. But what the heck, I just want to hear what others have to say about my opinion.

“The interior design of the GS300/430 feels more like a Toyota than a Lexus.“

The following are the reasons:

Dash Color: The color of the GS dashboard is identical to those used on Toyota Camry and Corolla. If you look closely at GS gray interior, you will notice that it is the same shade of gray used in the Camry interior. The same can be said for about the GS black interior. You might argue that there is really only one shade of black, but look at the black interior of the IS, the combination of black and dark gray metallic certainly makes the IS more unique.

Dash Material: the material used to make the GS dashboard is identical to that used on a typical Toyota car. The GS dashboard has the same texture, finish, hardness and feel to that a Camry dashboard. Why can’t the GS dashboard be made of the harder material like those used on the IS300, BMW and MB?

Letter font: This may sound a bit pathetic but Lexus use the same font on instrument labels as Toyota. The label “P,R,N,D,4,3,2,L” on the gear shift looks exactly the same (even the same color on each letter) to that on the Corolla’s gear shift!!!!! Come on… how hard is it to use a different font! The font used on the “Lexus” emblem is different to that of “Toyota” emblem and why can’t Lexus use a different font for instrument labels?

Warning signs: The warning signs on the dash board like seat belt warning, hand brake warning, air bag warning, A/T Power/Eco/Snow status and many more are identical to that used on Toyota cars.

Lack of wood: The amount of wood used on the GS dashboard is bloody shameful. The center console (where the stereo and air con are located) is so dull. It is just as dull as a Camry center console.

The only thing that really stands out on the GS interior is the backlit meters.

In my opinion, Toyota ideally wants people not to think Lexus is related to Toyota at all. That is why Lexus cars are not sold in Toyota dealerships even though Toyota and Lexus cars are designed by the same team of engineers, are made probably under the same roof and are transported to foreign markets on the same boat. However, I honestly feel that by whacking Lexus emblems on the front and back of a car and sold it through a different dealer network is not enough to separate Lexus from Toyota. The car itself, its design and its presentation (both interior and exterior) have to be different and unique as well so that Lexus owners can feel that they are driving a Lexus and not a Toyota. I am fine with Lexus cars having the same chassis and engine as Toyota cars, but please have a different, a more unique interior design/style to a Toyota. The GS exterior design is bloody beautiful, I love every inch of it! However I think the interior is very poorly designed (the IS and LS interiors are certainly much better)

Mr GS400

G'Day Mate,

For the most part I agree with your assessment. I feel the GS interior lacks design and innovation and yes it does have a look and feel like it's sister car. I think Toyota missed the technology train when they designed/implemented the GS interior (especially the dashboard). I want to think that they invested the money they could of spent on the interior on the exterior, motor and associative motor management devices. When I ride in my buddies 540, 3 or 5 Series M cars I kind of think Lexus needs to hire some contemporary design services to compete with the Bimmer or even Mercedes.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

stk

Howdy Mr GS400,

I think you have pointed out something that I have missed: The GS is almost 4 yrs old and no wonder its interior design lacks behind the newer IS and LS. I really hope the next generation GS will continue with the current exterior styling but have an interior design like the SC or IS.

gsintensive

I think Lexus interior is one of the best of all. I don't care if it is like TOYOTA??? so what? I don't really know what toyota's interior looks like too.

look at the new 430 with navigation/ml interior, the nav screen is superb, and well placed in the center of the console, giving you kinda the "high tech" look and finish. the wood ash try along with the wood trim makes GS luxurious and elegant. Why would you want IS300 look when the GS is definitely on the luxurious side? The Gauge surround is one of the most unique of luxury cars, and now there are chrome rings around it too!!

Compare to 540i/E430 I don't think Lexus GS' interior falls short on anywhere. 540i is all of the useless buttons on the consoles, not even user friendly at all.

I think IS interior is soso. pretty nice of presenting its sub compact sport seden leauge, but not fitted for the GS line. LS 430 with ultra grey wood package is the best interior design i ever see!!

I like the new 01 GS interior look a lot, i think it is a great refinement upon previous models.

just my 02.

JPritch

STK, that is some nitpicking if I've ever seen it! Letter font....???? Come on!

And who really cares about the design of the warning lights...it's all an afterthought to me and I would think to pretty much everyone else out there.

I do respect your opinion on the wood trim...but everyone has their own tastes. Personally, I am on the "less is always more" boat when it comes to interior wood trim. I personally don't really care for wood covering every inch of the dash...including AC vents. But, that's just my opinion...there are those that would disagree.


:eek:

What are you smoking??? I think BMW's have the ugliest interiors in their class. They look stale and old, kind of cluttered, and lack any flow. The Lexus interior on the other hand is styled and refined.

I give it to MB though, the CLK430 and S class have gorgeous interiors. But I sure am glad Lexus didn't attempt to copy any interior concepts from BMW...whew!

nanotech

iTrader: (2)

Lexus does have good taste in interior design....look at the new 02 ES300, looks like three times more REAL wood than the 01 GS430! And everything else looks nice too.

I think everything in my 99 GS400 is very well layed out, very user friendly. I would have liked the dash to be something different than what Toyota uses in their other cars, something more luxurious maybe? leather or something?

I also thought about the warning lights, I would have loved for it to be some sort of a cool lcd design, color lcd?

I don't really care about the letter font...how many different fonts can you use to still retain a readable and elegant font? you can't really have fancy P R N, etc, letters....they wouldn't be as user-friendly!

I just wish lexus would listen to us, if they would, the next gen GS would be AMAZING!

But for me, it still has one of the best interiors in its class....from the cars I have seen so far, only the new Q45 and the new S-class have better interiors (but I don't like S-class buttons, tooo many buttons!)

gsnav

Who cares about the interior of the GS. I just love driving it. Hey, the instrumentation is completely different, there is no freaking toyota out there with the same 3 gauges lighted that way. Anyways, the gs is a toyota no matter what you say, it's basically a lexus because people in america and such need to feel better about purchasing higher priced cars. In japan, it's all toyota regardless of what kind of car it is. I'm sorry, i'm not out to show off my car with prestige. I'm sorry to say anyways, but who cares and anyways, for me to fulfill my need of an interior i have a LS430 Ultra. Plus would you wanna pay a couple extra more thousand of dollars for a better interior. Maybe but the demand isn't there.

GsNav@clublexus.com

analogue

stk has only hit the tip of the iceberg. You thought he was nit picky..ha! Heres some more things about the interior that exude "cheapness":

- LCD displays have that cheap $5 watch look with letters and numbers made out of solid bars. These definitely needs be be replaced (mileage, radio, hvac, clock) with the better looking pixelated LCDs (pretty sure LS has this)

- The little sunvisor holders are plastic and so is the bar that goes through it. Ever noticed that thing "creak" when you're putting it into position. Needs updating to chrome for the looks and cloth or some other type of noiseless contact surface to get rid of the noise.

- Ok..this is more exterior. You think they could have a gas cap that is actaully > $5. I remember the first time I went for a fill up and thinking...I just spent 40k and the dam gascap is run of the mill cheapo plastic. The way I see it, they should invest $$$ into the things that the driver comes into contact with the most.

- Window up/down buttons are cheap plastic and have a hollow feel to them. (I feel for ES owners, their entire door handle is plastic)

- The whole interior needs a re-design from scratch by a team of talented industrial designers. Lets see some of that modernism we only see in prototypes @ auto shows. Ideally, the major parts of the interior would have interchangeable skins (just like software does these days). My picks would be "contemporary", "classic" (lots'o'wood), and "i still like the crappy toyota look" for some of you nutjobs. hehe

- dammit, put some buttons on that freakin steering wheel

- the plastic ring around the ignition should be stainless steel or some other scratch resistant material. Same goes for the stuff around the exterior keyholes. Chances are you've probably scratched it up as much as I have.

- do somehting with those pedals dammit. I'm not talking IS300 pedals, but something better than those narrow strips of $2 rubber

- All those vents with plastic blinds (esp the rear vent) need to go! At least we have chrome accents (not so in the RX300)

- Ok this is my beef with the interior/exterior noises (alarm chirp, door open warning). I personally find them annoying and too high pitched. Something more soothing (think Macs) would be in order. Unfortunately all cell phones I have heard suffer from this too.

ok...thats just off the top of my head. I could rattle off 20+ more if I thought about it

Kaban

I think all the mentioned above are pretty common in Lexus, a lot of controls buttons, and parts used in LS are passed down to other models. Even the air cleaner oil filter are the same. But Toyota with all these cost savings, did manage to bring the GS 300 in at only $41k, and offer the 430 for 5k less than BMW and MB.

Talk about borrowed, the new ES 300 uses the same windows, doors and side mirrors as the GS. RX 300's rear tail lamp, SC430's grill, and that's just the outside. :eek:

Francis K

ever looked inside a LX450 and a 97' landcruiser, I almost cryed.

nanotech

iTrader: (2)

Doesn't the new 02 ES300 look more like the 02 Camry's twin than it has in any other year?

GlobeCLK

iTrader: (5)

HERE ARE some points I would like to make:

1) Interior colors make Lexus seem like Toyota? Does all cars with black interior mean Toyota? And not all cars are good with multi-tone interiors.

2) GS use a softer rubber/plastic material than Camrys. Why would you want HARD plastic over SOFT rubber?

3) Does it matter what font is it for the dash and the instrument gauges? What do you want ROMAN NUMERALS?

4) Signs........ yes Lexus is a division of Toyota so using the same warning lights are bad because......?

5) Wood is a preference. They did it so it's there but didn't over do it. People who likes good gets wood trims. People who doesn't, are happy that they're not everywhere.

6) There are MORE THINGS different between Toyota and Lexus than just the emblems. By stating that that means you've never driven a Lexus or just doesn't get it.

7) Compared to the OLD and DULL interiors of BMW which are ALL THE SAME among 3 5 7 whatever series, Lexus did a much better job. Plus, the GS was designed so it can be both sporty AND luxury. That's why they didn't wrap ALL the controls around the driver seat like S2000 and didn't have a symmetric design like LS430 which is total Luxury. BMW contemporary design? What did they do to the new 3 series compact?!?

8) LCD displays? OK YOU think of a way to make LCDs look like Java.

9) YOU go find a titanium window button

10) steering wheel buttons, other than E-shift, are for lazy people.

11) pedals........... what are BMW pedals? what are Mercedes pedals?

12) what kinda car has CHROME trimmed A/C vents? I wanna know which design team couldn't think of any better junk to do.

that's all I have to say about that. No offense to anyone's ideas.

SilverGSguy

lexus is made by toyota, what do you expect? an entirely different car? of course small things are the same. do all camry's come with leather? leather is standard on gs and there isnt a toyota out there that has the gauges a gs has. imo, the lexus interior is much more comfortable to look at than bmw. bmw has the same basics in the interior from 3series to 7series, they all look the same.
the aristo is toyota in japan so maybe thats why they use toyota parts in a lexus because its the same car.

does a lexus drive like a toyota? lexus is just basically a higher end toyota, so of course they arent gonna spend money changing every little thing.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

For every 'nit pick' and idea people have, they don't consider the cost, not just of the materials, but the design, the stocking of spare parts, the parts suppliers, weight (if all the plastic was metal that would add quite a bit of weight!), and so on.

It's easier to be a critic of a design than to be a designer.

mumbles

It's interesting that there are so many varied opinions, some I agree with, and some I don't. At least we are not all clones driving the same car!
The one opinion I do agree with is the choice of shifter fonts/color on the center console. For me, that style has been around for years, and the coloring of the letters just doesn't match the rest of the interior. It doesn't need to be fancy or wild, just different.
I've also found that the placement of the cruise control stalk is somewhat awkward. I much prefer the buttons on the wheel approach.
Those two items aside, I'm driving a 300hp GS400 that is smooth, quiet and comfortable... the rest of the world just doesn't seem to matter as much