Hermosa

I wouldn't mind if they stopped making the GS430 if they started making a GS470. Or if I am really greedy, a GS550 to compete with AMG brand MBs.

biggie27

I think the only time the GS430 is gonna be missing is when the new redesigned gs330? comes out since thats what all car manufacturers do for some odd reason the intreduce the cheaper version first to see what kind of reaction they get from the market and then they intraduce the higher end, example, lexus came out with the GS300 before the 400, bmw came out with the 325 before the 330 and M3, it also came out with the new 528 before the 540 and M5, mercedes came out with the C280 before the C320 and C32AMG, so I would think that the new GS430 wont come out until mid 2004 after the introduction of the GS300 and maybe 2 years in the making the introduction of the GS500 and LS500 and maybe the SC500 since 2006 would be 6 years since the LS430 and the SC430 were introduced in japan and it would be time for a redesign or a major upgrade, especially with the way that car manufacturers are producing cars lately, It used to be every ten years before a cars design changed, I mean look at the older benzes and BMW's but now its like every 4-6 years, watch ten years from know it gonna be every week

SecPole14

LOL! So true, so true.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i didn't say lexus would / could use the 430 engine to win those cars, of course there is no way.... the guy asked how lexus should price the car if they ever MAKE one that CAN compete with the m5 league.... geeez...... i am not stupid enough to believe that the 430 engine can do all that....

ShowGSLuVv

I think everyone is looking at it the wrong way, I could care less what kind of engine goes into a car, if it doesn't look good, let it have 1000 Horsepowers, I wont buy it... I hope Lexus can make the car even almost as good as they made the first two Generations, then I would be happy, they wont drop it really fast for the power anyways, they might just do the redesign, then the next year come out with different engines for it, that's just MO

ShOwGS

RocketSlug

I think its about time for someone to post that photo of a Camry front fascia on a gs body by a fence and call it the GS500 spy photo.

Sam Khoury

The GS430 sales numbers were low during the 2002 model year because Lexus wasn't shipping as many of them from Japan. A dealer explained to me that Lexus had to cut down on the number of GS430's that were shipped because Lexus needed to ship more ES300's during 2002. He explained to me that Lexus can only ship a certain amount of cars from Japan. I'm not sure if this is constrained by import/export rules or because of the space available on the cargo ships but either way it makes sense. It makes sense because when the new ES300 was introduced in the 2002 model year, it's sales jumped dramatically. Just look the ES300 sales increases for August and September between 2001 and 2002 from these articles here on CL. They pretty much doubled.

https://www.clublexus.com/Articles/I...02/091302.html
https://www.clublexus.com/Articles/I...02/101502.html

I could also buy into the fact that the GS430 might be discontinued if Lexus feels it's not worth the extra cost to manufacture the GS with the 4.3 engine if they are only selling or can only ship a few hundred units per month. Look at the SC. The previous generation was available with 3.0 and the 4.0 and the new one is only available with the 4.3.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well they WILL keep the v8 for sure, i don't doubt that. lexus has to compete with BMW and MB on those area, they cant' give up. BMW and MB sells only a few 540i and e500 anyway

and yes, they import less GS430 coz' of the new ES300, makes a lot of sense though when the ES300 is selling that good

and lexus will release sc330, they first released the sc430, thought about releasing the sc330 this year, but the sales of sc430 has been so good so they are holding off the release of sc330

dipstick

Could the low numbers of GS430s shipped to the U.S. be because of fuel consumption regulations? The 430s are not real fuel efficient, and perhaps they bring the average mpg down too much???

rominl

iTrader: (4)

the 430 is superior in fuel economy compared to 540i and e500 from what i recall?

Sam Khoury

I don't think fuel economy is the reason for the low numbers of GS430's shipped to the U.S because there's not much of a difference between the GS300 and GS430 in terms of fuel economy.

2003 GS300 18 city/25 hwy
2003 GS430 18 city/23 hwy

I got these figures from Edmunds.com.

TXLeXTC

Ill buy the fuel consumption reason the day I see that the hybrid cars start outselling the SUVs in the US. Fact is few, VERY few people care about fuel economy enuff to totally sway a decision when buying a new car.

Sam Khoury

At least not until gas prices here in the U.S. approach the prices in other parts of the world like Europe.

doug_999

Per the window sticker maybe, but not in real life. My 540ia sport that came with a nice $1,300 gas guzzler tax was rated at 15/21 and ALWAYS averaged 15/27. My GS rated at 18/23 consistently gets 15/24.

There was a gas mileage poll recently on CL - I don't remember any GS4xx owners getting much better than 15 city.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Guys lets not turn this thread into another 540 vs GS4 thread please. We have one of those already .