psteng19

Not necessarily.
The way I organize a CD full of MP3's is by folders, say a folder for each different genre.
With most aftermarket MP3/CD HU's, you can skip to the folder you want, and then to the song that you want.
It's almost like having a CD changer.
One day I feel like listening to techno, the next day I'm in the mood for some R&B, and it's all contained on one CD. That's the beauty of it.

The browsing of songs is kind of a hassle, but not too bad if each folder contains at most 15-20 songs.

Rockville

Test driving the M45 Sport or even regular version is on my to do list. A few of my customers have driven both. FallsGrove stated that the GS was more refined and quieter yet had ample power. This market is about sport but the owners aren't going to the drag strip with their stock GS430's either. The whole package is what makes the car attractive no matter how much we compare feature by feature. Some driver's see the car as a symbolic representation of themselves. As usual in these discussions the Lexus is giving up some displacement to the Infiniti. The Infiniti sport has the 19" wheels. It has better voice command on the Nav and it has that niftly lane change alarm. It is not as sleek or pretty IMO. The Interior has not won me over or many others on CL either. All of the gadgets in the world won't change this perception. As Oscar Wilde once retorted after being chided for his drunken state: You Sir are ugly... and tomorrow I shall be sober! Lastly, take the M45 and the GS430 out in the snow or rain slick pavement and see how they act. The only car in the world with VDIM is the GS430. If you have more raw power but get out of shape what have you got? Know any good body shops?

Sandman

In reply to several of the posts concerned about audio system features, just a quick note about the direction fo Car Entertainment:

In MY08 and 09 we will start to see car entertainment systems on high-end models with these features:

USB 2.0 High Speed OTG ports in the dash. Bring out your USB drive and plug in your favorites. Take it with you and memory limit is based upon limit of your USB drive.

Hard Disk Drives integrated into the system. Rip CDs directly to HDD. Build a library in your car. Heat and vibration are a big challenge with HDDs but one that is being worked out.

802.11g port in the car. Pull into your garage and attach to you 802.11 network. Wirelessly download all of your favorite media to the HDD.

marcpitch

Simply look at the Shifter and area around the shifter for both cars.

The M shifter says: "Move me and give it all you got..."
The GS shifter says: "Aren't I very nice looking and luxurious....whooahh, be gentle..."

I am slightly tongue in cheek here, but the shifters really do speak volumes about what the cars are. You may prefer the styling of one shifter over another, but the personalities are pretty defined.

As Oscar the Grouch said after driving the M: "Damn, this is fun!"

jyg es3

stomp on it and grin from ear to ear. stomp on gs430 and it politely moves, but not like the M "monster' aceleration

DrewSRX

I agree, most reviews seem opposite of this.

The M just begs to be driven hard...

It goes right when you want it to and is very fast...

spwolf

kind of interesting, someone posts how they liked GS430 drivin skills better and then 5 ppl post they heard otherwise... Well, now you have heard it, and unless you have driven it...

in any case, i would expect gs430 to be more luxurious in everything, including the ride itself... I personally would never buy this kind of car for sports alone, it would have to be pretty comfy yet sporty... i have my other car for downright sports :-)

dseag2

Well, good for you. And I HAVE driven both and the M IS sportier.

Rockville

Since you have the advantage of driving both the M and the Acura RL (which is fast), which one is sportier to you? How do you compare the dash layout and controls? Which one is the better car in your opinion? Next, fast forward to an equivalent displacement Lexus that makes it a fair comparison and then you will see the real battle hasn't begun yet. E350, BMW 5, A6 vs. M35, RL, and the GS350 will all vie for your sport lux bucks. That's a shootout if there ever was one....

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if the competiion will up their HP as well though. I'm thinking Acura can, but might not. There is at least another 30HP left in the Honda J35 engine. However, the engine is already 7 years old so I'm not sure how much more money they want to invest in that engine or if they will be coming out with a new series soon. Infiniti would more than likely add HP in the future in the 3.5 engine. BMW and Mercedes probably will not do much since there are so many other engine options in the line up.

Rockville

What I've always admired about Lexus is their balance. They are never extreme. If the IS350's engine is dropped into the GS at some point then the BMW will logically be at a disadvantage and need some boring out. BMW mystique lives on and they sell that as much as Horsepower.
Mercedes has their prestige though it has been tarnished since the merger. Acura aspires to be the BMW of Japan and so does Infiniti. Lexus isn't looking for a niche to define itself. It wants to give everyone a reason to own a Lexus. Here on Club Lexus we have an enthusiast take on everything just like the Car Magazines. A lot of the Car and Driver's best and Motor Trend car of the year etc. are flashes in the pan. There is something about a Lexus that makes people want them and it might not be just Horsepower. They last and they age gracefully and you can pass them down to the kids if you need an excuse to buy a new one and they're safe. They care about our planet and have never had a gas guzzler tax. They think ahead and decide that Hybrids are a win win for all concerned. Before the first one has even been test driven Lexus has 12,000 deposits. They don't just add horsepower they use less gas. The other makes are left standing there holding their trophies of a bygone era...........

DrewSRX

But, that is still is not a fair comparison. The A6 uses a 3.2 liter V6 engine and the revised 530i still uses a 3.0 liter I6 engine. Equivalent displacement across the board for all cars in this class will never happen. Three years from now, there could be a 535i, M40, and A6 3.6.

IMO, it makes more sense to compare cars that are on sale right now or very soon, not cars that are coming in the future, 2, 5, or 10 years from now. Competition is tough, other companies won't be standing still either.

OneOfOne

I guess this speaks to changing times but why would you play low fi [relatively speaking] mp3s in the great lexus sound system over regular cds or even xm radio? complaining about the lack of music on a long trip and ignoring the variety on xm is silly. so you can theoretically play 'only' 102 songs on 6 burned cds. that comes out to nearly 7 hours of music of your choosing at cd quality. I think people should consider reality when they talk about the time they will be listening to songs. mp3s are fine for some people but I would bet that the typical lexus customer doesnt really care about mp3 capability otherwise it would already be there.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I agree with you. I never got into MP3s since I don't really like the lossy compression. Sure, a good quility MP3 is practically non audible in terms of singal degration, but I have heard a lot of crappy MP3 conversions as well. But to your point about Lexus owners not caring about MP3, I disagree. I think most buyers of this type of car (Not the enthusiast type on this forum) actually care about that stuff and don't realize it is a lossy compression format. Most of them think it is CD quality simply because it is digital or the salesman told them so. I feel this is exactly the kind of things the average Lexus buyer actually wants in their car. I don't even own an MP3 player, but my wife does. My wife would be more the typical Lexus buyer and this is the sort of things she wants.

DrexLex

But let's distinuish--there's a difference between using an MP3 player or an iPod, and burning MP3s onto CD-R. Not all MP3 fans bother with burning discs--it takes extra effort, steps. If you don't mind my asking, how does your wife actually deal with MP3 files--download/RIP directly to player, download/RIP to PC HDD then to player, download/RIP then burn CD, some other handling?

Would it be better to skip over the CD-R storage device and go to an in-car HDD? It is my understanding that while DVD maps are delievered on DVD discs, they are sometimes partially downloaded to a local hard drive for faster access while driving. Since hard drives are rather larger than needed for this purpose, the excess capacity can easily be used for entertainment, such as music files or to pre-record radio programs, like a sort of TiVo operation. Does that sound attractive as an alternative to MP3 CD playback?