Lukas99GS

So last week I was driving on the highway in my 08 460 and somehow the passenger fender liner and the underbody shield both came loose and basically got shredded as well as ruining my passenger side tire, Lexus didn't have the parts in stock so I had a 15 gs350 for the week, I figured I'd go over the differences.
The interior of the 4GS is far above our 3rd gens I'll say that right now, leather all over the dash with stitching, the "wood" trim also feels/looks much better than our cars, I feel like the wood pieces on our door panels feels very cheap and plasticy in comparison.
the seats are much more firm compared to our cars as well, they aren't uncomfortable by any means just not as plush as ours. The side bolsters on the seats hug you around corners much better than our cars though, and I think look much better as well. The car overall inspires much more confidence around corners, there's a lot more steering feel and the car just feels much more planted overall. The engine note also sounds great in cabin, I know it's piped into the cabin at open throttle but it honestly sounded better than my 460 imo. The nav screen is probably the biggest upgrade, as its huge and looks amazing, however the "mouse" controller was quite annoying to use, you almost always would go past what you wanted to select, and it's much more hard to use while driving than our touch screens for sure. That would be my biggest gripe of the car. The brakes were also much stronger feeling compared to mine, granted its a new car vs an 8 year old car. Surprisingly it didn't even have heated seats which I thought was odd, it must have been a base model as it didn't have, power shade, illuminated sills, heated/cooled seats, power folding mirrors. Figured most of that would be standard. I'll post some pics of the car as well as mine upon getting it back.

Lukas99GS

And my old girl upon getting her back

TRD_Power

Crazy, I had nearly the exact same experience yesterday as you, except with a 2016 IS300. Took my 460 in for the 35k service, and when I hopped into the IS, I immediately fell in love with the interior. Was like "oh man, if the IS is this nice, the GS would be that much better!" Well, after driving it around for a few hours, I got of it pretty quick. I've got really wide shoulders, and the seats definitely pushed them forward and together, which was sort of uncomfortable for me after a while. Overall quality of the interior is definitely light years ahead of the 3GS, but I am far more comfortable in my GS. Maybe the 4GS would be a bit better with the seats, but overall I'd give the seat category to the 3GS (when comparing to the IS). The cornering was killer, and the brakes were incredible, but going back to the punchy-ness of the 4.6L was refreshing when I got my car back. Lust is never as long lasting as love, and I definitely love my GS

Lukas99GS

Yes I also had a new gen is250 last time as a loaner and felt way too cramped in it, the GS is much roomier and the seats are bigger. The GS I got was an AWD and I could definitely tell my 460 was noticeably a bit faster, (the AWD lose a couple tenths of a sec 0-60 compared to the RWD) but it felt sportier than my GS just due to the handling. Also surprising I drove it more conservatively then my 460 and on my normal drive only averaged about 21-22 mpg on mostly highway where in my 460 I typically average like 25-26. I think a 4GS will be my eventual upgrade but would probably pick a RWD model (:

Fausty

Thanks for the comparison. Haven't been lucky enough to get a gs as a loaner. I know you mentioned acceleration but can you go more in depth as far as how they match up. Would you say the 460 would leave the 4gs behind significantly especially at high speeds? Havnt messed around with any 4gs on the highway yet.

Lukas99GS

Yes the 460 definitely felt faster at all speeds, not by a ton but I believe the AWD 350s do 60 in roughly 5.7-5.8 compared to like 5.5ish for RWD? And the 460 should be about 5.1-5.2 so it had a good half second on the all wheel drive 350. The throttle seemed to be a lot different, I barely have to step on my cars gas and it'll go 60, with the loaner you had to step on it more but once you did it got going fairly well. I was really impressed by how strong the brakes were.
its a shame they didn't carry over the 460 to the 4th gen but it is kind of hard to justify a $6-7000 difference for being a couple tenths of a second faster.

Fausty

it is a shame. I would be all over the 4th gen if that had the v8. Wish we could have had the power the ls makes. But it makes owning the 460 a little more special due to its rarity and the last of a dying breed v8 gs.

Lukas99GS

theres always the GSF although judging by ISF prices they'll probably hold their value pretty high.

Fausty

Lol I should have inserted affordable on my comment lol. Gsf is out of my range for a few years.

drydeniv

Thanks for the comparison/review. I also haven't been lucky enough to get a 4GS as a loaner, mainly 15/16 IS/ES models. Just makes me sure I chose correctly when I bought a '10 3GS over a '13 ES a couple of years ago.

Am I the only one that think the front end of the 4GS and 6ES are nearly indistinguishable from a moderate distance? (I remember threads on this when they first came out.)
The interior of the 4GS is beautiful, though.

The ES is nice enough, but the main impression that both the IS and ES left me with was that the interiors were a bit plastic-y (as in 'hmm, this feels a bit cheap.')

I'm still in love with my 3GS 350... ( Although, the quality of leather on the seats leaves a bit to be desired, and it's getting a bit creaky, but overall the build quality is very good. Oh, except the dang peeling drip moldings (on 3rd set) and plastic trunk spoiler that is horrible looking after a few years. Oh well, I still love my GS!

Lukas99GS

I've now had a new RX, IS, ES, and the GS, the IS interior was very nice and it was a great driving car (aside from being slow as it was the 250 not 350) but it was just too cramped inside, the ES I got I felt the same as you, too much cheap feeling plastic and just too bland driving. I can tell you the interior of the 4th gen GS is a big step up from the ES, everything in the GS felt really high quality to me.

Lukas99GS

One thing I forgot to mention that I don't know how I missed, I have the mark levinson in my car and the loaner had just the base audio system and it blew my sound system out of the water, I've driven plenty of cars and I can honestly say that it was the best sounding stock system I've heard in any car I've driven. That's a huge plus to me as I always listen to music while driving

tayslexus

I also drove the 14 GS F-sport AWD, I absolutely fell in love with the car. As you said the car is more planted though I have the 08 350 AWD but the AWD in our cars is not bad after all. The appearance of the F-sport is just amazing and very aggressive. As for the stock sound system I didn't test it in the 14 GS but I did that in the 16 ES and I was not happy, maybe the speakers in the GS is different than the ES. It's good after all to know that the new GS improved in every aspect so when I buy my next car I know it's gonna be better

And btw your car looks very clean and I like the G-spider rims.

drydeniv

I'm very happy to hear that! I've always been (very) disappointed with the ML system in my 3GS (frustrating as it was one of the factors in buying the car! But I've complained on other threads about that.) The ES/IS loaners I've had were equipped with the stock system, and they sounded pretty unimpressive, too. I'm glad the 4GS has a decent stock system,

It's a shame that my 2010 Camry with upgraded JBL system was better than my current 3GS w/ML, and that both pale in comparison to my old 2001 2GS 430 with ML...

TRD_Power

The non-ML sound in the IS was great, but I felt the ML in my GS was definitely more crisp, and would hit the low bass notes much better. Would love to hear the ML sound in the 4GS though, I heard it's incredible.