Bratmdo

Hi folks!

I’m new to the party and I’ve had my 2015 Lexus GF 350 F Sport for one week now. I researched this car, read many reviews, drove it, and decided to trade in my 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid (22,000 miles) in on this car. I’d like to give my impressions.

The Ford was a very handsome car with both sport and luxury pretensions. In reality it was neither. It handled like a typical sedan my dad might have driven and the luxury consisted of heated leather seats. It did look sporty, with sharp lines and an aggressive grill, but bordered on boring inside. I will say the 40mpg mileage of the hybrid will be missed.

The Lexus is on the other end of the spectrum. It’s very sporty looking—especially with the dark graphite finish 19” alloy wheels, and the quality is evident. It turns heads. Bank-vault solid and quiet. The engine, though not possessed of ferocious acceleration, is smooth, powerful and linear, with no soft spots—just consistent power. The seats are extremely comfortable and infinitely adjustable. The sound system, though not the Mark Levinson upgrade, is quite good.
I know there are upgrades that I did not get, such as the blind spot warning lights on the mirrors and the backup warning sensors, which came with the Ford, but I didn’t want to push the sticker past the $57 thousand plus that it already was.

Where the Lexus pales with the Ford, which is quite shocking, is in the technology. The Ford voice command was much more accurate. And the stereo let me touch the screen to get the station I wanted, and labeled each Sirius station. I was shocked and dismayed when I realized that with the Lexus I’d have to scroll through the stations to find the one I wanted, and that none of them were labeled! I have to, for instance, memorize what channel 15 is instead of it saying “Classic Vinyl.” There’s not even a digital clock anywhere on the huge split screen.

This, as I said, is really surprising for a car that cost $25,000 more than the Ford. In my field we would call this a poor user experience. It’s like Lexus engineer never sat in the car and used it for a couple of weeks vs an Infinity, for instance, which has all of these features, as does the Ford. So although there is a fancy mouse, the system lacks the basic functionality to which I’ve become accustomed. Judging by the other comments on this site, I guess other GS 350 drivers feel the same way. I hope Lexus listens.

I say this with respect to Lexus and my fellow Lexus drivers.

Thoughts?

JDR76

I have seen this come up a lot, but have never understood why people are so hooked on the digital clock. You have a very nice looking analog clock right now the dash, why do we need a digital one in the nav too?

Bratmdo

I guess you just get used to having a digital clock. It's the least of the electronic shortcomings, but the analog clock to me is more of a design element than an actual way to see how late for work you really are

rijc99

An analog clock fits the luxury motif and just looks right in a car of this class. Digital clocks can be had in any tin can car.

If you really want to feel the power of the engine, you need to drive it in the proper configuration. Turn VSC completely off, put it in Sport +, Shifter in M mode. Keep revs around 3500.

As for voice command, it will take some time for you to adjust to Lexus' speak as you've been using a different system. Keep in mind you also have Siri eyes free and the learn to use the Enform Bing search to enter nav destinations on your phone then having it sync to your car.

LI Lexus

welcome.. wait till you go from 40mpg to 16mpg!!!!

I also have a 2014 Ford Explorer Ltd with SYNC 2... the interface is way better than the Lexus.. the 4 corner display and touch screen is great... I heard SNYC 3 which is coming for the 2016 mid year start is worlds better still...

Best of luck with the F Sport, you'll love it

Bratmdo

Thank you. What do you think about the need to scroll through stations? How do you best use your radio?

rijc99

The presets can be from multiple sources. You can also sort them by page. Maybe use the first page for stations you listen to most (again, from any source, FM, Sat, AM). Then use the second to sixth page for different genres.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Welcome aboard.

The previous era of lexus had the touchscreen (which I love) infotainment and the digital clock. People *****ed and complained about leaving fingerprints assc. with touchscreen.

People also complained the digital clock was cheap looking, parts borrowed from the "camry" bin.

So you see, people will always be complaining about anything and there's no way to satisfy everyone out there.

I like the newer system. The huge *** screen is now higher up and I have no problem with using the mouse. I don't know what else is missing in other brands but the stations/thumb drives are labeled.

Just switch it to S+ mode and enjoy the drive

Bratmdo

Thanks very much. The drive is the best part!

Im2bz2p345

Welcome to the forum Bradmto. Congrats on your new car; I hope you can share some photos with us.

I'm a bit surprised because you said that you did a lot of research on the car & read tons of reviews, yet you're now noticing the outdated technology in the Lexus GS.

This thread might be of interest to you: Why are the car technology systems so poor?

Sounds like the "perfect" car for you might be a Tesla Model S, since you talk about mpg (efficiency) and technology.

~ Im2bz2p345

1111GS

I agree and like your post. We sometimes overlook the positive for the negative. Is there room for improvement? Yes. As it is, it's a pretty darn good car in its class. In my book it's a winner three years ago and still is today. Best overall for the money IMO.

GSCT

IMO I would rather have the tech in the suspension/handling with the Sport and Sport + modes, but agree Lexus/Toyota is lagging in in some areas of in car tech. It doesn't bother me as I'm a Luddite and only use voice commands to dail the phone.

ls430lover

wanted to wish you best of luck with new ride gs is a good car,
as comments to your technology comments, the gs has a great screen but after a month and 1400 miles with a cpo 5 series, the bmw i drive blows away the mouse based interface of the gs. i know lexus is trying and they do a decent job, but there behind the germans with technology, and being a japanese based electronics society, almost unacceptable
safe driving

rijc99

Tech wise, what are we talking about?

I'm able to connect to the Enform App on my iPhone via Bluetooth whereas If I want to use the Connected Apps on my Bimmer, I have to connect via USB. Having to tether to the car means its pretty much useless to me.

App wise, both are pretty much on par and both have Siri Eyes Free.

The main differences I see is the interface which is subjective. My wife HATES iDrive whereas I could do with either. Trying to manually select a point on the map is an exercise in frustration in the BMW whereas it's relatively easy in the Lexus.

Lexus just needs to get over the misconception that we can't operated the system while driving. At the same time, it's quite possible BMW might start to fear liability and start locking their system down too.

Try playing with the force feedback of the mouse and see if it helps.

ITDude

I have to agree with the OP that the GS seems to lag behind someother cars when it comes to the lasted tech. I too am a new Lexus owner, but find the tech options I could get on my 2015 GS Luxury were somewhat behind my wife’s 2013 Infiniti.

When I started my new car search, I was looking to get as close to a self-driving car as I could. I was seriously considering the Infiniti Q50 and the Acura TLX. The names given to the various technologies vary by brand, but I wanted adaptive cruise control, lane departure assist, and pre-collision assist at a minimum. Lexus had most of the tech I was wanted, butthe cars that had them were in very short supply. When I was looking, there was only 1 in the entire US that had every option available on a Lexus.

Yet I ended up choosing the GS and I am very happy with my decision. The bleeding edge technologies come with some challenges of their own. When checking out the Infiniti and Acura forums, I noticed some of these features weren’t ready for prime time. I wanted a solid, reliable car and Lexus was the best of breed.