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Sad to hear the GS has been turned in....and I'll miss the awesome photos of palm trees in the background. The photos of the turning leaves are nice too - I do miss all the fall color from when I was on the east coast.
Just curious - how did the GS do with towing the trailer? Did you go over through New Mexico or via Utah/Colorado? A few of those photos on the road looked a bit familiar.
We took the New Mexico route to avoid as much snow and hills as possible, though we did hit some snow when we got into Texas. The GS, all in all, performed really well! I can't imagine it was ever really designed to tow, especially a 6'x12' trailer that was loaded to the brim, but it did exceptionally well.
That said, it was a bit scary and unnerving the entire time but I've never towed anything before, so I don't know what it's supposed to feel like when you're doing it correctly and in a vehicle designed to tow. At lower speeds, like 55-65, it wasn't bad at all. You could almost forget you were towing a trailer. I actually did many times when exiting freeways and then having to make turns. My buddy who came along with me for the trip had to keep reminding me there was a trailer attached so I wouldn't turn too quickly. That said, given the long drive we had, we kept our cruising speed in the 75-85 range where it was totally fine, it felt very solid and stable, but you could feel all the weight riiiiight behind you and over larger bumps and imperfections, you could feel the entire car being shook from behind... it was a very strange experience. I'm not sure if that's a normal towing experience, but it was very akin to the feeling of experiencing turbulence on an airplane where you can feel the entire craft surging forward while you're being shaken about, but you just power through it and all is well. I have no doubts AVS was hard at work, especially in the rear, keeping things settled and under control. We didn't experience trailer sway even once. We used Adaptive Cruise and Lane Keep/Steering Assist for a lot of the drive and it did a wonderful job at doing essentially all of the work for us. Lane Keep/Steering Assist worked wonderfully at keeping the car straight and in the center of the lane while we just rested our fingertips on the wheel. It made for a very fatigue-less drive. I've never been all that impressed with ACC + Lane Keep on Los Angeles roads and freeways, but for these types of roads and driving, it couldn't have performed any better. It kept us dead straight in the center of the lane. No ping-ponging or anything like that, just tracked dead straight ahead.
Power-wise, to maintain speed uphills, cruise control would have to downshift at least 3 gears, usually 4, and on the more extreme inclines, it would downshift 5 times to get the revs up to 5,000rpm to pull us up the hill. I removed the sound generator prior to the trip in anticipation of prolonged periods of high engine revs. Very glad I did. Made it much more of a comfortable and relaxing drive. Going back to power uphill, we could still accelerate uphill, albeit slowly. There was never a time where we weren't able to maintain our speed or speed up if needed. Only once going up a very steep and very long stretch of road, the car had to downshift 5 times and was screaming at 5k rpm to maintain our cruising speed, which caused the coolant temperature gauge to rise a little bit. As soon as we crested the hill and the transmission began to upshift, the coolant temp dropped back down to normal. This only happened once and was the only "complaint," if you can even call it that, from the car. This was all on 91 octane fuel. Once we found a station with 93 octane, this made a world of difference. Pulling the trailer felt so much more effortless and we had noticeably more power going uphills or accelerating from zero. It truly made a drastic difference and with as much weight as we were pulling, it really made all the difference. It made passing/accelerating a much more confident experience. In regards to fuel, we had to stop for fuel every 180 miles or so, which was about every 2.5-3 hours, but that worked out fine. That was just about how long we could sit before needing a snack, to use the bathroom, to stretch, etc.
The GS actually handled really well when some of the roads got a little curvy. Throwing it in Sport S+ made a big difference and firmed things up a lot. It was surprisingly fun to drive, even with all that weight and length behind it. A few times, we were saved by the GS' amazing turning radius. If it weren't able to make as tight of turns as it did, we would've found ourselves having to make some multi-point turns and likely jack-knifing.
It was a really fun experience getting to really "live" in the GS and experience it like we did for those few days. Every storage compartment, door pocket, back seats, etc. had our food, snacks, drinks, headphones, etc etc etc. It was a very comfortable and relaxing trip all in all. I can't imagine having done all that in another car.
At the end of all this, the tires were extremely worn and they wore very unevenly, in a very strange and angled way. I'm assuming this is due to the alignment from the suspension being so loaded in the rear and a bit raised in the front. In sum, the GS was an excellent tow car and felt very stable and solid the entire way but I'm SO glad I wasn't keeping it after this excursion. My lease was up 4 days after we arrived. I can't imagine how much wear and tear the tires, suspension, engine, transmission, and chassis underwent during all of that, even though the car didn't complain. Mechanically, I'm sure it wasn't easy, but it did exactly what we needed it to and got us here safe and sound without incident. Our only single complaint was about the headlights at night. They were just aimed way too low and I think the auto-leveling headlights compensated a little bit too much for the weight in the rear and pointed the headlights a little too low. If the headlights had been aimed a little bit higher, it would have been the perfect road trip car and the perfect tow vehicle. There was a point where we almost did the same trip in a Uhaul truck. Can't even imagine how miserable that would've been.
I don't think you ever said, did you move to St Louis? Also, have you decided what car you're going to get next? I'm sure you'll miss the GS.
We're still looking for a place in St. Louis. Hoping to hear back from one we really liked today. We've been staying in a little town a couple hours out from STL. It's been an interesting, very different experience Sort of leaning towards a Mustang Mach-E right now, but still pretty undecided. I miss the GS already!!
When I made the reservation for the tow hitch installation through Uhaul, there was a section where it asks for the vehicle info and then automatically selects the parts you need to order. Here's what it recommended which I purchased and all worked out well.
Thanks for answer. That hitch looks pretty solid on your vehicle. How much they charged you for installation and how long that took ??
just wondering if Uhaul had to cut your rear bumper to make the hitch fit? I have a 2017 gs350 AWD fsport but I want to avoid cutting anything if possible.
Originally Posted by signdetres
All in we spent $559.11 and it took them 3 hours or so for the install. Here's the breakdown of all that:
just wondering if Uhaul had to cut your rear bumper to make the hitch fit? I have a 2017 gs350 AWD fsport but I want to avoid cutting anything if possible.
Yes they did have to cut the lower rear diffuser-style trim piece. It was a very small amount from the underside. Pretty minimal and not really even visible.
Thanks alot! I think I'm going to pull the trigger and do this. it doesn't seem too noticable in the picture, having the extra cargo carrier plus bike rack on a hitch is win win.
Originally Posted by signdetres
Yes they did have to cut the lower rear diffuser-style trim piece. It was a very small amount from the underside. Pretty minimal and not really even visible.
12-02-20, 10:50 AM
That said, given the long drive we had, we kept our cruising speed in the 75-85 range where it was totally fine, it felt very solid and stable, but you could feel all the weight riiiiight behind you and over larger bumps and imperfections, you could feel the entire car being shook from behind... it was a very strange experience. I'm not sure if that's a normal towing experience, but it was very akin to the feeling of experiencing turbulence on an airplane where you can feel the entire craft surging forward while you're being shaken about, but you just power through it and all is well. I have no doubts AVS was hard at work, especially in the rear, keeping things settled and under control. We didn't experience trailer sway even once. We used Adaptive Cruise and Lane Keep/Steering Assist for a lot of the drive and it did a wonderful job at doing essentially all of the work for us. Lane Keep/Steering Assist worked wonderfully at keeping the car straight and in the center of the lane while we just rested our fingertips on the wheel. It made for a very fatigue-less drive. I've never been all that impressed with ACC + Lane Keep on Los Angeles roads and freeways, but for these types of roads and driving, it couldn't have performed any better. It kept us dead straight in the center of the lane. No ping-ponging or anything like that, just tracked dead straight ahead.
