2013 Lexus GS F-Sport Review

The all new 2013 Lexus GS F-Sport sedan was just released in the middle of February.  I saw the debut commercial during the superbowl and it really didn’t stand out to me all that much, but during our stay in Tokyo while covering the Japan Golf Fair I finally got to see it in person at Toyota Mega Web in Odaiba’s luxurious shopping area Venus Fort.  That’s when It started to grow on me big time and near the tails end of our trip to Japan Tario and his wife Koko were kind enough to take my wife shopping in Chiba then later me to a Lexus dealership to have a look.  That’s when I fell in love and just had to have it!

These pictures don’t do it justice, this thing is all business and reminds me of Darth Vader’s helmet but that’s not what sold me on it. I’ve owned many of the usual luxury brands from Mercedes to Porsche but how incongruent is that while I eat, breathe, and confess my love for all things Japanese.  I never even considered a Lexus as I was attached to the status european autos exude but something was always missing and that something was Japanese Technology & Quality.  It’s the interior that really caught my attention with it’s 12.3-inch high-resolution split-screen multimedia display. It provides immediate, simultaneous access to various systems and greets you with a customizable image when the ignition button is pressed.  The new GS  is packed with intuitive design and best of all everything makes sense and is stupid easy to figure out.  It’s like an apple product,  you don’t need to read the instruction manual to understand it,  It’s just there.  In my wife’s 2011 porsche I have to fiddle with the door locks, windows, not to mention the 3 visits to  service for strange little issues and irritating rattles.

The F-Sport comes with a range of performance enhancements and exclusive styling,  Inside, 16-way sport seats with power side bolsters embrace you. And outside, a specially tuned suspension keeps your wheels glued to the road with very little body roll.  It feels almost like a sports coupe and sometimes you forget about the extra length the car has behind the drivers seat.  The cabernet red interior is an F-Sport exclusive along with the brushed silver accents and F-Sport steering wheel.  The car also has a more aggressive body kit and is the first lexus to come stock with 19″ forged ultra light wheels.  Just by looking at the way Lexus designed the styling  I can tell they had aftermarket tuners in mind.  Expect some pretty stunning body kits coming very soon.  Did I mention it’s made in Japan?

It’s 400 pounds heavier than the smaller and more sporty Lexus IS yet quicker at 0-60 5.7sec and scores better on the slalom, in breaking and on the skid pad all while getting 28mpg on the highway which is much better than the beast I was driving which got me 11 miles per gallon.  Everything screams seamless quality you can totally tell it’s Japanese with it’s ambient LED lighting and a trunk that is specially designed for golfers with TOUR bags not those little carry bags.  Options, I picked up quite a few of them on top of the F-Sport package such as the navigation, blind spot monitor, Intuitive parking assist,  heated and air conditioned seats and a bunch of other cool little gadgets.  They offer the new GS some pretty cool options like a heads up display that shows your navigation & speed displayed on the windshield, a pre collision system that has camera’s to watch your eye’s to see if you doze off then guides the car back into the lane if you go adrift also night vision and dynamic rear steering.

The big surprise was that while we were in Japan my wife Jacque aka (TourSpecGirl) secretly began putting calls into west coast dealerships after listening to me and Tario talk about what exterior, interior, and other options I wanted. Just several days ago she asked me to drive her to an appointment on the other side of town and on the way she said we should swing by lexus to see that car I liked in Japan. I said there is no way a black/red F-sport is available, and that’s when she told me “No pull into Lexus you never know what you’ll find”.  Ok and as I pull up there it is all clean and pretty,  I was still unaware that the car I’m standing in front of and drooling over already belonged to me,  until my wife put the keys in my hand and said happy early birthday…:o)  And here it is my new 2013 Lexus GS F-Sport,  Enjoy the Video!