With only a couple of days left till Halloween arrives, our next spirited spotlight (ghostly pun...or ghost of a joke?) is on the first (and second) generation Lexus GS with the V8.
Photo: ebay
In 1962, Ray Bradbury released his classic horror-fantasy
novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. It was spooky fun that was the stuff
of nightmares and if you haven’t read it, you’ve certainly missed out. In 1983,
Disney made a movie out of it starring an excellent cast that included Jonathan
Pryce and Jason Robards. Like the book, if you haven’t seen it you should.
Unfortunately, it was a bad piece of candy at the box office but don’t let that
stop you. Who cares? It’s still a great movie for Halloween viewing, so see it.
In the late 90s, Lexus decided that they’d build a campaign
around it to promote their new luxury beast, the mighty GS400. With 300
horsepower, 310 foot-pound torque and shift buttons on the steering wheel for
the mandatory 5-speed automatic, they claimed that it was the fastest
production sedan in the world, with 0-60 zooming by at 5.7 seconds. There are
several other sedans that can claim very close or even faster times but not at
the same price level and certainly not with the same level of reliability,
luxury and comparatively low cost of maintenance.
Photo: ebay
The GS400 V8 liter size grew larger as time went on but it
wasn’t for many years that the performance was noticeably any different or
better. The first generation (and the basically identical GS430, for that
matter) is an outstanding value on the used car performance luxury market.
Unless you don’t like the styling based on the original Italdesign Giugiaro
spec, which many didn’t, then you ought to consider buying one of these if they
meet your criteria.
Photo: ebay
Our featured vehicle is a black on black (what else, given the Halloween theme?!?) 2006 GS430 with just 118K miles on it for $14,795 (KBB says $14,313...so right on the money).
Photo: Lexus
Unlike the competitor BMW M5, this is any easy car to live
with, is known for its' longevity and being “Something Wicked This Way Comes”!
Absolutely fantastic cars, horrifically underrated by enthusiasts while they rave about competitors that don't really hold a candle. This was the NSX of the luxury sport sedan arena...
If you want to share a Youtube video, just copy and paste the URL in your comment.
Need to add an image of no more than 600 pixels wide? Use Imgur to edit and generate the BBcode you need or you can copy and paste this code [img]image-url-here[/img]
When it was new it was more like "Someone's trophy wife this way comes".
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation. I've never seen a woman driving a GS400 or GS430.
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about that the other day; I've never, ever seen a man driving an MB GLK. Weird.
Absolutely fantastic cars, horrifically underrated by enthusiasts while they rave about competitors that don't really hold a candle. This was the NSX of the luxury sport sedan arena...
ReplyDeleteIt seems crazy to me that you can buy a Lexus GS that's older than 20 years old. It's now a....classic?
ReplyDelete