DRIVEN TO EXTINCTION
V8-POWERED DREAM THAT FAILED TO FULFIL ITS DESTINY
Lexus GS
IT SHOULD COME as no surprise to anyone in the Western world that sedans are slowly dying. They’re the Amazon rainforest of the automotive kingdom – once abundant and seemingly everlasting, but now approaching the ‘endangered’ list.
Given our insatiable thirst for consumer stuff, why wouldn’t you want a high-riding wagon to wedge Ikea flat-packs into rather than a staid old sedan? It’s a mindset that has finally buried the 5 Series-baiting Lexus GS after four generations and almost 28 years.
The bitter irony is that the SUV hammering the nails into the GS’s coffin – the unremarkable RX – has little of its rear-drive sibling’s poise and panache, while the sedan that essentially usurps it (the front-drive Camrybased ES300h) is now so accomplished that the ageing GS had been marginalised to the point of irrelevance.
The GS’s career began in 1993 (in the US, Europe and parts of Asia) as a reworked circa-1991 Toyota Aristo. Given the Aristo’s Italdesign provenance,
2JZ engines and rear-drive architecture, the GS was supported by stronger premium footing than the Camry-derived ES. And while sales were relatively modest in most markets, it was long believed that in order to be taken seriously in the premium sector you needed a pukka BMW 5 Series competitor.
In terms of ability, the GS was always a cut above its less-inspiring siblings, with a well-deserved reputation for solid dynamics supported by Lexus’s benchmark quality and reliability. But even in its most powerful form during its 2000s heyday, the GS never quite had the performance chops to out-muscle its German competition because, well, RS6, M5 and E55, people!
Heyday? Yep, the GS definitely had one. Its US sales peaked at 33,457 in 2005 (compared to 52,722 for the 5 Series), but the best the fourth-gen GS could manage was 23,117 in 2015 before plunging southwards. This mirrored its fortunes in Europe and Australia (624 sales in 2012), though the final L10-generation did serve up one significant highlight – the GS F.
Launched here in February 2016, five years into the fourth-gen GS’s tenure, the GS F sported the 2UR-GSE 5.0-litre V8 from the RC F and earlier IS F, mated to a sharp eight-speed auto. In an era of huge power and mega-boosted torque, the GS F’s 351kW at 7100rpm and 530Nm from 4800-5600rpm appeared comparatively meek, yet they disguised the joys of wringing every fragment of performance from that luscious V8. Soaring to an ignition cut at 7400rpm, the GS F successfully fleshed out the character and potential of the same engine in the less wonderful
IS F, and rightfully conveyed a V8 Supercar vibe. But you always seemed to be chasing the dragon trying to attain the induction richness it saved for serious redline excursions – much like the GS itself chasing a premium dream that had surpassed it long ago.