The arrival of the second-generation Lexus GS turned up the heat on 1998’s luxury sedan market. Lexus was still young, less than a decade old, but the LS held down the unflappable luxury sedan corner, the SC had the beautiful grand tourer thing nailed, and the GS cranked the dial toward the performance end of the sport-luxury spectrum far more than any Lexus that had come before.
Motoweek‘s glowing review of the GS400 was typical of the era. They praised the styling as “understated and classy”, as well as “taut and muscular”. It’s a brilliant design, really, with subtle fender flares and purposeful design that doesn’t try to hide its heft, but uses it to emphasize its luxury and sportiness. It even still manages to look like part of the Lexus family with a front graphic that sat midway between LS and SC while returning a low 0.29 Cd. We think it’s still one of the best-looking Toyota sedans ever made.
Even more impressive is the 1UZ V8’s 300 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. Motorweek clocked it pushing the GS400 from 0-60 in 6.0 seconds, not pack-leading but very competitive for its time. The GS also introduced some automotive firsts, including the first V8 with continuous variable valve timing. The automatic also had an ingenious manual-mode shifter that used buttons on the steering wheel — upshifts on the front of the spokes, downshifts on the back. The interior was pure Lexus as well, with creamy leather, bits of real wood, and backlit gauges.
However, the Achilles’ heel of the GS was Toyota’s stubborn refusal to equip the car with a manual transmission. BMW was the sports sedan standard and the 5-Series could still be optioned with a stick back then, so the GS felt like a poser in comparison. The GS managed to sell well, mostly by undercutting the Europeans with a $37,295 base price for the GS300 and a $45,295 starting price for the GS400. If not for the automatic, though, the GS could have been remembered as one of the all-time greats.
A bit sad about the “poser” part, I am sure BMW did not sell many 5-series with the manual, but I get it that it needed to offer the option of a manual to be taken seriously as a driver’s car.
Something else I find weird is the engine lineup for the GS. In the euro-luxury lineup, there seems to be a plethora of engine options in M-B and BMW. Some 6s, some 8s, sometimes a 10 or a 12, especially when you include the M- and AMG versions, whereas the GS offered the one inline 6 and one V8, and no spicy, no halo version to emhpasize the sportiness, neither a stupidly expensive, stupidly potent engine, even if they only sell 4 of them.
Lexus, you need to make us dream, and then sell us a normal car!
we recently got ourselves a GS300 to replace the 06 civic we had and it’s quite possibly the best allrounder out there if not a bit thirsty.
we took it through the passes in northern Italy and Switzerland in the rain, ours is stock for now save for a heavier rear sway bar to tidy up the handling a bit and it was a blast.
tail happy but not unruly and smooth as can be!
Still love the Aristo some twenty five years later…
A relative of mine owns the S160 GS300 with the NA 2JZ six. This car is popular in Japan as a drift car since it’s not too difficult to add turbo and convert to manual transmission. This appears to be a common tuned setup in Japan, so there’s probably a lot of parts availability. The relative that owns a stock GS300 always receives buy offers for the car.
The GS has always been under appreciated and under valued; they are still getting around in reasonable numbers in Australia, and can still be picked up from Japan Auctions at very reasonable prices.
I remember when these were new. I totally disagree with Motorweek’s styling comments, except for the use of the word “heft”. Everyone I knew thought the design was pudgy and bland. It also suffered from the image of Lexus being no thrills brand. It most certainly was not thought of as a performance brand.
I own a JZS160 since about 4 years. 2JZ-GE on board, from 1998.
My thoughts on it:
PROS:
– relialiability – it’s truly a tank of car, everything works, including touch screen for AC/audio controls, just repleacing things that wear (break’s, bushings, belts), and fluids.
– comfort – really neat ride, even with -30mm drop on springs.
– handling – as for such heavy bomber it handles really nice, IMO the perfect balance between Mercedes chouch-feel and BMW sharpness.
– dynamics – even with the lowest engine option the car still gets the “Dynamic Car” badge, with driving aids turned off burning rubber uder the the mall is more then possible, even with automatic
CONS:
practicality – the trunk is junk, it’s irregular in shape, the lid hinges dive deep into it, and (the wost IMO) the rear seats dosen’t fold, these not even a window under the rear armrest to carry ski’s, there was no opition for tow hook or even a roof rack.
image – in my cuntry (Poland) the Lexus brand is considered currently a make for possers and upstarters that whant to show their wealt. So i’ve rebaged my LexGS into Toyota Aristo, this model isn’t very popular in Europe, so many people wonder what is that big a@* Toyota?