Since the '60s at least, and possibly long before that, car manufacturers have tried to suggest the level of luxury on offer in their models by tacking letters onto the ends of their names. By the '80s we all understood that a GL was better than an L, and that a GLX was better than a GL, even if we didn’t actually know what any of those letters stood for.
Later, whole words would be added to describe top o’ the rangers, like TITANIUM, which if you thought about it for more than a millisecond made no sense whatsoever. You could understand why they didn’t shorten it to GLX length though.
As part of the continuing educational service that Shed offers to PH readers at no additional charge, he would like to advise you that the ‘GS’ in the name of today’s sub-£2k motor, a Lexus GS 300, has two possible meanings. One is Grand Sedan, a phrase that makes an unwelcome appearance in Shed’s brain every time he claps eyes on the enormous electronically-reclining purple velour sofa of the same name that Mrs Shed put on his credit card two years ago and which he is still paying off to this day, long after the recliner motors gave up the battle and blew up.
The other meaning of the GS in GS 300 is Grand Sport. Shed has no idea what kind of sport could ever be classified as grand. Ferret racing up north is a possible example but he can’t confirm that as he has never been above the Watford Gap. He can confirm however that there is very little that is sporty about a Lexus GS 300, which is fine because nobody ever bought a GS 300 to put it through its paces on a racetrack.
People bought them because a) they wanted a Lexus and b) they couldn’t afford the considerably more wondrous LS 400. The 300 was very much the poor relation of those two but Shed makes an interesting point when he says that in 2023, nearly two decades after they stopped making these gen-two S160s, the percentage of good ones that he sees on sale feels higher to him than the percentage of good LS 400s. Buyers of used Lexi take comfort in the fact that Lexus employees have always been culturally predisposed to take just as much care in the construction of the company’s lowliest models as they do in the priciest ones.
Some say that the US version of the GS 300 was both more powerful (by 7hp) and lighter (by 70kg) than the UK version, this extra weight and un-extra power adding six-tenths of a second to the 0-62mph time and subtracting one mile an hour off the top end. The result for UK owners was an 8.2-second 0-62 and a 143mph top speed. If you like the sound of an acceleration time beginning with a seven you could get that by refusing to talk about anything other than the 0-60 time, which was 7.9 seconds. More than sufficient for the stereotypical Lexus owner, some of you may sneer.
Thing is though, in 2023 there is something mysteriously grand about a GS 300. This year-one, second-generation (S160) from 1998 is an SE, another of those alphabetty-spaghetti tack-ons which we all think might mean Special Equipment, and which puts it somewhere near the top o’ the range. That’s correct in Lexus Land as SE is one below Sport, which is the best spec because, well, it’s Sport innit. In equipment terms any GS was at least the equal of, and usually superior to, any comparable rival. Even today you’re unlikely to feel like you’re missing something.
The overall design wasn’t inspiring, as you might expect from something in which 150 designers reputedly had a presumably brief hand, comfort was clearly prioritised over handling and the cabin wood did a brilliant impression of plastic, but it was all very securely screwed together. Our shed has done 140,000 miles but you’d never know that from looking at it. Shed saw another S160 for sale online. From a distance at least it looked just like this one and it had 20,000 fewer miles than our car but when you got closer it looked like it had done 20,000 more. Even with that holding it back it was £300 more expensive than our £1,789 GS.
The pics taken in a mainly empty car park are appropriately businesslike or, if you prefer, dull. It’s hard to tell from that rather attractive green paint but the pics do appear to show a vehicle with no glaring bodywork faults. It’s been undersealed and most of the online MOT certificates going back to 2006 are predictably light on ink. Just 38,000 miles have been covered in the last 17 years and the current test runs to next July.
Elsewhere, the straight-six engine is famously reliable and the 5-speed auto works well with it but no car is perfect. MAF sensors sometimes need a cleanup and O2 sensors and VVT solenoids fail. Suspension ball joints wear out too, causing steering wheel squeak or in the worst case scenario causing the road wheel to crash into the wing. HVAC servo motors die, as do door lock actuators.
Other than that, and the ever-present danger of some bright spark wittily asking you if GS stands for Grand Sleep, Shed is happy to recommend this Lexus as an oasis of calm in a mad world.
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