Car sales are down – that fact is resonating across the automotive industry with each month’s sales figures, and luxury brands are no different. But that is not to say passenger cars are bad, in fact they are the best they have ever been, and this 2017 Lexus GS 350 F Sport is no exception.
2017 Lexus GS 350 F Sport/Images courtesy Lexus
The current Lexus GS luxury performance sedan is a little more than half way through its life cycle that we typically see for automobiles with the current platform arriving as a 2012 model. For 2016, Lexus gave the lineup some updated styling (including that big grin of a grille up front) while also adding the 200t turbocharged four-cylinder engine to the mix. For the 2017 model year they have upped the engine power of the GS 350 V-6 while also adding limited-slip rear differential and making the Lexus Safety System+ standard.
Our tester, as mentioned above, is the 2017 GS 350 F Sport rear-wheel drive sedan. It is powered by the Lexus 3.5-liter V-6 that now produces 311hp and 280 lb. ft. torque. All-wheel drive is available on the GS sedan but our tester featured RWD via eight-speed automatic transmission with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. Lexus throws in the Drive Mode Select so drivers can operate the vehicle in Eco, Normal, Sport, or Sport+ modes. Yeah, my week was spent mainly in the last two drive modes. The GS 350 rides on front independent double-wishbone and independent rear multi-link suspension systems and yes, we did have the limited-slip rear diff.
