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AUTO REVIEW

2016 Lexus GS-F

By Steve Schutz, MD

  The Germans have the upper hand in the         To their credit, Lexus realized years ago       turbo four-cylinder engine, a 3.0 turbo V6
U.S. luxury car wars these days. When it       that those bonafides were important but not       is rumored, and they’ve launched two BMW
comes to sales volume, Mercedes is first,      sufficient to hold the wandering eyes of cus-     M/Mercedes AMG-esque F cars, the RC-F
BMW second, and Audi is fourth and mov-        tomers, who have noticed that the Germans         coupe and GS-F sedan.
ing rapidly toward possibly taking over the    (and the Americans and Brits) have also
number three spot from former number           learned how to make reliable vehicles that          Thank you Lexus! We all understand that
one, Lexus. And don’t forget Porsche, which    don’t creak and rattle. So Lexus changed,         the Japanese, like the Americans and Eng-
is riding a wave of success driven by their    first with more assertive exterior styling, then  lish, don’t have autobahns and therefore can’t
two popular SUVs, the Cayenne and              with better tech, and now with improved           really compete with the German manufac-
Macan.                                         powertrains.                                      turers in that arena. But hey, give us some-
                                                                                                 thing, which Lexus is now doing.
  So Lexus is doomed right? Not by a long        OMG finally! While Mercedes/BMW/
shot. They actually had a big 2015, with       Audi/Porsche have been wowing us for years          OK, on to the GS-F, which is a nice car
344,601 sales, a 10.6 percent increase over    with turbos, double-clutch transmissions,         but not really a direct BMW M5 or Mer-
2014, and they’re poised for a similarly       diesels, hybrids, and even more turbos,           cedes E63 competitor. Why not? It has less
strong 2016. A broad lineup of SUVs and        Lexus countered with, umm... more hybrids,        horsepower — 467 versus 560 and 550, for
crossovers — including the best-selling lux-   but that’s kind of it. At the exact time that     the M5 and E63 respectively — and much
ury vehicle on the market, the RX crossover    gasoline became cheaper than bottled water.       less torque, resulting in slower 0-60 mph
— is the main reason Lexus can’t be counted    Not good timing.                                  times (4.4 sec compared with 3.7 and 3.4 for
out, but unbeatable build quality, robust re-                                                    the M5 and Merc). The reason for that dis-
sale value, and excellent customer service       Naturally, Lexus knows all this and are         crepancy is that, instead of a cutting edge
certainly help.                                working diligently to correct the problem.        twin turbo V8, Lexus is going with a nor-
                                               Two years ago they introduced a 2.0 liter         mally aspirated 5.0 liter V8 coupled with an

44 San Antonio Medicine • September 2016
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