After you pop the trunk on the GS300, should it raise automatically or do you have to manually raise it? I have to manually raise mine after it's released.

You have to manually raise it. It's not like the RX rear doors which can open and close automatically.

--Duckman

Ok, good to know. But it seems that I have to put a bit of muscle into raising the trunk. I assumed it would be easier to raise. Then when it's about 3/4 of the way up, it raises the rest of the way on it's own. I don't know, it just seems that there's a bit of resistance on the trunk if that makes sense.

The struts will put up some resistance in addition to it being a sleightly heavy piece of metal. nothing to wory about.