Gs450h Owner's Review

[speedyg]

Car is super quiet and much smoother than the RX400h (no thunks when engine kicks in), acceleration is outstanding. But for those who enjoy the sensory excitement of quick acceleration combined with the sounds and vibrations of a powerful engine at redline, the GS450h will feel a little lacking.

The run-flat tires that came with my car are Bridgestone Turanza ER33's. Haven't driven enough to have a strong opinion on these, but I think I will replace them with something better in the future.

The brakes are much better than the ones in the RX400h. Not grabby, none of the pulsing you feel in the RX during regenerative braking. Haven't tested the stopping distance yet because the manual says to "avoid sudden stops" during the first 186 miles. The engine break-in period is 621 miles.

Throttle control is also better than the RX400h's. Press lightly and the car leaps forward. No pause before you get full power. The pedal resistance also seems to be adjusted better, might be a 2 stage type of thing because it seems to be easer to modulate the accelerator pedal to stay on electric-only power. Maybe it's just my imagination but so far it seems like I need to press very slightly harder to cross the threshold from electric-only to electric+gas.

The active stabilizer can't be turned off. So far it seems to work well. Can't tell that it is on. The car seems to handle well, but does feel weighty compared to my BMW 330i. I'll make final judgement after taking the car on some windy roads.

The PCS and radar cruise control is awesome. With regular cruise control I find myself constantly enabling/disabling cruise, accelerating and braking when the cars in front slow down or when another car cuts in front of me. With the radar cruise, all I have to do is hold the wheel. When a car cuts in front of me, the car automatically slows down and speeds up to maintain my chosen following distance. If there are no cars in front of me it maintains my chosen speed. The accel/decel is gentle and smooth (unless a car cuts very close right in front of you, in which case warning beeps go off and the GS450h then slows down more abruptly. )

The GS450h cabin lighting is way too dim, especially if you have a black interior. If I drop something dark colored at night in the car, even with all the cabin lights on I would need a flashlight to find it. I suspect this is a problem in all late model GS'es. I do like that the lights are more focused though. In my RX400h if you turn on a map light it kind of glares in your face. In my BMW 330i and GS450h the map lights are focused.

There is a pollen filter / micro filter button that I had never seen or read about before, but it's a bonus since some members of my family have pollen allergies. Pushing it causes the car to go into a 30-second filtration mode.

The Gen5 voice recognition is pretty cool. You can say state names, city names, street names, house numbers, etc. The system understands when I say the names of nearby cities, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get it to recognize my city.

The ML/Gen5Nav allows you to watch DVD movies, but only if the parking brake is engaged. I was sitting there in my car last night trying to figure out why I could hear the audio but not see the movie :) There are 3 screen width modes and basically you have all the standard DVD player controls (can use menus, make selections, pause, select chapters, etc).

I wish the nav system voices could be changed/customized :) The Gen5 system seems to use 2 different female voices now, plus a computer-like voice. One of the female voices is the same as what is used in the Gen 4 nav, which is pleasant. It is used to give directions. But the newer female voice that you hear when you hit the talk button on the steering wheel isn't as nice in my opinion. Fortunately there is a setting that allows you to hear a beep instead of the voice prompt, which reduces to frequency that you have to hear that voice.

The trunk is tiny, but I was expecting that so it doesn't bother me (not yet anyway.) If I need to carry any suitcases I will use my RX400h. My GS450h came with the preferred accessory package so it has the cargo net and trunk mat. Since I have the active stabilizer, I have the tool kit but instead of a spare tire I have the stabilizer battery and motor. Supposedly that helps even further to get the weight balance towards 50/50.

According to the manual, the trunk lid is supposed to close it self when you lower it halfway but it doesn't. I saw another GS and it also had the same behavior. Does anyone have a GS where this works like it says in the manual? I can't detect any power assisting the closing of the lid, only latching the lid.

The fold-out control panel by the driver's knee isn't as intrusive as an early preview had led me to fear. I think I can leave it opened without banging into it. But if you have really long legs you might have a problem.

Cabin headroom doesn't seem to be a problem. I'm 5'10" and there is an inch or two of clearance, similar to what I have in my BMW 330i.

The bump in the middle of the back seat isn't as obtrusive as I feared, it's a slight bump. But that middle seat would be really uncomfortable to sit in anyway because of the very high drive shaft tunnel "hump".

Front seats are ventilated but if you wear thick pants I don't think you'd be able to feel it. Plus the fan is audible so I've been preferring complete silence and keeping the ventilation off. I suppose if I was wearing shorts and the weather was super hot the ventilation would be nice.

The AVS has Sport and Norm settings. I can tell the difference. I keep it on Sport. But it's still less firm than my 330i with sport package.

The Power/Hybrid/Snow switch I've only tried in the Power and Hybrid positions so far. So far I can't tell what the difference is, feels about the same to me.

The car has hill-start assist control according to the manual. For starting the vehicle on an incline or slippery slope. Haven't had opportunity to test it.

More info after more driving :)

[Legacy400h]

Cabin headroom doesn't seem to be a problem. I'm 5'10" and there is an inch or two of clearance, similar to what I have in my BMW 330i.

Not a problem? In a luxury car costing that much, I would say it IS a problem if there's only an inch or two for a 5' 10" driver. Quite a few of us are well over 6 feet tall.

[SW03ES]

I'm 6'1" and I had plenty of headroom in the GS I drove, it wasn't a 450h but it shouldn't make a difference.

[RX400h]

Car is super quiet and much smoother than the RX400h (no thunks when engine kicks in),

I'm not sure about your RX400h, but our RX400h's electric/ICE transition is virtually imperceptable - no clunking at all.

The run-flat tires that came with my car are Bridgestone Turanza ER33's. Haven't driven enough to have a strong opinion on these, but I think I will replace them with something better in the future.

Runflats are a mixed blessing - peace of mind is offset by harsher ride and resulting side-stepping during high-speed cornering. I got rid of the Corvette runflats after 16,000 miles.

The brakes are much better than the ones in the RX400h. Not grabby, none of the pulsing you feel in the RX during regenerative braking.

We must have an exceptional RX400h, as its braking is smooth and progressive - no pulsing or grabbing at all.

Throttle control is also better than the RX400h's. Press lightly and the car leaps forward. No pause before you get full power. The pedal resistance also seems to be adjusted better, might be a 2 stage type of thing because it seems to be easer to modulate the accelerator pedal to stay on electric-only power. Maybe it's just my imagination but so far it seems like I need to press very slightly harder to cross the threshold from electric-only to electric+gas.

The GS does have quite a bit more power, so I would expect that. However, the RX's power progression is very acceptable to me, and I also drive a 375 HP vehicle that weighs only 3200 lbs.

That being said, I think this is a great review - thanks!

[skyfish400h]

The PCS and radar cruise control is awesome. With regular cruise control I find myself constantly enabling/disabling cruise, accelerating and braking when the cars in front slow down or when another car cuts in front of me. With the radar cruise, all I have to do is hold the wheel. When a car cuts in front of me, the car automatically slows down and speeds up to maintain my chosen following distance. If there are no cars in front of me it maintains my chosen speed. The accel/decel is gentle and smooth (unless a car cuts very close right in front of you, in which case warning beeps go off and the GS450h then slows down more abruptly. )

I was very disappointed that this was not offered on the RX but that was before they went from laser to radar sensing. Radar should be more versital in terms of beign able to sense a larger space in front of the car as well as its function in poor visiblity conditions.

What I've not been able to get an answer on is how well the braking function works and what sort of speed envelope the cruise control work under.

Does this system have a lower speed threshhold where it turns off? Does it beep or something to let you know it s no longer working? Will it keep braking up to that threahold (or beyond?)

I take it the braking function will not bring the car to full stop if the traffic ahead is a parking lot..True?

In LA a system that could operate all the way down to 0mph would be, as you say, awesome.

[brianlbailey]

It may be a stupid question, but I don't know if there are different types / wavelengths of RADAR....... If PCS uses RADAR (or a type of RADAR), does that mean that you really could not use a RADAR detector with this system installed?

Could it also mean that your PCS system is causing the speeders to slow down?

[speedyg]

Radar cruise min speed: According to the manual the radar cruise only operates down to 25mph, but I haven't tested how slow it will go yet. I think Mercedez-Benz is the only make that has a cruise that operates down to 0mph.

Radar wavelength: supposedly different wavelength than radar detectors but I am 100% positive about that. Haven't noticed any cars slowing down when I show up behind them yet :)

Headroom: I like to sit fairly upright, so if you recline more you'd have a little more headroom.

Brakes vs. RX400h: Within a month of getting my RX400h, I learned how to brake smoothly. But new drivers will almost definitely experience the pulsing (deceleration not smooth) until they learn how to modulate the brake pedal. The GS450h doesn't have this problem.