Taste Of Lexus Event (gs450h Test Drive)

[irieblue]

I'm surprised I haven't seen any comments on the "taste of lexus" event held in San Francisco on Sept 30/Oct 1 (it was more like oakland with a view of the San Francisco city outline in the distance). They were literally thousands of people at the event , most received a direct invitation and brought along a guest or 5, to test drive all of Lexus's cars on a coned off course on what could best be described as a massive parkling lot. Lexus gave me the impression in the confirmation email that I had a confirmed 2 PM time slot, however I stood in line for 50 minutes to test drive the GS450h (90 minutes to test drive the LS460L)

I'm beginning to think the GS450h is more of a marketing tool for lexus than a produc they really want to succeed . Lexus supposedely has only manufactured 900-1000 of the GS450h's on a global basis. The Trunk volume is a measly 7.5 cubic feet. The car weighs 4100 lbs, in northern CA it's impossible to test drive the car at a dealership as they don't have demo units.

I did drive the GS450h to the absolute limit . On several parts of the course I could hear the chirping of the VDIM kicking in. Try as hard as I could, I couldn't get the rear of the car to break away. In fact the GS450h has this huge tendency to understeer (i.e it keeps wanting to go straight even after you have turned the wheels ). I could also feel the sheer mass of the car being transferred foward under heavy braking.

[RX400h]

It sounds like something I would enjoy as well, as long as it is held during the weekend. Waiting for 50 minutes, however, is something I wouldn't want to do - same reason I don't like going to Disneyland anymore.

I guess the LS600h wasn't there?

[jpinkett]

I'm surprised I haven't seen any comments on the "taste of lexus" event held in San Francisco on Sept 30/Oct 1 (it was more like oakland with a view of the San Francisco city outline in the distance). They were literally thousands of people at the event , most received a direct invitation and brought along a guest or 5, to test drive all of Lexus's cars on a coned off course on what could best be described as a massive parkling lot. Lexus gave me the impression in the confirmation email that I had a confirmed 2 PM time slot, however I stood in line for 50 minutes to test drive the GS450h (90 minutes to test drive the LS460L)

I'm beginning to think the GS450h is more of a marketing tool for lexus than a produc they really want to succeed . Lexus supposedely has only manufactured 900-1000 of the GS450h's on a global basis. The Trunk volume is a measly 7.5 cubic feet. The car weighs 4100 lbs, in northern CA it's impossible to test drive the car at a dealership as they don't have demo units.

I did drive the GS450h to the absolute limit . On several parts of the course I could hear the chirping of the VDIM kicking in. Try as hard as I could, I couldn't get the rear of the car to break away. In fact the GS450h has this huge tendency to understeer (i.e it keeps wanting to go straight even after you have turned the wheels ). I could also feel the sheer mass of the car being transferred foward under heavy braking.

I also attended the "Tastes of Lexus"; however I was disappointed about the lack of orginization. I scheduled an appointment for 4:00PM because that was the only time slot available. When I arrived, 15 minutes early as requested, it was obvious that I was probably not going to get a chance to test drive the GS450h.

I stood in the GS line for 15 minutes, then swithched to the LS460 line and stood for 30 minutes, but left before test driving either vehicle. Very disappointment in the lack of organization...not immpressed, even though I own 2 Lexus.