Well as I mentioned previously, my uncle was going to buy a new Lexus IS, so we went in today and ordered the car. While I was at lexus I had a chance to crawl inside the new GS and take it for a drive as well.
The exterior is nice, if somwhat generic japanese bland. But the interior quality was absolutely amazing. Huge leaps and bounds ahead of the older lexus's in style and materials, and it puts our E to shame as well. The Lexus touch screen system IMO is absolutely superb and much better than command. Touch screens are awesome. The car also drove extremely well. Quiet, extremely smooth and at our Australian higway speeds wonderufully stable. It would be my pick over our airmatic equipped E320. It also had Lexus's version of Distronic cruise control and it worked very very well. I've never tried out MB's system so I cant compare.
Now the part that I simply cannot comprehend is the equipment that these new lexus's are loaded with. They come with absolutely everything at an AMAZING price.
* Keyless go (a 2000 dollar option on mercedes here)
* Distronic cruise control (6000 MB option)
* Lexus presafe system
* Harmon Kardon Logic 7, 14 speaker sound system (2000 MB option)
* Navigation (5000 option on MB's if its not standard)
*Bluetooth compatible (MB still hasnt figured this one out
)
* Climate controlled seating (2000+ MB option)
* Rear view camera (judging from european specs, I doubt even the new S-class is going to have this as standard)
I just dont understand how they could possibly do this at the prices they are asking for. The car is loaded with stuff that costs you an obscene amount in extra optioning on any of the Germans. They get so much equipment standard, that you pay squillions for on a NEW S, 7 or A8. I don't care what anyone says, MB, BMW and AUDI simply cant go on like this. And at the rate their development is going, their cars are looking better and better every year and drive extremely well now, I walked away with a newfound respect for Lexus. I'm praying the new Lexus460 or whatver it's going to be looks great. My dad is seriously interested in the New S, but I will be urging him to wait to see what Lexus comes up with for the new LS. I can just imagine it coming with gismoz galore, looking good, having outstanding build quality etc. at a price MB would never in a million years be able to match.
Am I going CRAZY?
P.S. sorry for my slightly incoherent post, but I just can't get across how dumfounded I am. Somebody please restore my german faith.
lol.