SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


Mini test: 2012 Lexus GS 350 EX

Subdued, classy and elegant

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday September 1, 2012

The engine: Toyota’s 2GR-FSE engine is a 3456cc, V6 with 60-degree die-cast aluminium block and aluminium DOHC heads with four valves per cylinder. The D4-S fuelling system combines direct- and traditional port injection. This combination enables more precise mixing of air and fuel under low and medium load conditions for greater efficiency, then switches to direct injection alone for maximum power on high demand. In this application the engine develops 233 kW at 6400 rpm and 378 Nm at 4800 rpm. It is mounted front to rear and drives the back wheels. Transmission is a six-speed electronically controlled torque converter automatic.

The body: This fourth generation Lexus is dimensionally the same as before. A redesigned chassis and reworked suspension with mainly aluminium components helped reduce mass and provide a more engaging drive. It is 4848mm long on a wheelbase of 2850mm, 1840mm wide and 1455mm high. The redesigned interior gains the Lexus Remote Touch mouse controller system in place of the previous touchscreen, linked to a split-view 310 mm widescreen dashboard display. Other interior features include occupant-adaptive air conditioning and a 12-speaker surround sound system. Ten-way powered front seats with warming and cooling functions are standard, with three memory settings for the driver’s chair. Suspension is by means of double wishbones in front and a multi-link setup at the rear.

Safety equipment: This includes everything you expect at this price level – ABS with EBA and EBD, stability control, traction control, hill start assist, side and rear sonar, reverse camera, ten airbags and ISOFix anchorages. Even the rear brake discs are ventilated.

The experience:  You simply walk up to this car, pull the driver’s door handle and get in. It’s reassuring late at night or when you have had to park somewhere you might usually prefer not to. All it takes is that the electronic “key’ be with you. Slide into the sumptuous light tan leather seat and prod the start button once. Your seat, mirrors and the steering wheel resume their pre-programmed positions and the engine fires. All you need to do is finish putting on your seatbelt and get ready to go.

On the move, you appreciate the GS 350’s effortless power, how quiet it is and how smooth the ride is. High winding turbochargers are all very well, but there is something about the ease with which a free-breathing bigger engine gets things done, that just feels right. And do you want to be the one who pays to replace a blower after the warranty expires? Probably not.

Depending on how you feel or the circumstances of the moment, you can select one of the optional driving programs offered apart from the default Eco mode that sets itself for normal daily driving. Normal, Sport and Snow settings provide different degrees of accelerator and steering response to suit various needs. Manual override of the automatic gearbox’s selections is possible via the central lever or paddles behind the steering wheel.

Lexus does luxury just as well as any of the German products and possibly even more discreetly – the interior is subdued, yet classy and very elegant. The toys, from satnav to music and warning systems are all there, without adding the price of a small car to put in afterwards. It isn’t a wallowing tank either. Lexus sedans have moved on. Modern versions handle very well indeed yet do so without rattling the fillings out of your teeth. Civilised is a good word.

They sell like hot cakes everywhere except South Africa, but then our males fixate on a handful of boring old brands. Pity, because they don’t know what they’re missing.

The numbers:
Price: R564 900
Engine: See text
Zero to 100 km/h: 6,3 seconds
Maximum speed: 235 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 11,9 l/100 km
Tank: 66 litres
Warranty: 4 years/100 000 km
Maintenance: Lexus Distance Plan Plus – 4 years/100 000 km

To see the launch report and more technical detail, click here



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.