New Car Review of the 2005 Lexus GS Mid-Size Luxury Sport Sedan

Description: Premium Mid-Size Sedan
Base MSRP Range: $38,875 - $47,975
Invoice Price Range: $34,208 - $41,736
Where built: Japan

Sports sedans under the GS label contain high-output engines and high-tech handling gear for world-class performance and Lexus-style luxury. The exterior design, with wheels pushed outward to extremities and radical sheetmetal panels of curves and flat faces worked around a form with blunt nose and tail, features a powerful face with unusual oval headlamp clusters flanking a classy front grille.

Concealed behind the slick skin, sophisticated engines for the pair of GS models shape their sporty personalities. The ultimate edition -- GS 400 -- stokes the twin-cam Lexus 4.3-liter V8 rated at 300-hp. A second version -- GS 300 -- gets a dual-cam 6-cylinder plant with in-line layout and displacement of 3.0-liters to muster 220-hp. Both cars employ the Lexus electronically-controlled automatic transmission, which has five forward gears and intelligent shift logic..