LEXUS GS450H Review

Summary:

What we like: Performance, Silent

What we don't like: Small boot

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LEXUS GS450H review in detail:

Lexus boasts that its GS450h is the world's first mass produced rear-drive hybrid passenger car. Performance hybrid used to be an automotive oxymoron. But with the introduction of the 2007 Lexus GS 450h, it now makes sense. The focus of this Lexus is squarely on performance.

This is one of the hardest-accelerating saloons every built, being able to jump from standing to 100km/h in just 5.5 seconds.

Yet typical fuel consumption is roughly similar to what you would anticipate from a good six-cylinder car, around the nine to eleven litres per hundred kilometres range.

The GS450h mates a highly efficient 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine to a 650-volt electric motor. Most of the time that the Lexus is stationary the petrol engine is switched off.

When you drive away gently, the Lexus GS450h can be a pure electric car at low speeds, with the the petrol engine starting automatically when more power is needed.

The only real drawback of the hybrid layout is that you lose about half the boot as the front section of it is taken up by the battery.

The Lexus hybrid is very reasonably priced as the company is able to absorb some of the costs in its research and development budget.

Stability control, traction control, ABS, emergency brake assist and every airbag possible (including dual front knee bags and side curtain bags) come standard, as do headlight washers and a park assist system. Optional is Lexus' Pre-Collision system that uses the dynamic cruise control system's radar to identify an impending impact and automatically tighten up the seatbelts and prime the brakes for emergency brake assist (meaning full braking power is applied once the driver hits the pedal). In the IIHS frontal-offset and side-impact crash tests, the similar Lexus GS 300/430 posted ratings of "Good," the highest possible.