2013 Lexus GS 350 Long Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Lexus GS 350 Long Term Road Test

Sitting in my hotel room in Van Horn, Texas, I decided the 2013 Lexus GS 350 can handle the 909-mile drive between here and home in one shot.

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agentorange

The normal cruise becoming inactive because of the sensor is unacceptable. Total deal breaker.

jpnpower

Hey Edmunds (the site not you Dan), I love eveything and all, but you've yet to revive two main factors that made INSIDELINE so special. Those are, 1)Donna's ReadersRides 2)Everybodys' favortite Straightline. Also, I want my paragraphed comments back!

throwback

Dan, you are a road warrior. I'm liking this Lexus more with each post, I would however NEVER get adaptive cruise control.

fordson1

You're not supposed to use cruise in a situation like this - low traction, uphill, summer tires...if T/C DOESN'T override the cruise soon enough (the manual for this car says it will cancel cruise only if T/C is "activated for a period of time" - also just says don't use cruise on slippery roads...), you have a problem - in trying to maintain road speed, it will spin you out. Same thing with stability control - it will just kill cruise control as soon as you start to go sideways...unless of course it DOESN'T kill cruise as soon as you go sideways, in which case it will spin you out or at least give you a nasty scare. Winter rookie/sunbelt resident error. It's possible your inability to engage cruise saved your bacon, Dan.

actualsize

@fordson1 You might have missed my point. I attempted to engage cruise only after I came down out of the freeze zone onto roads that were merely wet. At this point there was no T/C or ESC intervention aspect. I had decent traction again.

@throwback I

fordson1

Yeah, looking at the post again, you're right, Actualsize - I'm wrong. Your comment about no topographic info being available on nav systems is very apt, I must say...all the advancements in nav systems are in the area of real-time traffic, linking with other data like phone numbers of businesses, etc. I would like nav systems to be more like maps - I want to look at the area and PLAN my trip - not just let the nav system pick a route for me. The move to larger screens will help with this, but until I can see topo information and elevations, maps will be superior for trips of any real distance. I understand that liability concerns play into this...they don't want me looking at any real high-res images while I'm driving, and that's a concern. Here is a thought...how about allowing that kind of view only when the car is stopped, OR if the front passenger seat airbag is activated per the seat sensor - ? Conditions when it's safe for the driver or passenger to get his head a foot in front of the screen and really study it. For adaptive cruise...I just don't like it, and I have a car with it. Anything that makes it easy to pay less attention to driving when the roads are at their most congested is just a bad idea.

quadricycle

@fordson1: Maybe the Audi and Tesla systems that use Google Earth would be more to your liking since they might be simpler to adjust and plan (I'm assuming). I'm still undecided on big, in-car screens. I really like a clean and simple interior, and of cou

subytrojan_2

Most excellent LT entry and story-telling, Dan! :thumbsup: