If you’re liking Lexus’ progressive new design direction as much as I am, and sales numbers show that you are, you’re going

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to be happy the Japanese premium brand has given its E-segment fighting GS sedan a stronger dose of spindle juice for 2016.

It’s only a mid-cycle update, but the latest GS has certainly added swagger to its strut thanks to more complete adoption of the marque’s L-finesse 2.0 design language that now includes a larger, deeper more eye-catching grille, an aggressively complicated lower fascia, vertically stacked LED headlamps, checkmark-shaped LED driving lights, more complex LED taillights and other visual refinements, the look especially pleasing in uprated F Sport trim. That’s how Lexus shipped my latest tester, a car that had me at hello.

It’s

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difficult to remain unbiased when a vehicle or brands’ styling grabs your heart, mind and soul as effectively as Lexus’ latest lineup of cars and SUVs has done with mine. Rather than my weeklong tester seeming like a cubicle in a dingy newsroom I’m feeling as if I’ve suddenly been promoted to a corner office with a view of the harbour below and mountains above, complete with an upgraded 27 inch iMac with Retina 5K display sitting next to my new Samsung S7 Edge and Gear VR atop a new Cattelan Italia Vega desk, a Herman Miller Eames Executive Work Chair under my seat, an 85-inch Samsung Ultra HDTV hanging on the opposite wall playing an HD download of next months’ Australian Grand Prix.

Truth

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be told I would never have associated Lexus with such ultimately upscale brands and products previously, but now its cars are as cool as a mash-up episode of Mad Men and Suits with Harvey Specter somehow representing Don Draper, no doubt in a DUI, although this analogy might not be the best to contemplate while reviewing a luxury car. After all, its cabin is way beyond the parlour club ambience Draper visits to contemplate life while drowning himself in old-fashioned martinis or Canadian Club after hours, it’s as modern as anything from the Bauhaus era with my F Sport tester sporting zero hardwood inlays, instead boasting beautiful diamond-patterned grey metal trim across its instrument panel, lower console and doors, complemented by stunning satin-silver accents most everywhere else, plus inky piano black surfaces elsewhere, perforated and solid contrast stitched leathers

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in key areas, and hardly a trace of hard plastic anywhere, the GS incorporating the best quality soft-touch synthetics from top to bottom. Likewise its electronic interfaces are amongst the best in the biz, the mixed analog and digital primary gauges perfectly uniting the two technologies and long, lean and large infotainment display hovering overtop the centre stack as state-of-the-art as anything fastened to four wheels.

Do you think it’s just better value that’s allowed Lexus to storm ahead of Audi in the U.S., where last year’s sales were dangerously close to upsetting BMW for second place? The numbers read 372,977 units sold for Mercedes-Benz, 346,023 for BMW and 344,601 for Lexus, Buick fourth with 223,055 deliveries and Audi fifth

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with a scant 202,202. Yes, you read that right, Audi is a comparative no-show and BMW just 1,422 vehicles ahead of Lexus, whereas Toyota’s luxury division is doing so with way fewer models. Just wait and see how its sales will grow by continuing to add to its lineup like it did last year with the new NX compact SUV and RC sports coupe, the already announced LC 500 set to add yet more buyers next year and a seven-passenger crossover plus new subcompact and compact models expected in the near future. Here in Canada Audi is still number three with Buick hardly in the running, the numbers showing Mercedes leading with 43,810, BMW in a clear second with 35,002, Audi with 26,754, and Lexus just 4,729 units behind at 22,025 sales. The gap is narrowing, but as it appears not as rapidly.

Lexus

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buyers continue to enjoy some of the best reliability in the industry, the brand still number one by a long shot in J.D. Power and Associates esteemed Vehicle Dependability Study and once again rated most reliable in the 2016 Consumer Reports Brand Rankings, just to name two, but this is nothing new, as is its impressive materials quality and rare levels of refinement. Now Lexus’ pragmatic past combines with said style and superb road manners for an altogether more complete sport-luxury package, good enough to drive its sales to new heights by attracting previously unattainable clientele and at least as importantly keeping long-term Lexus’ faithful fans coming back for more.

Those road manners are improved upon via my F Sport model’s gorgeous machine-finished twinned five-spoke 19-inch alloys with grey-painted pockets, my tester

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shod in 235/40 Pirelli SottoZero rubber, sticky for winters, while Lexus upgrades the F Sport yet further with a “track-tuned” suspension featuring an Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS) for improved handling and a better ride that borders on sublime. I suppose that’s what I love best about today’s Lexus, a newfound ability to balance already renowned opulence with engaging performance, this F Sport model a step above the base GS 350 AWD and noticeable notch below the fabulously entertaining GS F.

While I’ll delve into that 460 horsepower super sedan in a future review, the 311 horsepower GS 350 AWD is no slouch off the line or when powering out of an apex, let alone saying so-long to a slow moving highway truck on a lonely two-laner. It’s stock with 280 lb-ft of torque, plenty for spirited takeoff while that number

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is up 3 lb-ft from last year and the aforementioned horsepower increased by 5, plus its proven six-speed automatic with paddles performs well considering its down two gears when compared to most rivals, as does its standard all-wheel drive. Still, despite the 3.5-litre V6 being strong for a base engine I could see some wanting more power and gears, especially with Tier 2 luxury brands such like Cadillac lurking in the background, its CTS an impressive E-segment entry boasting new twin-turbo V6 power bridging the gap to an even more potent super sedan entry in its CTS-V, plus others from Infiniti to Jaguar that would love to take a piece out of Lexus GS, even though sales in this entire class are hardly stellar.

As you can probably guess Mercedes leads this segment with its E-Class, but it’s an

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unfair comparison because last year’s 3,162 Canadian-market total included the E sedan, coupe, convertible, wagon, and the CLS four-door coupe, while BMW came in second with 1,996 examples of its 5 Series sedan and Gran Turismo liftback, plus it sold another 490 6 Series Coupes, Cabriolets and four-door Gran Coupes for a total of 2,486 E-segment sales. Believe it or not, third place was taken by the 2,406-unit strong Hyundai Genesis sedan that only gets mentioned in this luxe crowd due to that model getting premium Genesis brand status this coming year along with a new G80 nameplate, whereas the other segment shocker was the fourth-place all-electric Tesla Model S with 1,780 sales during 2015, not only beating the Audi A6 that could only find 990 new buyers but also its platform-sharing A7 four-door coupe with 787 sales, the Audi E-segment total being

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1,777 deliveries. Cadillac almost did as well as Audi in the four-door sedan segment with 921 CTS sedans sold, whereas Jaguar found 466 XF buyers, and Lexus only managed to attract 390 GS customers. Below this was the Infiniti Q70 at 217, Acura RLX at 182 (although I’m not quite sure if it really qualifies for this class), the Lincoln MKS at 172 (probably mostly sold to Ford-Lincoln dealer principals), and the long-in-tooth Volvo S80 with 62 sales (give them points for tenacity).

I’d like to believe this latest mid-cycle makeover will be enough to boost GS sales to a level the car deserves, the new design looking more like the sporty IS sedan and less like the more comfort-oriented ES which should help in this class, while the GS F adds street cred, but I’d be stabbing in the dark. The fact is the E-segment

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shrank for all models listed except the M-B CLS, the Tesla and a handful of new Infiniti Q70 buyers. Compare these numbers to mid-size crossover SUVs produced by the same brands and its easy to see where the money’s being made, Lexus’ RX the top selling individual model with 7,063 units sold across Canada last year.

Truth be told if we didn’t have the American market next door a lot of these models would’ve been axed years ago, as there’s no viable business model for selling cars in the mere hundreds for the prices being asked. That said the GS is a bargain when it comes to purchasing both prestige and exclusivity, its small sales resulting in a car that’s 4.5 times less likely to be seen than a Tesla Model S. The latter

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are growing like weeds in most of Canada’s major cities where free and/or cheap plug-in access is plentiful, but this doesn’t mean that a plug-in GS 450h or even an all-electric version would sell in the same numbers. Unfortunately for Lexus the premium mindset doesn’t work like that, nor does it purchase logically.

I could give you a hundred reasons why the GS 350 AWD is a better choice than the equivalent E-Class, 5 Series or A6, but buyers in this class purchase for prestige more often than not, which means that even Tier 1 luxury brand status, which Lexus has clearly earned in the U.S. at least, won’t be enough to see GS sales rise all that much. Nevertheless I’d like to speak to your left-brain for a moment (not the right-brain that actually still believes in the right vs. left brain theory

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that was debunked years ago). For just $56,550 plus freight and dealer fees you can drive away from your local standalone Lexus dealer in a 311 horsepower GS 350 AWD, compared to $56,900 for a 252 horsepower four-cylinder powered Audi A6 2.0 TFSI Quattro, $60,500 for a similarly non-potent 241 horsepower four-cylinder BMW 528i xDrive, or $64,500 for a V6-equipped yet hardly bahn-storming 248 horsepower M-B E 300 4Matic. See what I mean about logic? I’m not going to go into detail comparing features with these three Germans, but suffice to say the GS 350 AWD comes with many more standard goodies than just its powerful V6.

A list of standard features includes auto on-off bi-LED headlights with auto-leveling, LED daytime running lights, machine-finish 18-inch alloys, Drive Mode

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Select, rain-sensing variable intermittent wipers with a de-icer, auto-dimming and heated power-adjustable side mirrors with integrated LED turn signals, proximity-sensing access with pushbutton ignition, an electromechanical parking brake, a universal garage door opener, aluminum doorsill scuff plates, LED interior ambient lighting plus LED map lights and LED rear reading lamps, a heatable leather-wrapped steering wheel with paddle shifters, a leather-wrapped shift knob, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, a larger 4.2-inch colour TFT multi-information display, dual-zone auto HVAC, the larger 12.3-inch infotainment system noted earlier with navigation, a rearview camera featuring active guidelines and Lexus’ older joystick style Remote Touch Interface (RTI) with new “Enter” buttons for easier prompts, 12-speaker audio with satellite radio and Bluetooth streaming audio, an updated dash-mounted analog clock with LED indicators and automatic time zone adjustment

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via GPS that comes housed in a single ingot of aluminum, heatable 10-way powered front seats with driver’s side memory, leather upholstery, a powered glass sunroof, a cargo area mat and cargo net, tire pressure monitoring, a first aid kit, plus 10 standard airbags including dual front knee blockers and rear side-thorax airbags. Go ahead and compare this standard list against what you get with any of the Germans and you’ll see that the GS offers loads more for less money. Again, this is all left-brain thinking.

You can upgrade further with a $4,450 Premium package that adds premium LED headlamps, power-folding side mirrors, air-conditioned front seats, clearance and backup parking sensors, a powered rear sunshade, a powered trunk lid, and blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, or you can opt for either the $13,400 Executive

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package or my tester’s $12,700 F Sport Series 2 package (there is no Series 1 package available so don’t ask), both of which include most of the same luxury features except for a woodgrain trimmed and leather-wrapped steering wheel, Climate Concierge system with rear seat controls, 18-way powered front seats with butterfly headrests, passenger-seat memory, heatable rear outboard seats, premium leather upholstery, and manual rear door sunshades in the Executive model that the F Sport trades off for its sharper styling details and performance equipment already mentioned plus special F Sport doorsill plates, an F Sport shift knob, aluminum dash accents, aluminum sport pedals with rubber inserts, a three-spoke F Sport steering wheel, and unique F Sport leather upholstery overtop an upgraded 16-way powered driver seat including lumbar support. The two packages’ shared equipment includes everything from the Premium package as well

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as 19-inch alloys (albeit different styles), an adaptive variable suspension, premium LED headlamps with auto high beams, a head-up display unit, dynamic radar cruise control, a 17-speaker Mark Levinson audio upgrade, a pre-collision system, and lane departure alert with steering assist.

As you can imagine I never felt like there was anything lacking, although not everything worked as well as with others in the segment and some items were much better. For instance, as mentioned the infotainment system’s RTI was the older design that I personally don’t like as much as the new touchpad, but it worked well enough when using the new enter buttons (trying to push down on top of the wiggly toggle to make entries is an exercise in futility), while the wide-screen display it connects to is one of the largest I’ve seen next to a Tesla Model

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S, but I like the Lexus’ horizontal layout much more and its resolution is incredibly clear. Under a nice set of audio controls and CD slot for the Mark Levinson audio system, that sounds fabulous incidentally, is a nicely organized dual-zone auto HVAC interface with three rows of buttons and dual displays next to driver and passenger temperature toggles, all just as effortless to use as it’s easy on the eyes.

In describing the centre stack I probably got ahead of myself as the customizable primary instruments are superbly done too. Lexus incorporates metal-look circular dials for a traditional design, although within those dials it’s a pure TFT digital delight with some of the sharpest and richest looking graphics in the industry. The large centre dial is a tachometer that makes subtle graphic changes when moving between Normal, Eco, Sport and Sport + modes, while the smaller right dial incorporates

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temp and fuel gauges. To the left is a large multi-info display with too many functions to list, all controllable via the steering wheel switchgear.

That steering wheel is a beautiful bit of performance oriented kit, it’s rim wrapped in both solid and perforated leather that’s stitched together with light grey thread, its nicely indented thumb spats feeling good and finger flickable paddles even more engaging. The only more appreciated human-machine interface is the upgraded GS’ F Sport driver’s seat. The 16-way office chair mentioned earlier delivers excellent support and superb comfort, but on the negative the heatable front seats only get warm, not hot, and the heatable steering wheel trains you to put your hands at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions because it doesn’t heat anywhere else.

These

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are forgivable sins from a car that should be much more popular than it is, but I believe the much improved styling changes should get the 2016 GS attention it richly deserves, at which point its top-tier convenience, luxury and tech features, along with its superb interior, over the top refinement, excellent ride, more than adequate performance and great value for money spent will allow it to catch up to some of its peers on the sales charts. Until then you can enjoy ultra-premium levels of exclusivity and Lexus’ legendary reliability, while I’m pretty sure you can also work out a much better deal than its already attractive list price. Beware, however, as this is a winning combination that could cause an internal brain battle. Whether ego, i.e. emotional intelligence or lack thereof and the right side of your head win over your smarter left lobe will be a personal experiment in luxury purchasing patterns. Good luck with that, as the money you could be saving by purchasing a GS 350 AWD F Sport rather than one of its competitors could be padding your portfolio with some undervalued gold stocks or numerous other temporarily devalued investments. It’s one thing to make money and an entirely different thing to keep it, after all.
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