Mother Proof's view

The 2009 Lexus GS 460 and I never understood each other. From our first meeting to our final goodbye, both of us felt rather put-upon, to use some Thomas the Tank Engine lingo. The experience made me realize the GS 460 isn’t a good fit for my mommy lifestyle.

Lexus offers the GS as a sport sedan, and the 460 is the baddest of the bunch. It has an old-school muscle-car feel to it. A massive V-8 engine under the hood delivered a lot more power than I needed, and thanks to a sport setting that I never managed to turn off, it leapt forward at the slightest caress of the gas pedal.

That same supersized engine is super thirsty, too. The GS 460 gets an EPA-estimated 17/24 mpg city/highway, but I averaged only 12.6 mpg during my test week. That’s a lot lower than the EPA’s estimate for the GS 460, but I can explain the discrepancy. I admit that I have a lead foot, especially in sporty cars, but I also live on the side of a mountain, so I’m always zipping around twisty, hilly roads, which seems to negatively affect the mileage in most of the cars I drive.

The GS 460’s ride is firm and sporty but not too hard. While it’s low to the ground, it’s not too low to handle speed bumps and driveways without much difficulty, but I had to stretch to reach the drive-through window.

I never figured out the GS 460, which is probably fine with Lexus given this mama clearly isn’t the target audience for this sport sedan. I’m pretty sure the GS is intended for older men, and I’ll go so far as to say that the GS 460 could be part of an older man’s attempt to recapture his youth. This mama felt out of place just sitting in it.

Exterior

The GS 460 is a good-looking car. It takes the elegant lines of a Lexus sedan and pushes the cabin toward the car’s rear. There aren’t a lot of ridges or lines cluttering up the body, so the GS maintains some simplicity, which I liked. A chrome strip along the bottom of the doors and around the windows brings some sparkle and richness to its profile. The low-profile 18-inch alloy wheels offer a glimpse of this car’s performance capabilities.

The GS 460’s rear is modern and sporty. A small spoiler lifts off the trunk, and the rounded taillights seem race-inspired. Small parking sensors are visible along the bumper; they’re slightly unsightly, but not too obvious. A small “shark fin” antenna sits atop the rear window, and dual stainless-steel exhaust tips peep out from under the car’s corners.

The GS 460’s front is an odd combination of Lexus gentility and sportiness. The grille is vintage Lexus, but a lower front air scoop with fog lights is edgier looking. The whole thing seems disjointed to me, but that was true of my driving experience, as well.

The doors open fairly wide, and since they are also fairly heavy, they can be hard to close. My kids really struggled with them, especially when we were parked on a hill. The car sits low on the road, which means that getting in requires a downward movement. Getting out isn’t exactly graceful either, what with the heaving and grunting involved, although my children had no problem hopping in and out of the GS 460. Lexus has a great Easy Entry system that moves the steering wheel and seat back when the car is turned off to give the driver more space to do the aforementioned heaving and grunting. Of course, I’m not a very graceful person, so perhaps that was just me.

SENSE AND STYLE

Family Friendly (Not Really, Fair, Great, Excellent): Not Really

Fun-Factor (None, Some, Good Times, Groove-On): Good Times

Interior

The GS 460’s interior looked like a men’s club. My test car had black-colored leather seats with red walnut wood and brushed aluminum trim. This black-on-red color scheme really creeped me out. It reminded me of Dracula’s living room, although sometimes I had flashes to the outfits worn by ’80s hair bands. Visibility was a problem with the GS 460’s high-set windows; they also don’t allow a lot of light in. With the retractable rear sunshade in place, the interior stayed cool and dark.

There are so many buttons in the GS 460 that you have to hunt for the one you want. I can’t figure out why Lexus needs separate buttons for opening, closing, tilting up and tilting down the sunroof, as well as multiple controls for the audio system. More buttons for adjusting the side mirrors and controlling the trip meters are concealed in a drop-down panel to the left of the steering wheel. On the plus side, the 7-inch touch-screen is standard, even without the optional navigation system. The Bluetooth system was easy to set up and worked like a charm. With all that technology, it felt like a NASA cockpit in there!

The wide leather seats are a bit firm for my taste, but they’re 10-way power-adjustable as well as heated and cooled. While there’s adequate storage in the GS, with a nice dual-level center console and fold-out door bins, there aren’t any open trays where you can set things like cell phones or other small, loose items. I often set my phone in the cupholder, but it was difficult to keep items at hand with only four cupholders and no bottleholders in the car.

In the rear, the molded seats made it hard for my booster seats to sit flat, and the recessed seat belt receptacles were difficult for my kids to use, especially if the rear armrest was down. The armrest houses two pop-out cupholders but no storage. There’s room in the backseat for three to sit across, but not three booster seats. It’d be really difficult to fit a rear-facing infant-safety seat in the backseat, especially if you had tall adults sitting in the front seats. The Latch connectors were difficult to get to in the GS 460.

My backseat setup was to have one child in a booster seat along with two older kids who used the seat belts. Everyone had plenty of room, but only after they managed to find the recessed receptacles. The rear seat belts were a major frustration of mine.

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

Storage Compartments (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Fair

Cargo/Trunk Space (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Ample

Safety

Lexus loaded the GS 460 with tons of safety features, but what impressed me most was the number of airbags in the GS 460. It comes standard with front, side-impact airbags for both rows, side curtain airbags for both rows and knee airbags for the driver and front passenger. That’s impressive.

The GS 460 comes standard with adaptive xenon high-intensity-discharge headlights that swivel in the direction you’re driving. It also comes with antilock brakes, electronic stability control and traction control.

The pre-collision system, which is part of an optional package, uses laser cruise control to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you; it also helps determine if a crash is imminent and takes steps to prepare the car’s safety systems. Park assist is also available. I found this feature to be more annoying than helpful; it beeped at me even when I was safely maneuvering around parking lots and in my driveway.

FAMILY LIFESTAGE

In Diapers: Molded rear seats and buried Latch connectors make child-safety-seat installation a struggle in the GS.

In School: Little hands have a hard time with the GS 460’s heavy doors and recessed seat belt receptacles.

Teens: The GS 460 has plenty of legroom, impressive performance and a premium audio system to appeal to teens.