New to the GS, anything I should know?

Ala Larj · April 6, 2017

Hi all,

Have just put a deposit down on a 2014 GS 300h Premier. Is there anything dodgy I should be aware of?

Have just traded in my IS 220 which I loved and was looking for a 2014 IS 300h but saw the GS, took it for a drive and was hooked!

Cheers,

Ala

Ten Ninety · April 6, 2017

Not sure what you might mean by 'dodgy' really! If you're talking about common faults I'm not aware of any, but these cars are still pretty young yet.

There's a few things I don't like about mine. The sat nav is utter garbage, but that's to be expected. Auto wipers, auto lights and auto main beam are all terrible, but all can at least be switched off. Adaptive suspension isn't soft enough when not in Sport+ mode. Finally, road noise is not as well suppressed as it should be for such a large car.

Other owners will disagree with some or all of the above, especially the last one. I still love the car, anyway.

Premier spec is probably not worth the extra expense on any rational level, but who buys cars rationally? It was the only choice for me for a couple of reasons. First, the head-up display is very useful for hypermiling which is how I get my kicks these days (67mpg is my current best for a 32-mile commute). Second, the 18-way seats are amazing - notably better than the other specs - for anyone with a dodgy back like me. And my wife loves the passenger-seat ottoman!

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine - the complaints I mention above are far outweighed by the positive sense of well-being this car seems to bring on when I'm in it!

Ace8800 · April 10, 2017

Hi buddy, welcome to the GS club, i did exact the same.. went looking for a IS300h but ended up with a gs300h, mine is a F Sport. I cant really say there is a common fault, lexus are fairly bullet proof. You wont be disapointed in your choice.

Ala Larj · April 10, 2017

Thanks Ten Ninety and Ace8800. Good to hear. Was asking because although I really liked my IS 220 it was renowned for little issues such as creaky dash and problems with EGR and DPF. All of which I had. The Premier was only choice I had as it was all the dealer had! Am looking forward to collecting it tomorrow. On first impression when we took it for a test drive it seems a step up from the IS quality wise. Off on a long weekend to Belgium from Thursday so hopefully will get a good feel for it. Am a bit concerned about the Sat Nav as that was pretty good and accurate in the IS. Not too bothered about auto wipers, auto lights and auto main beam as I prefer to do these myself when conditions suit. The two things I'm really looking forward to are the ML stereo (can you call it that with 17 speakers!) and seats although reckon it might take me a while to get it right with so much adjustment!

rayaans · April 10, 2017

28 minutes ago, Ala Larj said:

Thanks Ten Ninety and Ace8800. Good to hear. Was asking because although I really liked my IS 220 it was renowned for little issues such as creaky dash and problems with EGR and DPF. All of which I had. The Premier was only choice I had as it was all the dealer had! Am looking forward to collecting it tomorrow. On first impression when we took it for a test drive it seems a step up from the IS quality wise. Off on a long weekend to Belgium from Thursday so hopefully will get a good feel for it. Am a bit concerned about the Sat Nav as that was pretty good and accurate in the IS. Not too bothered about auto wipers, auto lights and auto main beam as I prefer to do these myself when conditions suit. The two things I'm really looking forward to are the ML stereo (can you call it that with 17 speakers!) and seats although reckon it might take me a while to get it right with so much adjustment!

Sat nav is accurate but make sure you go through the settings beforehand. Some of them may need changing.

The ML equaliser may also need adjusting as well - some people don't know it exists and therefore don't change it so it sounds flat

Auto lights are perfect - the sensitivity can be changed which is good if you want it to come on when it's darker or lighter outside.

Auto wipers can be awkward though

Ala Larj · April 10, 2017

3 hours ago, rayaans said:

Sat nav is accurate but make sure you go through the settings beforehand. Some of them may need changing.

The ML equaliser may also need adjusting as well - some people don't know it exists and therefore don't change it so it sounds flat

Auto lights are perfect - the sensitivity can be changed which is good if you want it to come on when it's darker or lighter outside.

Auto wipers can be awkward though

Thanks Rayaans, what settings would you suggest need changing? Am supposed to be going to Belgium on Thursday - don't want to be ending up in Spain!

Ten Ninety · April 10, 2017

6 hours ago, rayaans said:

Auto lights are perfect - the sensitivity can be changed which is good if you want it to come on when it's darker or lighter outside.

If you think they're perfect then I'm guessing you don't live near any roundabout flyovers / bridges next to junctions and you don't drive at dusk/dawn.

Combine those factors and the auto lights are positively dangerous. They will come on when you pass into shade and with the HID 'flash' it makes it look like you're flashing other vehicles out from the junction. After a few near-misses I didn't touch mine again.

Adjusting the sensitivity should stop this, but sadly it doesn't. If there was a setting which included a prompt for confirmation, that would be perfect!

6 hours ago, rayaans said:

The ML equaliser may also need adjusting as well - some people don't know it exists and therefore don't change it so it sounds flat

Heretic!

2 hours ago, Ala Larj said:

Am supposed to be going to Belgium on Thursday - don't want to be ending up in Spain!

Enjoy your trip! To be fair, the Nav's probably just about good enough to get you to the right country.

rayaans · April 10, 2017

33 minutes ago, Ten Ninety said:

If you think they're perfect then I'm guessing you don't live near any roundabout flyovers / bridges next to junctions and you don't drive at dusk/dawn.

Combine those factors and the auto lights are positively dangerous. They will come on when you pass into shade and with the HID 'flash' it makes it look like you're flashing other vehicles out from the junction. After a few near-misses I didn't touch mine again.

Adjusting the sensitivity should stop this, but sadly it doesn't. If there was a setting which included a prompt for confirmation, that would be perfect!

Heretic!

Enjoy your trip! To be fair, the Nav's probably just about good enough to get you to the right country.

Mine are kept on the lowest setting and never caused me any issues.

Ive driven plenty of cars with auto headlights including the Germans and they all work in exactly the same way turning on under bridges and the like unless you're going fast enough (perhaps thats where you're going wrong? )

3 hours ago, Ala Larj said:

Thanks Rayaans, what settings would you suggest need changing? Am supposed to be going to Belgium on Thursday - don't want to be ending up in Spain!

Make sure you check it over to ensure that someone hasn't put something daft like "avoid motorways" or something like that. Every other setting for the nav is personal preference like the view, volume of the commands etc.

With the ML, I prefer sticking the bass to max, mid range +1 and Treble -1 but thats purely subjective. You have to do this for all sources such as USB, CD and radio as well and sound quality varies between them - Ive found radio to be the worst (expected) and USB to be the best unless you're into making DVD-Audio's which are better still.

TBH you should be fine with the nav - its accurate and its got me to my destination 100% of the time.

Ala Larj · April 10, 2017

Thanks all. To be honest I've nothing against Spain and judging by the forecast for the coming weekend I'd be better off there!

spacenase · April 10, 2017

3 hours ago, rayaans said:

Mine are kept on the lowest setting and never caused me any issues.

Ive driven plenty of cars with auto headlights including the Germans and they all work in exactly the same way turning on under bridges and the like unless you're going fast enough (perhaps thats where you're going wrong? )

Mine are also on the lowest setting but will come on going under a tree on a sunny late afternoon. They also come on going under any bridge. My previous car was a Skoda and that was much better. I think the difference is that the Skoda waits for a second or two before deciding whether to turn the lights on, that would give you time to pass under a narrow bridge or a tree without them coming on. I think this is what the Lexus system needs. It would also be nice to be able to turn the auto lights off and let me choose for myself.

I also can't find the right setting for the wipers, I think the setting I want is somewhere between the first and second setting. If I set them to anything other than low sensitivity they seems to be constantly trying to wipe a screen that's dry. If I put them on the lowest setting, as I speed up they decide to wait until the screen is covered until wiping. I've found that flipping between the 2 settings gives me a reasonable compromise. By comparison, I rarely had to change the setting on the Skoda, except in extreme conditions.

Having said that, it's a much nicer car than the Skoda and I can forgive it these relatively small problems.

Jamesf1 · April 11, 2017

Points Id agree with:

Sat nav is fiddly - but to be fair I never read the manual and dont use it that often

Auto wipers - never seem to be quite where I want them in terms of sensitivity

Road noise - can be too loud for this class of car on some road surfaces. However, mine had semi budget tyres fitted which are quite worn now, when I change it will be to decent tyres so that may help

dont agree with:

auto lights - I find them absolutley fine, never need to manually do anything. Cant remember what sensitivity I have them set on.

Only issue I have is a noise from the drivers door over bumps, which I think is the window seems a bit loose ie when closed can move around a little. Ill get the dealer to take a look at service time

Overall I love the car

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

Thanks all. Have now collected it and am grinning from ear to ear. Definitely a step up from the IS quality wise. Am enjoying playing with all the toys bar one. Have just put about 500 albums on a USB stick but can't find an easy way to find any particular album. It seems to start off in A and I then have to scroll through the list. I reckon I'll be in Belgium by the time I get to Zappa. Maybe I should go to Spain instead!

Does anyone know an easy way to find folders without scrolling?

Farqui · April 12, 2017

Nice one Alan, get some pic's up for us

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

I will Farqui, once I've got ZZ Top playing in the background!

rayaans · April 12, 2017

1 hour ago, Ala Larj said:

Thanks all. Have now collected it and am grinning from ear to ear. Definitely a step up from the IS quality wise. Am enjoying playing with all the toys bar one. Have just put about 500 albums on a USB stick but can't find an easy way to find any particular album. It seems to start off in A and I then have to scroll through the list. I reckon I'll be in Belgium by the time I get to Zappa. Maybe I should go to Spain instead!

Does anyone know an easy way to find folders without scrolling?

Im not sure if this is true for the GS but my wife's IS has a section where you can put the first letter from a choice of 3 i.e. ABC, or DEF.

I think the 2013 GS has the same system as my 2012 RX which won't have that function. However, the easy way to scroll without looking is with the button between the home and menu button

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

Have just been tinkering and have discovered that by highlighting an album name and clicking on it I get the screen that you mention Rayaan. Then it's just a matter of clicking on the ABC bit (or in my case the XYZ) to get a list of bands (or albums). Looks like it's Frank Zappa all the way to Belgium. Oh, the wife's going to love that!!

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

On 10/04/2017 at 4:46 PM, Ala Larj said:

Thanks all. To be honest I've nothing against Spain and judging by the forecast for the coming weekend I'd be better off there!

Actually thinking about it could do with a spot of rain to test those auto wipers!

Ten Ninety · April 12, 2017

3 hours ago, Ala Larj said:

Thanks all. Have now collected it and am grinning from ear to ear. Definitely a step up from the IS quality wise. Am enjoying playing with all the toys bar one. Have just put about 500 albums on a USB stick but can't find an easy way to find any particular album. It seems to start off in A and I then have to scroll through the list. I reckon I'll be in Belgium by the time I get to Zappa. Maybe I should go to Spain instead!

Does anyone know an easy way to find folders without scrolling?

In iPod mode, you can click a 'Browse' button and that gives access to the ABC screen which Rayaan mentions above. From there, you can get to Zappa and ZZ Top rather more quickly, either using Artist or Album selection.

However, a brief check of the manual suggests that this 'Browse' button is not shown when using a USB connection! Instead, the manual suggests you click on an album name and that displays the ABC selection screen instead, which sounds spectacularly unintuitive and is therefore probably correct for Lexus. I haven't tried this, so I can't say if I'm reading it right, but it might be worth a try.

Roll on the day when all cars have Carplay or Android Auto and we don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense any more.

Edit: Never mind, I see you found it yourself. Happy listening!

Edited April 12, 2017 by Ten Ninety
Ninja'd

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

Thanks Jay. Was playing with it and found out what you suggested. Definitely not intuitive. First time I did it I couldn't remember what I'd done as it happened by accident. Took me a while to work it out!

Read your reply quickly and thought you said "Roll on the day when all cars have Coldplay" - God forbid!!

Ten Ninety · April 12, 2017

God forbid, indeed! My wife once bought a Coldplay album. We nearly divorced. Mind you, I suspect it was just revenge for me inflicting 'Ship Arriving Too Late' on her one too many times.

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

I've got plenty of Zappa albums on the USB so she won't get bored!

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

7 minutes ago, Ala Larj said:

I've got plenty of Zappa albums on the USB so she won't get bored!

That's my wife I'm talking about Jay, not yours!

rayaans · April 12, 2017

1 hour ago, Ten Ninety said:

In iPod mode, you can click a 'Browse' button and that gives access to the ABC screen which Rayaan mentions above. From there, you can get to Zappa and ZZ Top rather more quickly, either using Artist or Album selection.

However, a brief check of the manual suggests that this 'Browse' button is not shown when using a USB connection! Instead, the manual suggests you click on an album name and that displays the ABC selection screen instead, which sounds spectacularly unintuitive and is therefore probably correct for Lexus. I haven't tried this, so I can't say if I'm reading it right, but it might be worth a try.

Roll on the day when all cars have Carplay or Android Auto and we don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense any more.

Edit: Never mind, I see you found it yourself. Happy listening!

Makes sense - I usually listen to music on my USB in the RX

My wife uses the ipod!

Ala Larj · April 12, 2017

Right, last question before I head off into the sunset. Does it have one or two reversing lights. T'missus said only one was on when I reversed into the drive. From a distance it looks like two but on closer inspection they both look different. Am I going insane (as Ozzy would say)?