The 2020 Lexus GS-F Is a Bad New Car, But a Great Used One

This is a 2020 Lexus GSF and it's just not all that good. It just isn't. It's a high performance Lexus sedan with not all that high performance but it does have a high price tag and very outdated technology. I would not buy one of these new but in a few years things may be a little different and today I'm going to explain what I mean. First a brief overview. Now the Lexus GS is a mid-size or large luxury sedan. I guess it's intended to compete with the BMW 5 series and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The current version of the GS has been on sale since 2012 so it's almost a decade old and it has no future. Like three days before I filmed this video Lexus announced that they are canceling the GS. They're not going to replace it to the surprise of no one as buyers switch away from sedans and into SUVs. The GSF is the high performance version of the GS with a big 5 liter v8 that makes 467 horsepower and about 390 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers were never all that competitive with the Mercedes E63 or the BMW M5 and they just keep getting weaker as the E63 and the M5 keep adding more and more power and the GSF soldiers along with the same exact engine. Right now compared to the E63 the GSF is down 140 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque which is just sad. In fact the GSF has less power than the C63 which is the next size class down. This thing has just been left behind by every other performance sedan and yet Lexus wants really big money for it. The GSF starts around $86,000 and that's before options which is 20 grand more than a base BMW M3 and that price is even more preposterous when you consider the technology which is just insanely outdated as I'll show you. This car makes truly no sense to buy new compared to rivals. It's slower, it's older, it has worse technology and it's really expensive. But there's one silver lining and that is that this is going to be a great used car. You see BMW M cars and Mercedes AMGs they're great if you get them new but as they age they start to develop problems. Sometimes considerable problems but this is a Lexus known for durability, reliability, longevity and they're starting to get cheap. The GSF came out in 2016 and right now early models are in the low $40,000 range if you look for one used which is a bargain when you factor in both performance and longevity. So today I'm going to review this GSF and I'm going to show you why you should never buy it new but why you should seriously consider buying it used. First I'm going to take you on a tour of the GSF and show you all of its interesting quirks and features then I'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then I'll give it a Doug's score. All right I'm going to start the quirks and features of the GSF and the place that matters the most for this particular car and that would be the engine. Like I said 5 liter v8 467 horsepower and about 390 pound feet of torque. Now the GSF came out back in 2016 and those numbers were considered pretty weak even back then but the argument always was well the GSF is cheaper than the M5 and the E63 so it also has less power corresponding to its lower price. That argument does hold some weight the GSF is definitely cheaper but it's not exactly cheap. Sticker price on this one right around $89,000 and that's big money to pay for zero to 60 in four and a half seconds. The E-Class AMG was doing that back in 2004 15 years ago and the GSF is doing it now as a new $90,000 car. With that said I must admit I love a naturally aspirated v8 like this one and I love the blue paint in the engine right in the center. It is a really cool look under here this high performance F engine even if it doesn't have that much power. And next we move up front in the GSF and I want to talk grill. Lexus's newest grill design has been rather controversial to say the least. I think it looks terrible in the SUVs when it's large and stretched but I think the GS is the best looking application of this grill. It looks pretty good and it really fits the character of this car particularly the F model. High performance, aggressive, bold and the grill is the right size for a sedan like this. It looks pretty nice. I also really like the running lights up here the angled check mark design. I think they really complement the grill and the kind of bold look of this car in general and I think it's a really nice touch. Another item I like on the outside of this car is the wider front fender and this fender vent which is a very distinctive feature that Lexus has used in all three of its F models. You saw it in the ISF in the RCF and here it is in the GSF. It's a really nice distinction letting you know that you're not looking at a normal Lexus but rather one of the true high performance cars. Unfortunately it now appears that the Lexus F brand might be dead. There hasn't been a new F model in about five years and there hasn't really been serious talk about Lexus coming out with a new one a full F model with more power and high performance upgrades like the GSF or the ISF or the RCF. But don't despair because F still lives on as the F sport trim level on other Lexus models. A purely cosmetic trim that's there to convince old people to buy more aggressive wheels on their RX hybrid. But as for an actual F brand with true performance models like this one it looks like F might not be around any longer and that means no more fender vents which is a shame. And next up we move around back in the GSF and you can see its most distinctive feature back here is the quad exhausts which are strangely oriented on top of each other. This was intended to be a Lexus F model hallmark going back to the original ISF. These quad exhausts stacked on top of each other to distinguish the cars further from regular Lexus models. The only problem was people didn't really like how it looked. Two exhausts on top of each other on either side. It was a bit unorthodox and there was some criticism but they kept it for the GSF although they toned down the look a little. Now speaking of the exhaust it sounds pretty good. Take a listen. That sounds good. Obviously no Mercedes AMG V8 growl or BMW M5 but it's decent which is kind of a theme of the GSF actually. Not an AMG or an M car but decent. And next we move inside the GSF and I want to start with one of my very favorite things in here and that would be the gauge cluster. First I think it's hilarious that the speedometer is kind of in the corner and tiny and the tachometer is right in the middle front and center and much larger like a Porsche or a track car because your speedometer doesn't matter if you're on the racetrack. This will undoubtedly satisfy the many people who are frequently going to racetracks with their GSF. What with its Mark Levinson premium surround sound system and its automatic parallel parking feature this is a fixture at racetracks across America. No but really the thing I like about this gauge cluster is that center tachometer and specifically what happens to it when I change the drive mode. All right right now I'm in normal and you can see it looks fairly standard. Go to the center console you have this large dial you turn it to the right for sport and then look what happens to the tachometer it becomes far more sporty and exciting looking. A lot of cars will change their gauge cluster a little when you go into sport mode but I really like how this one looks. Now you move that dial again to go into sport plus and again the tachometer changes quite a bit to really let you know that you're in a different drive mode. Although I have to say I actually prefer the look of sport with its white gauge face over sport plus. I think sport looks better but either way I love all of these different changes. And there's another important one if you move this center dial over to the left you can see that's where eco mode is and when you do that look what happens to the gauge cluster it totally changes to this bizarre display doesn't even show your revs instead it's really letting you know you're in eco mode. I love all of those changes they're comprehensive and they look cool. And by the way on the subject of the gauge cluster one item I really love in here if you turn the car off and you've accidentally left a window rolled down it will alert you it'll give you a window open warning which is a neat feature to have that way you don't walk away and accidentally leave a window open so someone can just reach in and grab something you will know because the car will tell you it's a good idea. And one other gauge cluster feature worth mentioning we go back to the center console and there's a button here marked t v d this stands for torque vectoring differential and if you push it you can choose between three different options for handling you have normal you have track and then you have slalom. I have never seen a slalom mode before in any car I've reviewed and frankly I think it's a little optimistic for this rather large luxury sedan but still you get to tell people that your car has a slalom mode and the LaFerrari does not. But anyway moving on to the rest of this interior another thing I like in here is just how nice everything is even though this car is old and it really shows it in some places the interior is beautiful great materials everywhere a lot of alcantara nice stitching the dashboard the center console everywhere you look. I also love these red sport seats with their very distinctive contours and stitching it makes this car feel special. All the materials everything in here really nice exactly what you'd expect from modern Lexus models. Unfortunately this car also includes another item that you would expect to find in modern Lexus models and that would be the infotainment system. You have this screen in the center which is controlled by this little controller thing in the middle. Lexus calls this the remote touch interface and it is truly confounding frustrating annoying difficult bad basically any awful adjective you want to use. The problem here is that you can't just tap what you want like every other automaker's touch screen instead you have to use this little controller and scroll over to where you want to go on every different menu which is an issue because it can take a while to get where you're trying to go. For example right now I'm on the navigation map and let's say I want to change some setting in the car so I have to press the back button in the center no problem and then navigate over to settings with this little mouse controller thing but you can see it's hard to be precise and sometimes you overshoot your destination so eventually you click on that but then you still have to use this little mouse controller to go through various different menus until you get what you want and it's just hard to click on exactly what you're looking for. You end up overshooting or going past it or going a little too far to the left or right and it's just not easy and it requires a lot of time taking your eyes off the road just to babysit that you're touching the right thing. Now Lexus developed this system in the days before cars used good responsive touch screens and it made sense then. This mimicked a computer mouse which we were all already familiar with but now touch screens have gotten so good so easy and so many people are familiar with smartphones that this system needs to go. It's ancient and I personally believe it is the hardest to use infotainment system in the entire car industry. Lexus stubbornly holds on to it because they spent so much money developing it even though Toyota uses a touchscreen system that is way simpler. They should just cut their losses, ditch remote touch, adopt Toyota's infotainment system and make it way easier to navigate these already complicated infotainment systems. And making things even more confounding in here, Lexus really wanted to copy BMW M cars with the GSF but maybe they went a little too far because this car has the confounding BMW turn signals. You put on the right turn signal and it stays on but the stock goes back to its normal position. So you push it again to turn it off and it stays on. That doesn't turn it off. You push it halfway up to turn it off and that doesn't turn it off either. The way to turn off the right signal is to push the stock down for a left signal except don't push it too far down because then the left signal comes on and you have the exact same problem. It is incredibly annoying. BMW has abandoned it and Lexus really should too because I hate it. But I don't want to be too negative because there are some cool things in here too like for example automatic climate control seats. In your car you turn on the heated seats to whatever temperature you want. In this car you turn them on and they default to auto. So the car will control the heated seat temperature providing you with more heat when it's cold and less heat as it starts to warm up so you don't have to babysit the temperature yourself. Same deal with the cooled seats. They will also turn on auto and then kind of change depending on how warm or cool it is inside the car. That is a pretty nice high-end feature. And speaking of climate controls another thing I like in here is the climate control temperature display screen. It has this cool font. Doesn't look like that old clock font that a lot of cars use. Much more modern than you might expect. And next up another cool item in here on the dashboard you can see it's a mixture of traditional plastic and also carbon fiber and alcantara on the top with nice blue stitching for the F brand. But the thing I like the most is the little screws that hold things in place say Lexus on them in very small print. That is precisely what Pagani does with its little screws proving the attention to detail of the GSF. I joke about it but actually I do think those screws look pretty cool. And next up another item I like in here is the heads-up display. A lot of cars have them but I like how this one integrates the tachometer into the heads-up display. It's a cool look and in my mind it's what you'd expect from a performance car. Easy visibility of your tachometer. I love to see it there. And next up we move into the back of the GSF which is pretty roomy. I have good room for my knees, my legs, my hips, my head. There's a lot of space back here. Not really a surprise considering this is a fairly large sedan the size of a 5-series or an E-class like I said and bigger than a 3-series or a C-class. The other important thing to mention back here and something you notice immediately is that once again the materials are fantastic in the back. It really is beautiful back here. Again I love the red sport seats with their distinctive stitching and I especially love that it has the F logo on the headrest textured. Most automakers don't carry front seat items like that into the back but they've done so here as you might expect for $90,000. But anyway everything just looks really nice back here. With that said there are many examples of this car showing its age all throughout the interior but a good one is back here you only have a cigarette lighter style outlet for charging. You don't have USB back here. Some automakers are even going to USB-C for the back seats but Lexus is like two generations of charging outlet behind showing this car's age. And next up probably the strangest quirk in back both rear seats have access to their own individual ashtray. They're on the doors and you can see the lid but when you open it the lid expressly warns you not to smoke. This is an ashtray that tells you no smoking. It would be like if your shoes had no walking signs printed in them where do you go to put them on. It's very strange but I guess this isn't an ashtray at all instead it's just a little storage compartment sized and shaped exactly like an ashtray. And finally we move on to the trunk in the GSS starting with the trunk lid which surprisingly is not power operated. Another example of this car's age because every Mercedes or BMW now has a power trunk at this price point but the older Lexus GS does not. But anyway you get into the trunk and you can see it's just a trunk nothing unusual nothing weird back here but here it is in case you want to know what the trunk looks like in a Lexus GSF. And so those are the quirks and features of the 2020 Lexus GSF. Now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives. All right driving the GSF. First thing you notice when you get in this car the interior really is nice it's a nice place to spend time it really is beautiful like I mentioned earlier. When you really get on it uh I have to say it is disappointing it's not all that fast 0-60 in four and a half seconds that's pretty quick but for $90,000 there are cars for half the money that have most of the features that do it uh in the same time that have similar performance it's just not really that quick of a car and it's dulled by this transmission uh which is I guess an eight speed automatic it's slow to downshift uh definitely more of a Lexus style transmission designed for relaxed upshifts uh cruising and when you floor it in this car it does take a second for the transmission to really do what it needs to do to downshift to let you get going truly to me this car feels oldest in the way that it drives not the technology not the way it looks although those things are dated but the way that it drives the slow shifting transmission the kind of low horsepower for what what it is and what it costs and also the handling the car handles okay but it's soft around corners a lot of automakers have been able to really create adaptive suspension that can make the cars feel fast in corners and yet also comfortable this one they definitely went more for comfort there's no doubt that this is a good car good horsepower good interior good technology just none of that stuff is great and I get that it's cheaper than its rivals but it's still $90,000 it's an enormous amount of money and I just can't justify spending that kind of money knowing I'm getting something that isn't really great which is why to me this is a great used buy for $45,000 or $50,000 this car makes a lot more sense than it does at 90. Now I will say the steering feels pretty sharp they do a good job of that especially compared to what you expect from Lexus you have a quick reaction when you turn the steering wheel it's reasonably precise the problem is not with the steering the problem is with the way that the car handles it's a heavy car it feels pretty big interestingly throttle response is pretty good but not as good as it is in some of the modern turbo cars and when these turbos first started to proliferate I never thought I would say that I'm driving a naturally aspirated car that doesn't feel like the throttle responses is good but some of these turbos they've done such an amazing job with getting them to feel strong and quick right off the line overall to me it's pretty simple with this car buy one of these used and if you're nervous about getting a used car Lexus has a great certified pre-owned warranty with no mileage limit you can beat the hell out of this thing and enjoy a performance car and that is what I would do if I was nervous about getting an M5 or an M3 because of reliability well here's your opportunity it's not as good as those cars doesn't drive as well but it will last longer and it's almost as good and it's comfortable and it's beautiful and it's a really good car ultimately just not a $90,000 car and so that's the 2020 Lexus GSF don't buy this car yet if you spend almost $90,000 on one of these when so many better options exist you're making a truly questionable decision but if you get one used in a few years when it's a lot cheaper it might just be a brilliant move yes your friends with BMW M5s will laugh at you when they beat you off the line but they won't be laughing when you have to drive them around because their car is in the shop a used GSF is a great way to get a luxury sedan and a reliable sedan and a decent performance sedan all in one and not overpay for it or worry about reliability troubles anyway now it's time to give the GSF a Doug's score starting with the weekend categories and styling the GSF looks good not over the top beautiful but nice and it gets a 6 out of 10 acceleration does 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds and gets a 7 out of 10 handling is okay right on the cusp between decent and good it gets a 5 out of 10 fun factor is a little higher it's pretty fun just not excessively so like some other performance sedans and it gets a 6 out of 10 cool factor is average these aren't that special or cool or next up are the daily categories and features it's got a lot of good tech but it's missing some of the latest gadgets and remote touch is confounding it gets a 7 out of 10 comfort is normal for this class and it gets a 7 out of 10 quality is good reliability is excellent of course and materials are generally very strong with only a few exceptions and it gets an 8 out of 10 practicality is normal for the segment and it gets a 5 out of 10 finally value and this just isn't a very good one it's okay but it'll be a much better value for 40 to 50,000 when it's used and it gets a 4 out of 10 for a total daily score of 31 out of 50 added up and the dug score is 60 out of 100 which places it here against rivals pretty much dead last the GSF is just outclassed which is no surprise considering the GS came out nearly a decade ago basically everything here is newer better performing and in many cases cheaper