Sweet Ride

I must admit, as much as I love cars, I've never been much of a Lexus fan. Toyota's luxury division has always produced fairly good looking vehicles but they've always been too much luxury, not enough road enthusiasm to me. The LS430 has always been a beautiful sedan with a plush, executive look and feel to it. That's probably what that car should be. But as you moved down the line to the smaller Lexus models, they all contained a bit too much of the LS model's DNA. The ES has never been a favorite and I have never liked the SC. The IS- while sporty- never appealed to me either, though the new second generation of the model is a big improvement. The GS, on the other hand, has always intrigued me but I had never had a chance to really take a good look at one, or more importantly, test drive the model.

Say hello to Manny! That's my father and his beautiful 2006 GS430, both in front of his northwest Las Vegas home. If I didn't care much for Lexus before, I do now. Folks, in the words of South Park's Eric Cartman, this car is "super sweet!"

Late last year, Dad traded in his fourth generation ES300, which I never liked much, for this fine machine, a third generation GS. When he first told me about it, I couldn't believe he had done it. Not so much that he got the new car. I get my love of cars and the desire to drive the latest and best from him. But, I didn't think an 80 year old man needed all that power under the 430's hood. A GS 350 would have sufficed. Well, the car is something else. In addition to a great engine, the GS430 has some outstanding features. And, since I love gadgets, I'm in heaven everytime I get in the thing.

First, there is no key. Just a key fob. As long as you have that key fob in your pocket, when you walk up to the car and touch the door handle, it unlocks. When you get in, all you have to do is push a button and the car starts. It has a satellite navigation system that keeps you from getting lost. It's voice command activated and interacts with Bluetooth enabled cell phones. The climate control is completely automatic. The audio system is state of art Mark Levinson Premium Surround Sound with a 6-disc, in-dash CD/DVD player and 14 speakers! Also, the seats have active ventilation to keep your back cool on hot days, warm on those cold ones.

This list of features goes on and on. But the real joy is putting your foot on the accelerator. When you do, the car really takes off thanks to 319 lb-ft of torque from the 4.3 liter V-8 engine. Smooth, fast and sporty. Just the way I like it.

If I were to buy a Lexus, this would be the one. It's truly h-o-t, hot!

Oh, Good Evening!