2006 Lexus GS Road Test

The new GS moves this agility quotient up a notch or two, at the very least. Lexus used the new BMW 5-Series as a benchmark

Does the Lexus GS 430 truly handle as well as a benchmark BMW 545i? (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

car, and its obviously biased but nevertheless conservative engineers who were on hand to help answer questions, feel that it matches the "ultimate" sport sedan in every respect; a claim that they believe has been earned through internally testing the two models back to back.

So my job, among other things, is to critically assess if the Lexus GS engineers are blowing hot air, simply deluded, or actually on the mark. Does the GS 430 truly handle as well as a 545i? After the better half of a day on a circuitous route throughout Vancouver Island, capped off with a high-speed slalom, and various safety tests, I have to say I'm impressed. Without driving the GS back to back with the 5 on the same road surfaces, conditions, temperature, etc, it's impossible to tell which one is sportier

The Lexus achieves 100 km/h in a scant 5.8 seconds in 300-horsepower GS 430 trim, 0.3 seconds quicker than the more powerful BMW 545i. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

dynamically, per se, but I wouldn't dare write the Lexus off as the loser as it might just be BMW's equal.

One performance test that is more quantifiable, or at least the factory numbers are available to compare, is acceleration from zero to 100 km/h. In this test Lexus, a brand that like BMW is known to rate its cars conservatively, achieves 100 km/h in a scant 5.8 seconds in 300-horsepower GS 430 trim. This is 0.3 seconds quicker than the more powerful 545i, needing 6.1 seconds to manage the same velocity. Even the 245-horsepower base GS 300 manages to sprint from standstill to 100 km/h more sportingly than its BMW 530i rival, at 6.9 seconds compared to 7.2.