Lexus GS F goes on sale in the UK - costs £69,995

Lexus GS F goes on sale in the UK

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The Lexus GS F – the Lexus answer to the BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E63 – goes on sale in the UK and costs from £69,995. First UK cars February 2016.

The new Lexus GS F arrived first at the Detroit Motor Show at the start of the year and only now, after a European debut at Geneva in the spring, does the Lexus answer to cars like the Mercedes AMG E63 and BMW M5 go on sale in the UK.

At just a fiver under £70,000, the GS F isn’t cheap, but it’s a bit cheaper than the M5 (which costs £4k more) and nearly £5k cheaper than the E63 Mercedes, and it also gets a naturally aspirated 5.0 litre V8 – which is also rather appealing.

With 471bhp, it’s a long way short of the 550bhp or so the M5 and E63 generate, but it puts it to good use in the performance stakes, with 0-62mph taking 4.6 seconds on its way to a top speed of 168mph.

You can also play a lot with what the GS F delivers, with a choice of Normal, Eco, Sport S and Sport S+ modes, another three modes for the Torque Vectoring Differential – Standard, Slalom and Track – as well as the input of Lexus’s Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM) which co-ordinates ABS, ESC and traction control and can be set up in Sport or Expert Mode.

Cosmetically, the GS F looks meaner and more aggressive, and the interior gets tweaked to make it more ‘F’, but it’s all done without looking like a party in a pimpers palace.

So the Lexus GS F is appealing, but at only £5k less than the M5 and E63 it’s going to struggle to find its place. Unless it’s a brilliant drive.

But as Lexus seem to be expecting sales of the GS F in the UK that don’t even reach three figures, we’re sure there are more than enough UK car buyers willing to fork out £70k for a car that has more subtle appeal than the Germans.

The 2016 Lexus GS F is now on sale at Lexus’s UK dealers – from £69,995 – with first UK cars expected in February 2016.