New GS don't seem too impressive

The new GS is designed for the more cerebral drivers. They are the ones that appreciate engineering more than they do just sheer looks. I think we can all agree that the car looks nice enough. I still love my "old" GS430 so I'm not so sure that I'm getting one of the new ones soon. But, I know I will get one within the next couple of years.

I like the features like the 3 memory positions for both front seats as opposed to only 2 on my driver's seat. The 6-speed auto transmission is good. The side-curtain airbags are wonderful (since I have 2 children).

On the down side, I don't like the Start button. I think that's a big gimmick. It's unfortunate that they no longer have the Optitron gauges. And, I think the knee airbags are the unlucky side effects of the whos-got-the-most-airbags race.

I believe that if you focus more on the features than its looks, you'll see the light (no pun intended).

One of the consequences of much safer cars with features like collapsible steering columns, front airbags, crumple zones, and reinforced passenger compartments, etc. is a higher number of leg injuries. This is because people are surviving what used to be fatal crashes, and records didn't track leg trauma in fatalities.

After efforts to provide more protection to the head, I believe you will start to see more effort to protect the legs with reinforced footwells, airbags, or some other new technology, and the knee airbags are probably a response to that phenomenon.

You may have a point there. Even though this doesn't affect me, I can certainly understand it may affect others. I sit very far back compared to most people so the threat of a knee injury isn't a factor to me. For my wife who's shorter than me, and thus sits closer, I can see how it may affect her. Good point, Ray.

I wish I were smart enough to claim credit for that tidbit. I think I read about the leg injury phenomenon in Automotive News or the SAE news magazine.