I wish there was a heart button instead of the thumbs up button, because you would have gotten that Brother ❤️❤️❤️ Great work, always enjoyable, sincerely. God Bless.

£8200? Bargain

You could always get a Lexus LS600H or even LS460 if you're not bothered about the electric bit. Much easier to get your hands on in the UK and glorious.

You should have a go in Lexsus ES300 they still have it right. I am not a massive fan of CVT but in lexus it just makes sense- ES is the smoothest car I ever drove.

Toyotas Latest htbrid is much better than older

Completely agree James, i also feel similar with my 2009 LS600hL - the EV side helps improve economy and useful in residential/city environments with no engine running, yet the ICE V8 gives you that long range ability too when needed. 34mpg often achieved on long roadtrips. The future of motoring is obviously 15 years ago! Rear fridge is a plus too 🤣

My son's first car was 140HP! With a 0 - 60 of about 7 seconds. It took me 20+ years from passing my test to get a car with that sort of performance. Still, remember fun times with an ex-girlfriend in her dad's Cavalier - hope they have washed the seats!

The new sedan only get 2.5l hybrid the orevious gen still had this 3.5 hybrid v6 with 4 speed auto

Kia and Hyundai are killing it with their EVs.

I've owned from my early days a Austin montego, two Rover 600s (both very reliable) and a Land Rover Freelander, two Rover 75s (which I ❤). Rover had a future, but sadly inna Tory britain like most manufacturers we allowed them to be either taken into foreign hands or go to the wall. I'm pleased that the Rover brand still exists innJaguar/ Land Rover. So who knows?

All Toyotas latest hybrids are good nice to drive efficient smooth plenty of power there not race cars tho just like nearly every other car on the road your average car doesn't sound good anyway why not get a hybrid if you're not racing around everywhere i get 70 mpg out of mine easy i get alot more than that driving in urban environments

now that's a shirt, offsets the very sensible car ably

Definitly a car that has been overlooked. I drove the GS hybrid version years ago was very impressed.

Do not generalize if you haven t seen the full market cause UK is no longer the center of the world and not all hybrids are even sold in the UK. There are quite good ones for example from audi with a perfect drive train in the most recent version I have driven from A4 to A8 but I do not like those hybrids and prefer EV big times cause they are a lot cheaper if you drive a car and do not put it in your living room cause it could be scratched outsied. Our Solar power delivers the energy in 95% of the km driven and it is 90% cheaper to run than the mercedes middleclass diesel with automatic and a lot of extras has to offer. There is only 1 advantage anymore: towing comfort and capabilities, also a better overall range, even though the economy is terrible burning 11 L / hkm or 110 kWh / hkm with the diesel Alea iacta est - as Cesar said cause the European car manufacturers had most recently asked the EU to stop the discussion about the 2035 ban of new ICE vehicle cause they want and need to go ahead and fight the chinese right now and here back otherwise all EU manufacturers would fall behind too far. GM and FORD will be dead cause they will loose in 5 or 10 years big times against chinese manufacturers producint inside the USA or Canada or Mexico the trucks that GM and FORD can only sell in the USA. Just a matter of time - and before you doubt it: I had been working on the strategic side in the HQ of the oldest car manufacturer and new technologies and power trains back then and this company had even owned a significant share of Tesla which would be more valueable than the whole market capitalization of that company today. You can talk what ever you want and enjoy the cars you can get but they will get fewer and fewer , the options. Ferrari called their newest one 12 cylinder cause they had bet that they would be the last one to offer such choice but Aston Martin went the same path. But the glory days of ICE are over and you can buy them and take care of them, but supplies will be limited. And btw: the old car manufacturers will slaughter all ice customers in the future at a certain point, when they all will start to increase the spare part prices again drastically just to get rid off all the old stock / inventory cause they need the space for new models coming up. Pay then or dy is the answer and for sure the last ice car shops will raise their hour rate again and again cause they can. High spare part prices are the key to force old ice car owners to buy a new electric one. And this strategy was already ages ago on the roadmap as the exit strategy for the newest drive train when there has been no decision which it would be. I prefer to sit in a warm home than being forced to reduce my driving habbits cause sooner or later we will get a CO2 budget per person and that is it. If you need more you will have to pay more cause the government has already enrolled goals for each sector how mcuh has to be saved like traffic, households, industry, and so on. If a sector does not achieve the goals prices will increase and start to hurt like the Diesel used to heat the homes. Every year the price goes up by 0,05€ per L, but in 10 years the prices will be 33% higher than now and even a lot more if the goals are not met. UK might be behind but UK has not really a car industry but big times off shore energy which should make driving an EV lot cheaper. Also UK is a lot warmer than Norway which is far ahead so should be a lot easier to drive an ICE. But this time it wont be the EU to blame to stop new ICE from 2035 on. Alea iacta est.

100k or bust!!

I have owned my 2008 GS 460 for 4 years and it is without a doubt a brilliant machine. My only real gripe is the lack of steering feel, which I understand is related to the electric power steering. I do not like hybrid vehicles, I cannot believe two complex drive trains in one vehicle is a good thing and I do not drink the EV green kool-aid currently in vogue either. My biggest concern is the ageing of rubber seals and such although I've not had a problem so far. I am sure it is capable of good fuel economy, but the acceleration is addictive, (spec'd at 5.4 seconds 0 to 60) but I cannot verify that it still has all it's ponies. I love your content, although many of the cars you review are not available here (Canada). Regards Mac.

This is incredibly popular in Jamaica especially with scammers. It's so popular that there are several songs about it

EV's do empower China and that is not good at all.

I do agree! It is a great looking car, as I played the Sega rally game with this car , I fell in love with it also! I also loved the 550. Had the posters and the blanket. My perfect 2 car garage right there!

I’d be curious is JayEmm knows about the Toyota Sai. It’s a Japanese market compact saloon that is basically a Lexus H250H, but it’s an interesting car if you look at the facelift model 2014 onwards.

Dear God that is some motor car!

Jay I would love your thoughts on this versus the Lotus GT430. Is it worth the extra price of admission for the GT3 over the GT430?!

OLD CARS cost a fortune similar morris minor sports tourer restoration 2 years before --- but then ... oil change 22.99 filter 17.87 light switch replace 23.67 and then had cheek to add VAT whatever that is - next year rechrome the bumper --- money money .. /// gearstick head - 13.63 used part looks new now .... anyway .. thing is .. I've been driving in my car It's not quite a Jaguar I bought it in Primrose Hill From a bloke from Brazil It was made in fifty-nine In a factory by the Tyne It says Morris on the door The GPO owned it before I drive in it for my job The governor calls me a slob But I don't really care Give me some gas and the open air now who wrote that song .. let me think oh well how much ... //// top tip from guy who was engineer and pilot who owned a sports audi -- good one // said ---- in a car especially an older car - let the engine warm up before going anywhere ... // car will last longer drive better and most dont see that it takes temp to achieve ''balance'' in the engines running ... german guy think by balance he meant all parts rely on each other working correctly from oil water etc etc .. at a certain temperature ..

In my humble opinion this is one of the most apocalyptically ugly cars to ever roll off a production line. Mechanically marvellous but what on earth were they thinking with the way the thing looks. Dear god.

13:19 the odd brake feel will be due to the brake by wire. Toyota hybrids of that era at least used an electro-hydraulic control unit with no direct hydraulic connection from master cylinder to calipers, except as a failsafe.

Very handsome motor that...

wish toyota sold these in the states id love to have one. they’re so obscure

Thank you Jay for this video. It's actually perfect timing because I am contemplating importing either a hybrid Crown, or a naturally aspirated 60th anniversary G package Crown Athlete 2GRFSE. I was leaning more for the naturally aspirated but I found your video very informing.

Sadly, no car with a CVT is worth a second glance.

It's a shame this generation didn't have the v8, Would rather own a Lexus LS 600h for the same price

We have modern Toyota and Lexus hybrids and they are excellent

Could the grab handles in the rear be there to help passengers get in and out?

Obviously, it was mentioned that we got it in GS450h form, but I think there were several things that contemporaneously were issues with those cars. I just happened to own GS300 at the moment, because for £1,000 that it a lot of car and I just didn't want to spend much at all considering I drive it maybe once month at best and 2000 miles years is all it gets. As such fuel economy does not matter for me, that said £400 road tax hurts a little bit. Considering it replaced RC-F with £700 road tax it is not as much of an issue and secondly I just didn't want to keep the car that is depreciating... and there is no way GS300 depreciates more than it already has, Anyway, back to 450h. The problem was really the price, it was going almost for M5 money - £52k when new in UK, and M5 if memory serves started at jus £5 shy of £60k.Yet for the crowd that buys performance saloons it had no handling, no sound and was just all around weird choice. It really needed to be maybe £10k cheaper to combat 530d, but even then it would have been quite a bit more expensive. The second, and I would argue, main reason - UK taxation simply killed it, it just favoured diesels at the time and didn't care much about "real" life pollution, so people were incentivised to buy diesels not hybrids. Third reason would be CVT, it really kills the buzz when driving. Lexus actually resolved that with next generation so called eCVT, but the battle was already long lost, overall 4th gen GS was great car GS450h in particular, but again due to high price and no incentives it never caught on. Final nail was delayed introduction of PHEV, that is how BMW successfully produced very attractive cars for company cars schemes with low taxation (530e), if Lexus had switched to lithium, with maybe 20 miles of EV only range and plug-in option, it may just had a chance, but Lexus never did that in car market, only now they have extremely well selling PHEV SUVs. In short - they just trageted wrong market segment, car was too expensive and they missed tax incentives by not offering PHEV, they fixed the CVT in next generation, but the time was over for entire saloon market as SUVs just took over. That said you can still get same smooth experience in modern Lexus hybrids RX450h before 2022, LC500h, LS500h. Sadly, Lexus now going downsizing way - 2L turbo hybrid just doesn't feel right. P.S. for £8,200 it is a little bit pricey, especially considering GS450h could be had probably closer to £6,000. What is worse, you can also get 4th gen GS450h for probably £11k and that is upgrade in every imaginable way. So comparable 3rd gen is much cheaper, although the looks may be slightly controversial... not that Crown is particularly pretty, just JDM. But I genuinely like how 4th Gen looks, it is rare, modern, could be upgraded to latest mod-cons (like AA/CP). so it would be thoug to buy this one over newer GS.

I am not supercar blondie.. 😂 😂 😂 Made me laugh.

Konnichiwa 🥳 Love Toyota, don’t yearn to own one though…….. left school, straight to a main dealer in 1980………. Mercedes, solid, dependable, dull to a 16 year old……… Fiat, flamboyant, fragile….. feisty 🙂 and, Toyota, somewhere in between…….. the Crown (S110) from 1979+ was the current car…….. largely overlooked for Granada’s and the like……. although they seemed to be the “car to have” if you knew….. The Celica was a great thing and we had a GT with options which gave the Toyota sales manager a fighting chance against his opposite number in the Fiat showroom, armed with an orange Mirafiori Sport (still want one 🥺) I had an Amazon manual with the 4.2 diesel six turbo - an actual bus engine 😳, which had more grunt than a pigsty ! Followed by an imported Amazon VX Limited with pearlescent paint, stainless exhaust (sounded awesome) 4.7 V8 petrol, chipped and tuned - off like a bald man’s hair……… Corolla’s, Carina and a C1 VTR+ (Aygo in a Citroen frock) Toyota, built like no other - if a little dull, and let’s not forget the Pious 😢 and Pearl Harbour. 🇯🇵🔥 - neither can be forgiven.

Had my Audi for almost a year before I realised it was a hybrid 😅

Hi is there a difference between a hybrid and electric car?

Even in 2024 that car has a good spec

Haha yeah mini disks has been expensive for a while! Theyre even hard to find at car boots sales. You could go to 2000s and rip some blank mini disks from CDs :)

This car must be leaking urine all ower the place😅

A naturally aspirated Mazda will be far more reliable than a Golf. The only concern about the Mazda is the long wide bonnet, which for a small car takes a lot of garage space.

14:22 Those grab handles mentioned, these have been a tradition for most cars of this class in Japan, they are there to ease the getting in and out rather than when the car is being driven. The sort of person who gets to sit in the back on these cars tend to be older or even elderly so these features were appreciated. Started to appear from mid 1980s.

WoW that is like Japanese Phaeton :)

If you absolutely must do the hybrid thing, and you want a reliable system; Toyota is the only game in town.

As I've been looking at the Lexus GS 450h it's basically a Lexus,and that probably why it wasn't sold in that form by Toyota

It's so strange. You have an actual JDM car video and nobody in the comments says JDM. You have something that isn't a JDM car (like a Supra, RX7, Basic Skyline, etc) and people are saying JDM all the time.

Toyota number one and king of auos,simple thes best

That name.... It just makes me think of the (yawn) Ford Crown Victoria.

Great review of an amazing and interesting car. Thanks very much.

It's too bad - it feels like owning the MX-30 R EV would be a similar experience to the Gen 1 Chevy Volt / Ampera. That said, I can get nearly 5 miles/kWh in the most ideal conditions (but in winter and climbing hills, it can be as low as 2.6 miles/kWh). I've made some sacrifices like not using the HVAC unless absolutely necessary to have an overall combined average of 194 mpg - but most people wont want to make those sacrifices. They don't want to think about efficiency like early adopters did. With at least 50 miles of *REAL* EV range, in my case, I would only need to hit the ICE 10% of the time. In my Chevy Volt's case, I wind up using it about 20% of the time.