Stroock639

believe me i hear ya... but if one has the means, i can't think of a better toy to lease for a few years and then give back when the warranty is up

the interiors do suck, i don't think they're all that comfortable to sit or ride in (haven't felt the air suspension model however), and i would never expect a tesla to deliver as many worry free miles as a lexus

as an only car i would never consider one, but as like a 5th or 6th car i'd be super excited lol... also the prius prime is actually quite awesome

Toys4RJill

I have always really liked the Tesla model S. Interior is lovely and sort of new age. Interior is not bad. I would definitely say it is a luxury car and it provides and experience nobody can match at the price point of large luxury cars. It is obviously why Tesla has eroded the market share of the luxury brands. I do not think the brand as a whole will succeed, but it takes off, it will forever be the defacto electric brand.

Johnhav430

My dad taught me, beauty is skin deep, but ugliness is to the bone. It meant more to me the older I got, made no sense when I was young.

When's the last time you saw a pic of a NHL player, without an stunning wife? Why is that? And where am I going?

I would never buy a car that was not stunning, good looking. I want to love an Accord, yet have never owned a Honda. The new Accord is ugly. Why would I spend hard earned money, on something that is ugly? Ditto new LS, and ditto Tesla. People can drone on and on how fast a Tesla is, how this it is, how that it is, but it's not good looking, so good riddance!

riredale

Couple thoughts:

(1) I am beginning to think that the Tesla brand is becoming kind of like the LearJet. Bill Lear wasn't the first to introduce a "personal" jet aircraft but because of whizzy styling and performance the public soon thought of pretty much any compact jet as a LearJet, even though I believe Cessna, Gulfstream, and a dozen other manufacturers today are eating Lear's lunch in terms of market share. Tesla's finances are precarious and it may turn out that they are absorbed into GM or wherever, but everybody knows that a Tesla is an electric car, and an electric car is a Tesla.

(2) I don't know why the whole Toyota hybrid CVT is so hard to understand. It's just a planetary gearset, like a rear-axle differential. Imagine one of the axles goes to the gas engine, and the other axle goes to an electric motor, while the driveshaft connection connects to the wheels. A combination of ICE power and motor power makes the car move. If the driver wants a lot of power, the computer brings up the revs of the ICE by spinning the electric motor IN REVERSE rotation--whatever rpms necessary to allow the ICE to operate at the rpms required to deliver the power requested by the driver. This is all completely transparent behind the scenes and never apparent to the driver. So, yeah, the Toyota implementation doesn't use any mickey-mouse belt and is "an infinite number of gear shifts" while also being just "a single gear" (a planetary gearset). But I guess that's too much for some magazine writers. And I agree that Toyota shouldn't call it an eCVT; that just plays into the old dislikes of belted CVTs.

AJT123

Good point! I just don't lease cars so I don't look at it that way.

mmarshall

Typo? You used "Interior" twice. Did you mean that the exterior is not bad?

MattyG

Yes, it's like that in the same way Apple revolutionized the UI and made using a computer a much simpler process. Eventually Samsung and others caught up we know know how Android can also be a user friendly system. The question really is does Tesla have any current electric car competition that can match its products for styling, range and performance?

The Lear reference is interesting but dated at this point. Learjet was the first accessible light private business jet that offered performance above all else. The only other jet competition was heavier and thirstier. Lear ran into financial problems so it lost market share as others swooped in to take their piece of this market.

It isn't really a question of understanding the tech but really an issue of how seamless and effortless a six figure luxury car drives with this tech. This is all fine and dandy when we talk about a Prius but we are talking about the LS500h and it has significant competition in the form of the S560e and the 740e.

That's before even mention the Model S. The customers in this price range aren't interested in getting an engineering degree, but they are interested in being seen in a hybrid or electric car and of course getting the benefits of this tech.

Toys4RJill

Great post. I enjoy reading your POV in this thread. If I recall, the LS600h did not have the drivability complaints as this LS500h. I also think nobody complains about CVTs when the power is very high which it was in the 600h. The new LS got heavier yet power for the hybrid decreases.

The MB and BMW plug in cars are getting much better reviews with their set ups

southernx

Lexus LS 500 h RHD

The CVT in the 500h which under harder acceleration does what CVTs do in that situation, make more noise without seeming to get the drive effectively to the wheels.

The 500h’s naturally aspirated V6 is a good thing, but it seems the weight of the car and the CVT work against it being exciting to drive. After a couple of hundred kilometres in a 500h blasting through the countryside steering it became tiresome rather than rewarding with the engine constantly kicking in and whining incessantly when asked for more beans, please.

This car is far better suited to slipping silently through city streets than it is galloping through the bush – that’s where the 500 is a lot more at home.

Headroom is also a bit a restricted in that rear row for me, too. That’s something to keep in mind for taller passengers (I'm 191cm tall).

SW17LS

I want to clear up one thing about fuel economy. I hear thrown around a lot "Well the LS460 will get 30MPG on the highway, what's the point of this?". That simply isn't accurate. I just got back from a 700 mile round trip highway trip. Alone in my RWD LS460L, there were mountains on the last 150 miles each way, trip average as per the compiler was 24.6 MPG. Cruise set at 80. I have never even approached 30MPG on the highway in the LS.

Is it possible? Perhaps, at 55 or 65...but to say "well the LS460 gets 30 MPG on the highway" isn't an accurate statement. So if an LS500 gets 30, then that's a big improvement.

Stereorob

well, can we all agree the LS500 should have been a 5 liter V8 instead of a damn 6? truth be told at this point the LS REALLY should have a V12 like the century, well if we use a 2006 mindset i guess. in 2006 i thought the LS460 would get a V12 eventually.

mmarshall

Sounds to me like your car may be trying to tell you something.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

this thread is about the hybrid, but if you’re saying it too should have had a 5L v8 (like the LS600h), you’re entitled to your opinion, but the LS600h, while a wonderful technical feat and one of the quietest ICE cars ever made, didn’t do so hot in fuel economy.

as for the V12 idea, yes, that’s a 2006 mindset and no happening.

i don’t have any issue having the ttv6 in the 500, especially since my g90 has an amazing ttv6.
But i do think lexus should have offered a v8 or turbo v8 option AS WELL. And yes, the g90 has the 5L v8 option so there is that.

Vladi

The purpose of a hybrid is fuel economy and gas emissions. Real world difference between LS500 and LS500h is substantial especially if your 500h is EU spec tuned to get more gas mileage and less aggressive acceleration. Magazine short drives for review don't count as they don't drive it anything like a normal owner would do, maybe they don't even know how to drive hybrid setup in the first place but most importantly none of them have 500 and 500h side by side. And even if they somehow could get the two together it would end up as Prius vs M3 race round 2 anyway.

Stroock639

this was after driving 15 minutes with the cruise control set at the indicated speed here on a flat road


but yea at 80 you're definitely not gonna get 30 mpg, 65-70 is the last hope of getting 30 mpg

after going from the canadian border to albany with the cruise set at around 100 the whole way i still got about 20 mpg, watching the fuel needle drop that quickly was decently entertaining lol...