LS 460/460L Official Review Thread
02-16-07, 06:40 PM
#106
Driver
Join Date: May 2006
Location: NJ
Posts: 183
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Businessweek Review: Thane Peterson
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...214_826825.htm
Up Front
Coming up with an exceptionally luxurious sedan is tough for manufacturers these days because once-exclusive features such as heated seats, navigation systems, and backup cameras now migrate so quickly into lower-priced models. But Toyota's (TM) Lexus division has made a good stab at making its redesigned flagship luxury sedan, the Lexus LS 460, the fanciest car on the market for under $100,000.
Lexus' new LS has just about every luxury feature you can find on the BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ8, and the Mercedes S550 (back-massaging seats, heated steering wheel, etc.). It's also now available for the first time in an extra-long stretched version, and has a few unusual features all its own. These include a system that allows the car to steer itself into parking spaces, a climate control system that measures occupants' body heat as well as the ambient temperature, and an executive class seating upgrade with club seats reminiscent of the first-class seats in a Pullman rail car.
As of the '08 model year, there will even be a superpowerful hybrid version, the LS 460h L, which will be powered by both a 5.0 liter V8 engine and an electric motor—generating a combined 430 horsepower.
The basic '07 LS 460 is about the same length as the Lexus LS 430, the model it's replacing. But the new model's engine is a high-tech, 4.8-liter, 380-horsepower V8 engine that generates over 100 horsepower more than the 4.3-liter engine in the old LS, yet gets slightly better mileage. The transmission in the new LS is an eight-speed automatic with manual-shifting mode, the first eight-speed automatic on the market, according to Lexus. In the competition to come up with ever smoother and more refined automatic transmissions, that bests Mercedes' new seven-speed automatic.
More Legroom
The stretched version of the car I test-drove, the 460l—the long-bodied, gasoline-powered version of the LS—is quite a machine. At 203 in. long, it isn't huge. It's actually a tad shorter than the stretch versions of top-of-the-line BMW and Jag, and only 4.8 in. longer than the regular LS 460. But all the extra space is used to increase legroom in the rear, so the backseat is quite capacious. I'm 5 ft. 10 in. tall and I could really stretch out in the back seat and still have legroom to spare.
My test car didn't have the "Executive Class Seating" upgrade, which only comes on the long-body version of the sedan and costs an additional $12, 675. But it's a very cool option for the well-heeled business buyer. In that configuration, the LS seats just four (in the aforementioned club seats). But they're cosseted in limousine-style luxury. The seating package also includes a little wood-trimmed table in back, a rear-seat entertainment system with a nine-in. video screen and leather-trimmed instrument panel, power sunshades on the rear door windows, a "cool box" to keep your drinks chilled, rear power-seats and headrests, rear-side airbags, and climate control. Oh, and the right-rear club seat—the CEO's seat—has a massage function and an under-thigh airbag.
The LS 460l starts at $71,715, 10 grand more than the regular-length LS 460. In addition to the $500 to $700 "intuitive parking" system, major options include a navigation system ($3,115), a Mark Levinson sound system with 19 speakers, a hard drive that can store up to 2,000 songs (packaged with the navigation system for $5,645), a $3,620 "comfort-plus" package that includes headlamp washers, power seats and side airbags in the rear compartment, power headrests, sunshade and a heated steering wheel, plus dynamic cruise control and a pre-collision safety system for $2,850 and 18-inch alloy wheels for $1,975.
On the LS 460l, in addition to the executive seating package you can also get sports-tuned air suspension with variable power steering (which makes it easier to turn the wheel at low speeds) for $2,120.
High Drag Coefficient
The LS 460l is rated to get 18 mpg in the city and 27 on the highway. In 369 miles of largely highway driving, I got 20.7 mpg. One reason mileage is so high on the highway is that the LS 460 has a co-efficient of drag (a measure of how slippery a car's exterior is) of just 0.26, one of the lowest such ratings of any vehicle.
However, if that combination of power and decent mileage isn't good enough for you, wait a year and buy the hybrid LS 460h L. The company promises it will not only have the luxury appointments of the gasoline-powered version but the speed and power of a V12 engine and fuel efficiency that "will equal or better the combined fuel-efficiency ratings of smaller, V6, all-wheel drive mid-sized luxury sedans."
Lexus expects to sell about 30,000 LS 460s this year and figures the 460l will account for about 30% of that total. The new model is already off to a good start. Lexus, like Toyota, had its best January ever, with U.S. passenger car sales up 18.7% to 13,574 units. LS sales soared 142.5% vs January, 2006, with sales of the LS 460 hitting 3,006 for the month. The average LS 460l spends a mere eight days on a dealer's lot before selling, according to The Power Information Network.
Behind the Wheel
For such a big vehicle, the LS 460l is scary fast. Lexus says the regular LS 460 can jump from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds but I figured the long version would be slower. I was wrong. The 460l weighs 4,332 lbs, just 88 lbs more than the 460, and it's equally fast. I consistently got 0 to 60 times of 5.4 and 5.5 seconds in the 460l, which about matches the lightening speed of the Mercedes S 550 (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/10/06, "The New S 500: Sportier, Sexier, More Expensive").
Out on the highway, the LS 460l is so quiet and smooth you often find yourself going far faster than intended. When I first started driving the car I found myself going as fast as 110 mph without realizing it. The car felt as smooth and quiet over 100 as it did at 65. Even after (in the interest of avoiding speeding tickets) I began to be more careful, I regularly found myself inching up to 85 or so, unaware that I was going so fast until I glanced at the speedometer. When you have to pass, or accelerate out of a dicey situation on the freeway, you feel confident that this car will perform any reasonable task effortlessly.
The eight-speed automatic is incredibly smooth and helps increase the Lexus' fuel efficiency. But you have to wonder why Lexus just didn't go with a continuously variable transmission, which doesn't shift at all?
In normal parking situations the Lexus is easy to maneuver because its 36-ft. turning radius is far shorter than that of any of its main rivals. And believe it or not, Lexus' self-parking system actually works once you get the hang of it. (Forget about the TV personalities who had trouble with it—they either never took driver's ed or didn't read the instructions.) I didn't want to risk denting a stranger's car so I set up my own cars on the side of the road to test it out. I needn't have worried. The car steers itself when parking, but the driver controls the brake. So, if something goes wrong you just hit the brake and start over.
Not In New York
Basically, you just get the car in place as you normally would, next to the car you want to back in behind. Graphic indications appear on the little video screen and when you're lined up properly, the car backs itself into the spot. I even tried it in a heavy snowfall on a slight incline. The main catch is to use the brake to keep the car moving very slowly. Then if you line it up correctly, it usually backs right in.
How useful the system is debatable. For it to work, the parking space needs to be about six feet longer than the car. You'd really have to be a lousy parallel parker not to be able to get into a space that big. The system is no help at all in say, Manhattan, where you typically have maybe two feet of extra room at best, and where there's usually a taxi honking at you to hurry up and park and stop blocking the road.
As with other Lexuses, the new LS's cabin is intelligently designed and made of attractive, high-grade materials. The controls on the navigation system, sound system, and other gewgaws are a lot more intuitive to use than on a BMW. There are numerous thoughtful features you notice over time, such as the fact that the rearview mirrors tuck in against the car automatically when you shut off the engine.
However, I have a few bones to pick with the car's design. I found legroom in the front seat surprisingly tight, for one thing. At 5 ft. 10 in. tall, I didn't have to stretch to reach the pedals, even with the driver's seat all the way back. Another nitpick: The LS 460l normally has 18 cubic feet of trunk space, which is plenty, but that shrinks to just 12 cubic feet when you go with the optional rear seat air conditioning.
Finally, I don't know about anyone else out there but I find the LS 460's styling too bland. It looks too much like a generic luxury car to me.
Buy It Or Bag It?
The Lexus LS 460l offers a lot of value when you compare it to the competition. The LS 460l starts at $71,715, and tops out at around $98,000 (including the Executive Seating package). The only model in the same category that's cheaper is the long version of Ford's (F) Jaguar XJ8 (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/1/05, "A Jag That Roars—and Coddles"), which for '07 starts at $67,750 and tops out at about $76,350. I like the big Jag a lot, but it doesn't seem as refined or technologically advanced as the 460.
If you stick with a V8 engine, the German competition costs more than the Lexus if you load up on options. Here are the comparative numbers I came up it for rival German models when I loaded them up with options:
The '07 Audi A8 (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/22/06, "Audi A8: Autobahn Burner") starts at $73,600 and costs about $106,000 loaded up with options (though that includes all-wheel drive, which the Lexus doesn't have); the BMW 750li starts at $78,795 and tops out at about $115,000; DaimlerChrysler's (DCX) Mercedes S 550 starts at $87,525 and goes to about $117,000. (Of course, if you opt for a 12-cylinder engine on one of the German cars, the sky is the limit—the base price is way over $100,000).
The price differences are less pronounced but the Lexus is also at the low end in terms of the real world prices people are paying for the car. The average recent price paid for the Lexus LS 460l is $81,988, about $1,000 more than the average price of the Audi A8, according to the Power Information Network. By comparison, the BMW 750Li is selling for an average of $84,649, and the Mercedes S 550 for $94,018, Power says. (Like BusinessWeek Online, The Power Information Network is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP).)
If you test-drive these cars against one another, you may end up preferring the looks of the Mercedes or the edgy driving characteristics of the BMW and Audi. But dollar for dollar, feature for feature, Lexus has set a new standard for luxury cars.
Click here to see more of the 2007 Lexus LS 460l
Up Front
Coming up with an exceptionally luxurious sedan is tough for manufacturers these days because once-exclusive features such as heated seats, navigation systems, and backup cameras now migrate so quickly into lower-priced models. But Toyota's (TM) Lexus division has made a good stab at making its redesigned flagship luxury sedan, the Lexus LS 460, the fanciest car on the market for under $100,000.
Lexus' new LS has just about every luxury feature you can find on the BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ8, and the Mercedes S550 (back-massaging seats, heated steering wheel, etc.). It's also now available for the first time in an extra-long stretched version, and has a few unusual features all its own. These include a system that allows the car to steer itself into parking spaces, a climate control system that measures occupants' body heat as well as the ambient temperature, and an executive class seating upgrade with club seats reminiscent of the first-class seats in a Pullman rail car.
As of the '08 model year, there will even be a superpowerful hybrid version, the LS 460h L, which will be powered by both a 5.0 liter V8 engine and an electric motor—generating a combined 430 horsepower.
The basic '07 LS 460 is about the same length as the Lexus LS 430, the model it's replacing. But the new model's engine is a high-tech, 4.8-liter, 380-horsepower V8 engine that generates over 100 horsepower more than the 4.3-liter engine in the old LS, yet gets slightly better mileage. The transmission in the new LS is an eight-speed automatic with manual-shifting mode, the first eight-speed automatic on the market, according to Lexus. In the competition to come up with ever smoother and more refined automatic transmissions, that bests Mercedes' new seven-speed automatic.
More Legroom
The stretched version of the car I test-drove, the 460l—the long-bodied, gasoline-powered version of the LS—is quite a machine. At 203 in. long, it isn't huge. It's actually a tad shorter than the stretch versions of top-of-the-line BMW and Jag, and only 4.8 in. longer than the regular LS 460. But all the extra space is used to increase legroom in the rear, so the backseat is quite capacious. I'm 5 ft. 10 in. tall and I could really stretch out in the back seat and still have legroom to spare.
My test car didn't have the "Executive Class Seating" upgrade, which only comes on the long-body version of the sedan and costs an additional $12, 675. But it's a very cool option for the well-heeled business buyer. In that configuration, the LS seats just four (in the aforementioned club seats). But they're cosseted in limousine-style luxury. The seating package also includes a little wood-trimmed table in back, a rear-seat entertainment system with a nine-in. video screen and leather-trimmed instrument panel, power sunshades on the rear door windows, a "cool box" to keep your drinks chilled, rear power-seats and headrests, rear-side airbags, and climate control. Oh, and the right-rear club seat—the CEO's seat—has a massage function and an under-thigh airbag.
The LS 460l starts at $71,715, 10 grand more than the regular-length LS 460. In addition to the $500 to $700 "intuitive parking" system, major options include a navigation system ($3,115), a Mark Levinson sound system with 19 speakers, a hard drive that can store up to 2,000 songs (packaged with the navigation system for $5,645), a $3,620 "comfort-plus" package that includes headlamp washers, power seats and side airbags in the rear compartment, power headrests, sunshade and a heated steering wheel, plus dynamic cruise control and a pre-collision safety system for $2,850 and 18-inch alloy wheels for $1,975.
On the LS 460l, in addition to the executive seating package you can also get sports-tuned air suspension with variable power steering (which makes it easier to turn the wheel at low speeds) for $2,120.
High Drag Coefficient
The LS 460l is rated to get 18 mpg in the city and 27 on the highway. In 369 miles of largely highway driving, I got 20.7 mpg. One reason mileage is so high on the highway is that the LS 460 has a co-efficient of drag (a measure of how slippery a car's exterior is) of just 0.26, one of the lowest such ratings of any vehicle.
However, if that combination of power and decent mileage isn't good enough for you, wait a year and buy the hybrid LS 460h L. The company promises it will not only have the luxury appointments of the gasoline-powered version but the speed and power of a V12 engine and fuel efficiency that "will equal or better the combined fuel-efficiency ratings of smaller, V6, all-wheel drive mid-sized luxury sedans."
Lexus expects to sell about 30,000 LS 460s this year and figures the 460l will account for about 30% of that total. The new model is already off to a good start. Lexus, like Toyota, had its best January ever, with U.S. passenger car sales up 18.7% to 13,574 units. LS sales soared 142.5% vs January, 2006, with sales of the LS 460 hitting 3,006 for the month. The average LS 460l spends a mere eight days on a dealer's lot before selling, according to The Power Information Network.
Behind the Wheel
For such a big vehicle, the LS 460l is scary fast. Lexus says the regular LS 460 can jump from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds but I figured the long version would be slower. I was wrong. The 460l weighs 4,332 lbs, just 88 lbs more than the 460, and it's equally fast. I consistently got 0 to 60 times of 5.4 and 5.5 seconds in the 460l, which about matches the lightening speed of the Mercedes S 550 (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/10/06, "The New S 500: Sportier, Sexier, More Expensive").
Out on the highway, the LS 460l is so quiet and smooth you often find yourself going far faster than intended. When I first started driving the car I found myself going as fast as 110 mph without realizing it. The car felt as smooth and quiet over 100 as it did at 65. Even after (in the interest of avoiding speeding tickets) I began to be more careful, I regularly found myself inching up to 85 or so, unaware that I was going so fast until I glanced at the speedometer. When you have to pass, or accelerate out of a dicey situation on the freeway, you feel confident that this car will perform any reasonable task effortlessly.
The eight-speed automatic is incredibly smooth and helps increase the Lexus' fuel efficiency. But you have to wonder why Lexus just didn't go with a continuously variable transmission, which doesn't shift at all?
In normal parking situations the Lexus is easy to maneuver because its 36-ft. turning radius is far shorter than that of any of its main rivals. And believe it or not, Lexus' self-parking system actually works once you get the hang of it. (Forget about the TV personalities who had trouble with it—they either never took driver's ed or didn't read the instructions.) I didn't want to risk denting a stranger's car so I set up my own cars on the side of the road to test it out. I needn't have worried. The car steers itself when parking, but the driver controls the brake. So, if something goes wrong you just hit the brake and start over.
Not In New York
Basically, you just get the car in place as you normally would, next to the car you want to back in behind. Graphic indications appear on the little video screen and when you're lined up properly, the car backs itself into the spot. I even tried it in a heavy snowfall on a slight incline. The main catch is to use the brake to keep the car moving very slowly. Then if you line it up correctly, it usually backs right in.
How useful the system is debatable. For it to work, the parking space needs to be about six feet longer than the car. You'd really have to be a lousy parallel parker not to be able to get into a space that big. The system is no help at all in say, Manhattan, where you typically have maybe two feet of extra room at best, and where there's usually a taxi honking at you to hurry up and park and stop blocking the road.
As with other Lexuses, the new LS's cabin is intelligently designed and made of attractive, high-grade materials. The controls on the navigation system, sound system, and other gewgaws are a lot more intuitive to use than on a BMW. There are numerous thoughtful features you notice over time, such as the fact that the rearview mirrors tuck in against the car automatically when you shut off the engine.
However, I have a few bones to pick with the car's design. I found legroom in the front seat surprisingly tight, for one thing. At 5 ft. 10 in. tall, I didn't have to stretch to reach the pedals, even with the driver's seat all the way back. Another nitpick: The LS 460l normally has 18 cubic feet of trunk space, which is plenty, but that shrinks to just 12 cubic feet when you go with the optional rear seat air conditioning.
Finally, I don't know about anyone else out there but I find the LS 460's styling too bland. It looks too much like a generic luxury car to me.
Buy It Or Bag It?
The Lexus LS 460l offers a lot of value when you compare it to the competition. The LS 460l starts at $71,715, and tops out at around $98,000 (including the Executive Seating package). The only model in the same category that's cheaper is the long version of Ford's (F) Jaguar XJ8 (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/1/05, "A Jag That Roars—and Coddles"), which for '07 starts at $67,750 and tops out at about $76,350. I like the big Jag a lot, but it doesn't seem as refined or technologically advanced as the 460.
If you stick with a V8 engine, the German competition costs more than the Lexus if you load up on options. Here are the comparative numbers I came up it for rival German models when I loaded them up with options:
The '07 Audi A8 (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/22/06, "Audi A8: Autobahn Burner") starts at $73,600 and costs about $106,000 loaded up with options (though that includes all-wheel drive, which the Lexus doesn't have); the BMW 750li starts at $78,795 and tops out at about $115,000; DaimlerChrysler's (DCX) Mercedes S 550 starts at $87,525 and goes to about $117,000. (Of course, if you opt for a 12-cylinder engine on one of the German cars, the sky is the limit—the base price is way over $100,000).
The price differences are less pronounced but the Lexus is also at the low end in terms of the real world prices people are paying for the car. The average recent price paid for the Lexus LS 460l is $81,988, about $1,000 more than the average price of the Audi A8, according to the Power Information Network. By comparison, the BMW 750Li is selling for an average of $84,649, and the Mercedes S 550 for $94,018, Power says. (Like BusinessWeek Online, The Power Information Network is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP).)
If you test-drive these cars against one another, you may end up preferring the looks of the Mercedes or the edgy driving characteristics of the BMW and Audi. But dollar for dollar, feature for feature, Lexus has set a new standard for luxury cars.
Click here to see more of the 2007 Lexus LS 460l
02-18-07, 08:15 AM
#107
Lexus Fanatic
For such a big vehicle, the LS 460l is scary fast. Lexus says the regular LS 460 can jump from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds but I figured the long version would be slower. I was wrong. The 460l weighs 4,332 lbs, just 88 lbs more than the 460, and it's equally fast. I consistently got 0 to 60 times of 5.4 and 5.5 seconds in the 460l, which about matches the lightening speed of the Mercedes S 550 (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/10/06, "The New S 500: Sportier, Sexier, More Expensive").
03-18-07, 11:37 AM
#109
New CARS.com review
This one was done by a different reviewer than the previous CARS.com writer.
http://research.cars.com/go/crp/rese...ection=reviews
http://research.cars.com/go/crp/rese...ection=reviews
04-01-07, 04:04 PM
#111
Denver Post/ColoradoBiz Magazine review: LS 460 and LS 460 L
EXECUTIVE WHEELS
2007 Lexus LS460 and LS 460L
Parks itself, yes: history in the making
By Jeff Rundles
So here we were, in mid-February, bemoaning the harsh, cold and snowy winter, when a friend of mine comes up with the idea of a golf trip to warmer climes, a long weekend designed to ready us for summer play and relieve us of our golfer’s angst. It’s a guy’s trip, of course, meaning that it will be all golf all the time, and several of us sign on.
I had visions of Phoenix with hot temps and green fairways, and perhaps even a little spring training baseball thrown in for good measure in the evening. But my planning friend, in an attempt to save most of his money for losing golf bets, decides Albuquerque, New Mexico, would be the perfect spot, and he has consulted every known weather source, from The Weather Channel to the Farmer’s Almanac, to discover that the weekend of March 2-3-4 in the Albuquerque area will be "good-to-golf" - temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s.
That sounded good to me, since around here it was in the low 30s and even colder and I hadn’t swung a club since December 15. I signed on.
Turned out that my car assignment for that weekend was to be the new 2007 Lexus LS460L, the longer version of the LS460 I had driven weeks earlier, and to add value to the experience this higher-end LS was going to come equipped with the "parallel parks itself" system that everyone was talking about. I couldn’t wait - a great car, a chance to put it through its paces on a nice road trip (6 hours each way), topped off by some warm, if not stellar golf.
The car was hot. The golf was not. Not because of my game, which was adequate, but because when we teed off in the first morning round of a 36-hole day it was 24 degrees. Fahrenheit. I suppose I could have saved the trip and frozen just as easily on any number of Denver-area courses that day, but as it turned out I enjoyed every aspect of the trip.
Especially the car. Everywhere I went for months people were asking me if I was going to get the car that parked itself, and when the first LS460 showed up a few weeks earlier I had to face a ton of disappointed people. When the new one showed up with the Advanced Parking Guidance System, I became Demonstration Man.
To be honest, the parking thing is overblown. I could teach you how to parallel park faster than I could teach you how to use this parallel parking system, but still the technology is amazing. In addition to parallel parking it also will back the car into a straight parking spot hands-free, as it were.
It is the strangest sensation in the world of automobiles to be in a moving car with the steering wheel having a mind of its own, you in the driver’s seat with very little else to do but fret. Here’s basically how it works: To parallel park, you push a button on the LCD screen to activate the parking system, pull up to the rear of the car in front of the empty space, placing the back of the front passenger’s seat adjacent to the rear of that car, and stop for the system to mark that guidepost.
Then you pull up so that the passenger seat is adjacent to the front sets of that other car, to mark another guidepost. On the screen in your car a bunch of arrows will appear and an outline of the parking space you want to occupy. If it’s a go-ahead, the space will be outlined in green lines; if the mark is off the space will be outlined in red lines and you’ll have to readjust. Assuming everything is okay - which is about three quarters of the time, at least for me - you push an activation button on the screen and things start happening. All you have to do as the driver is keep your foot on the brake to keep the speed down; if the car goes too fast (which isn’t fast at all) the system will shut down. But it neatly does park the car. For a straight spot in a parking lot, it works pretty much the same, with a slight difference in guidepost setting.
As I said, I was awed by the technology. I would love to meet the engineers who figured this out because they are brilliant people, no doubt, and we should send them to figure out more important problems, like how to save New Orleans from ever flooding again or something. Really, really amazing. But the truth is, even after using the parking system a couple dozen times, I have come to understand that a person with moderate skill at parallel parking the old fashioned way could do better in less than half the time.
According to Lexus, the Advanced Parking Guidance System "masters parallel parking through a sonar and computer system, requiring only the slightest of braking from the driver, to glide the Lexus LS into any appropriately sized parking space." That’s what the literature says. All I know is that it uses cameras and a lot of whiz-bang stuff I thought only airplanes had.
Ah, but it’s not the most amazing thing about the car. No, the most amazing thing was something I discovered when driving the highway down to New Mexico: the "Pre-Collision System & Dynamic Radar Cruise Control."
I didn’t even know it was there; I discovered it. The speed limit on most of I-25 heading down there is 75 mph, so I set the cruise control at 80 mph, figuring I could fudge the five. All well and good. It’s a cruise control that maintains the speed no matter what the road is doing without any huffing and puffing. Very smooth. But then, suddenly, when you approach a car that is going slower, you notice the Lexus slows down, getting no closer than 150 feet or so to the car in front of you.
Then when you pull over into the left lane to pass, the Lexus does it for you, resuming the set speed. Wow! The most amazing, and the safest cruise control I have ever used. Not only is it safe, because it enforces a safe distance between you and the car in front automatically, but the sensation of slowing down without doing anything keeps you alert and on your toes. For hundreds of miles I managed traffic and never once had to move my foot to accelerate or brake. With this system you can envision the day when there will be "smart highways" where "smart cars," like this one, will enter the freeway and operate without driver involvement at high speed and at safe distances. With this Lexus I could see the future, and it is wonderful.
Of course, there’s a downside, at least for some people. I heard from a friend of mine that he hates the new Lexus with this radar cruise control because it sets off his (illegal in most states) radar detector and he thinks there are policemen lurking. When you think about it, that means that the Lexus LS is doubly safe because it is limiting the people with radar detectors - who have them so they can speed - from jeopardizing other cars.
Of course, there is much to love about this Lexus. As I mentioned, I drove the regular LS 460 a few weeks before the 460L, and the weather and snow conditions were still pretty bad in Denver then, so I didn’t get to give it much of a workout. I did like it, however. It is a very comfortable, very luxuriously appointed vehicle with the same outstanding engine as its longer brother: a 4.6-liter, V8 featuring some 380 hp, coupled with a wonderful, and wonderfully smooth 8-speed automatic transmission.
I went through some pretty detailed spec sheets on both models of the LS, and all I could discern in difference was the length, wheelbase and curb weight. The 460 is 198 inches long; the 460L, 202.8 inches. The 460 has a wheelbase of 116.9 inches; the 460L is 121.7 inches. The 460 weighs 4,244 lbs.; the 460L comes in at 4,332 lbs. I thought it might translate into a larger trunk for the 460L, but it doesn’t; both models feature a trunk capacity of 18 cu. ft., which, I thought, was a bit on the small side for a luxury sedan of this size. So I guess what you really notice in difference is that the "L" is a bit longer - the car is therefore sleeker than the regular LS - and there is more legroom in the rear seats, making the rear passenger seat compartment in the "L" like a living room. Wonderful.
When I first encountered the LS, way back in 1990, it was a departure from anything else on the road. It was the first of what I call the new breed of luxury cars that would invade the market over the next several years - Acura, Infiniti, etc. BMWs and Mercedes of the era were Spartan by comparison. The Lexus cockpit looked very much like that of an airplane, with more gadgets than I had ever seen. Today even lower-priced cars have many of these dials and gauges, but it is not a leap to remember that the new Lexus, back then, was a trendsetter. And to be honest, I didn’t really care for it, because I then thought that all that extra stuff distracted from the driving.
I’m used to it now, of course, as are we all, and I have come to appreciate Lexus overall, and the flagship LS in particular, as the technological and stylistic leader in the marketplace. Mercedes used to fulfill this role - anti-lock braking, intermittent wiper blades, xenon headlamps, just to mention a few of that line’s innovations - but Lexus, a part of the Toyota family, has really become the platform for innovation. This is not to take away from Mercedes or BMW, both of which continue to get more luxurious and more technological, but the parking system here on the Lexus really has established Lexus in a leadership role.
I absolutely enjoyed driving both the LS and the LS L this time around. As I mentioned there was plenty of snow still on the ground and streets of Denver when I had the LS, so I got to try the traction control system and I can attest to its worthiness. As a rear-drive car, I was skeptical, but the TC system, coupled with the best anti-lock brakes I have ever used, kept the car on track and stopped it sure even in tough conditions. I appreciated that.
And, as I mentioned, I got to drive the "L" version a lot more and really get the feel. The back seats were powered and could be adjusted. The heating system employs infrared sensors in the rear compartment and, tuned to a separate climate control back there, automatically adjusts the temperature by measuring the body temperatures of the rear seat passengers. Everyone who rode back there was thrilled with the car.
Up front, things are wonderful too. First and foremost, the car drives beautifully. The engine is powerful and can burst speed so smoothly that it is at first nearly shocking, then as you get used to it, reassuring. The steering and handling are impeccable, and for a large sedan the car is amazingly nimble. Of course, the leather is great, and all of the systems work beautifully. My test drive model was equipped with a Mark Levinson/DVD changer and a surround sound audio system with 19 speakers, and of course the sound was beyond wonderful.
I am still among those who don’t really like the LCD screen technology that is now ubiquitous in luxury and near-luxury cars, because I find it a bit distracting to run all the systems from a touch screen: audio, climate, navigation, on-board computer settings, telephone. But I guess I’ll have to live with that now. But one thing really does bug me: Here I am in a very nice, luxurious, wonderful automobile, and right off the bat I have a ton of unsightly fingerprints all over the screen that really stick out during the day when the sunlight is on them. Engineers who can make a car park itself should be able to come up with touch-screen technology that overcomes fingerprints.
Okay, so these cars have everything; I don’t have to go into detail. All the luxuries, all the airbags and safety features, Bluetooth technology - they have everything. The LS460 has a base price of $61,000, which included a lot of standards. On my test-drive model they added the navigation system coupled with the Mark Levinson audio package for $5,645, parking assist (the beeps that measure closeness of the curb or other cars) for $500, a power trunk opening and closing system for $395, and Comfort Plus package - power rear seat, rear seat side airbags, heated steering wheel, heated and cooled seats, power rear sunshade, headlamp washers - for $3,620. Add $715 for destination charges and the bottom line was $71,875.
The LS 460L has a base price of $71,000, also including many nice standards. They added Adaptive Variable Suspension and Gear Ratio Steering for $2,120, a package with upgraded leather, memory power rear seats and rear-seat climate control, for $2,780, sunshades and the temperature sensing in the rear for $1,625, the Mark Levinson audio upgrade for $2,530, and a few other things - the Advanced Parking System is $700, and the pre-collision and radar cruise control is $2,850. With $715 in destination charges, the bottom line here was $85,720.
Okay, so in either case that’s a lot of money for a car, no doubt, and the parking thing is new and probably unnecessary.
But wow. The 2007 LS 460 L is historic.
RATING: FOUR WHEELS (OUT OF FOUR)
2007 Lexus LS460 and LS 460L
Parks itself, yes: history in the making
By Jeff Rundles
So here we were, in mid-February, bemoaning the harsh, cold and snowy winter, when a friend of mine comes up with the idea of a golf trip to warmer climes, a long weekend designed to ready us for summer play and relieve us of our golfer’s angst. It’s a guy’s trip, of course, meaning that it will be all golf all the time, and several of us sign on.
I had visions of Phoenix with hot temps and green fairways, and perhaps even a little spring training baseball thrown in for good measure in the evening. But my planning friend, in an attempt to save most of his money for losing golf bets, decides Albuquerque, New Mexico, would be the perfect spot, and he has consulted every known weather source, from The Weather Channel to the Farmer’s Almanac, to discover that the weekend of March 2-3-4 in the Albuquerque area will be "good-to-golf" - temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s.
That sounded good to me, since around here it was in the low 30s and even colder and I hadn’t swung a club since December 15. I signed on.
Turned out that my car assignment for that weekend was to be the new 2007 Lexus LS460L, the longer version of the LS460 I had driven weeks earlier, and to add value to the experience this higher-end LS was going to come equipped with the "parallel parks itself" system that everyone was talking about. I couldn’t wait - a great car, a chance to put it through its paces on a nice road trip (6 hours each way), topped off by some warm, if not stellar golf.
The car was hot. The golf was not. Not because of my game, which was adequate, but because when we teed off in the first morning round of a 36-hole day it was 24 degrees. Fahrenheit. I suppose I could have saved the trip and frozen just as easily on any number of Denver-area courses that day, but as it turned out I enjoyed every aspect of the trip.
Especially the car. Everywhere I went for months people were asking me if I was going to get the car that parked itself, and when the first LS460 showed up a few weeks earlier I had to face a ton of disappointed people. When the new one showed up with the Advanced Parking Guidance System, I became Demonstration Man.
To be honest, the parking thing is overblown. I could teach you how to parallel park faster than I could teach you how to use this parallel parking system, but still the technology is amazing. In addition to parallel parking it also will back the car into a straight parking spot hands-free, as it were.
It is the strangest sensation in the world of automobiles to be in a moving car with the steering wheel having a mind of its own, you in the driver’s seat with very little else to do but fret. Here’s basically how it works: To parallel park, you push a button on the LCD screen to activate the parking system, pull up to the rear of the car in front of the empty space, placing the back of the front passenger’s seat adjacent to the rear of that car, and stop for the system to mark that guidepost.
Then you pull up so that the passenger seat is adjacent to the front sets of that other car, to mark another guidepost. On the screen in your car a bunch of arrows will appear and an outline of the parking space you want to occupy. If it’s a go-ahead, the space will be outlined in green lines; if the mark is off the space will be outlined in red lines and you’ll have to readjust. Assuming everything is okay - which is about three quarters of the time, at least for me - you push an activation button on the screen and things start happening. All you have to do as the driver is keep your foot on the brake to keep the speed down; if the car goes too fast (which isn’t fast at all) the system will shut down. But it neatly does park the car. For a straight spot in a parking lot, it works pretty much the same, with a slight difference in guidepost setting.
As I said, I was awed by the technology. I would love to meet the engineers who figured this out because they are brilliant people, no doubt, and we should send them to figure out more important problems, like how to save New Orleans from ever flooding again or something. Really, really amazing. But the truth is, even after using the parking system a couple dozen times, I have come to understand that a person with moderate skill at parallel parking the old fashioned way could do better in less than half the time.
According to Lexus, the Advanced Parking Guidance System "masters parallel parking through a sonar and computer system, requiring only the slightest of braking from the driver, to glide the Lexus LS into any appropriately sized parking space." That’s what the literature says. All I know is that it uses cameras and a lot of whiz-bang stuff I thought only airplanes had.
Ah, but it’s not the most amazing thing about the car. No, the most amazing thing was something I discovered when driving the highway down to New Mexico: the "Pre-Collision System & Dynamic Radar Cruise Control."
I didn’t even know it was there; I discovered it. The speed limit on most of I-25 heading down there is 75 mph, so I set the cruise control at 80 mph, figuring I could fudge the five. All well and good. It’s a cruise control that maintains the speed no matter what the road is doing without any huffing and puffing. Very smooth. But then, suddenly, when you approach a car that is going slower, you notice the Lexus slows down, getting no closer than 150 feet or so to the car in front of you.
Then when you pull over into the left lane to pass, the Lexus does it for you, resuming the set speed. Wow! The most amazing, and the safest cruise control I have ever used. Not only is it safe, because it enforces a safe distance between you and the car in front automatically, but the sensation of slowing down without doing anything keeps you alert and on your toes. For hundreds of miles I managed traffic and never once had to move my foot to accelerate or brake. With this system you can envision the day when there will be "smart highways" where "smart cars," like this one, will enter the freeway and operate without driver involvement at high speed and at safe distances. With this Lexus I could see the future, and it is wonderful.
Of course, there’s a downside, at least for some people. I heard from a friend of mine that he hates the new Lexus with this radar cruise control because it sets off his (illegal in most states) radar detector and he thinks there are policemen lurking. When you think about it, that means that the Lexus LS is doubly safe because it is limiting the people with radar detectors - who have them so they can speed - from jeopardizing other cars.
Of course, there is much to love about this Lexus. As I mentioned, I drove the regular LS 460 a few weeks before the 460L, and the weather and snow conditions were still pretty bad in Denver then, so I didn’t get to give it much of a workout. I did like it, however. It is a very comfortable, very luxuriously appointed vehicle with the same outstanding engine as its longer brother: a 4.6-liter, V8 featuring some 380 hp, coupled with a wonderful, and wonderfully smooth 8-speed automatic transmission.
I went through some pretty detailed spec sheets on both models of the LS, and all I could discern in difference was the length, wheelbase and curb weight. The 460 is 198 inches long; the 460L, 202.8 inches. The 460 has a wheelbase of 116.9 inches; the 460L is 121.7 inches. The 460 weighs 4,244 lbs.; the 460L comes in at 4,332 lbs. I thought it might translate into a larger trunk for the 460L, but it doesn’t; both models feature a trunk capacity of 18 cu. ft., which, I thought, was a bit on the small side for a luxury sedan of this size. So I guess what you really notice in difference is that the "L" is a bit longer - the car is therefore sleeker than the regular LS - and there is more legroom in the rear seats, making the rear passenger seat compartment in the "L" like a living room. Wonderful.
When I first encountered the LS, way back in 1990, it was a departure from anything else on the road. It was the first of what I call the new breed of luxury cars that would invade the market over the next several years - Acura, Infiniti, etc. BMWs and Mercedes of the era were Spartan by comparison. The Lexus cockpit looked very much like that of an airplane, with more gadgets than I had ever seen. Today even lower-priced cars have many of these dials and gauges, but it is not a leap to remember that the new Lexus, back then, was a trendsetter. And to be honest, I didn’t really care for it, because I then thought that all that extra stuff distracted from the driving.
I’m used to it now, of course, as are we all, and I have come to appreciate Lexus overall, and the flagship LS in particular, as the technological and stylistic leader in the marketplace. Mercedes used to fulfill this role - anti-lock braking, intermittent wiper blades, xenon headlamps, just to mention a few of that line’s innovations - but Lexus, a part of the Toyota family, has really become the platform for innovation. This is not to take away from Mercedes or BMW, both of which continue to get more luxurious and more technological, but the parking system here on the Lexus really has established Lexus in a leadership role.
I absolutely enjoyed driving both the LS and the LS L this time around. As I mentioned there was plenty of snow still on the ground and streets of Denver when I had the LS, so I got to try the traction control system and I can attest to its worthiness. As a rear-drive car, I was skeptical, but the TC system, coupled with the best anti-lock brakes I have ever used, kept the car on track and stopped it sure even in tough conditions. I appreciated that.
And, as I mentioned, I got to drive the "L" version a lot more and really get the feel. The back seats were powered and could be adjusted. The heating system employs infrared sensors in the rear compartment and, tuned to a separate climate control back there, automatically adjusts the temperature by measuring the body temperatures of the rear seat passengers. Everyone who rode back there was thrilled with the car.
Up front, things are wonderful too. First and foremost, the car drives beautifully. The engine is powerful and can burst speed so smoothly that it is at first nearly shocking, then as you get used to it, reassuring. The steering and handling are impeccable, and for a large sedan the car is amazingly nimble. Of course, the leather is great, and all of the systems work beautifully. My test drive model was equipped with a Mark Levinson/DVD changer and a surround sound audio system with 19 speakers, and of course the sound was beyond wonderful.
I am still among those who don’t really like the LCD screen technology that is now ubiquitous in luxury and near-luxury cars, because I find it a bit distracting to run all the systems from a touch screen: audio, climate, navigation, on-board computer settings, telephone. But I guess I’ll have to live with that now. But one thing really does bug me: Here I am in a very nice, luxurious, wonderful automobile, and right off the bat I have a ton of unsightly fingerprints all over the screen that really stick out during the day when the sunlight is on them. Engineers who can make a car park itself should be able to come up with touch-screen technology that overcomes fingerprints.
Okay, so these cars have everything; I don’t have to go into detail. All the luxuries, all the airbags and safety features, Bluetooth technology - they have everything. The LS460 has a base price of $61,000, which included a lot of standards. On my test-drive model they added the navigation system coupled with the Mark Levinson audio package for $5,645, parking assist (the beeps that measure closeness of the curb or other cars) for $500, a power trunk opening and closing system for $395, and Comfort Plus package - power rear seat, rear seat side airbags, heated steering wheel, heated and cooled seats, power rear sunshade, headlamp washers - for $3,620. Add $715 for destination charges and the bottom line was $71,875.
The LS 460L has a base price of $71,000, also including many nice standards. They added Adaptive Variable Suspension and Gear Ratio Steering for $2,120, a package with upgraded leather, memory power rear seats and rear-seat climate control, for $2,780, sunshades and the temperature sensing in the rear for $1,625, the Mark Levinson audio upgrade for $2,530, and a few other things - the Advanced Parking System is $700, and the pre-collision and radar cruise control is $2,850. With $715 in destination charges, the bottom line here was $85,720.
Okay, so in either case that’s a lot of money for a car, no doubt, and the parking thing is new and probably unnecessary.
But wow. The 2007 LS 460 L is historic.
RATING: FOUR WHEELS (OUT OF FOUR)
Nice review--references the history of the LS and goes into nice detail on the cars.
This review linked through the Denver Post.
04-26-07, 10:20 AM
#112
Super Moderator
Belfast Telegraph Review :
Lexus offers so much car (and so many buttons) for your money.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
By Michael Booth
With unusual - oh, if you must - unprecedented timeliness, I happen to have tested the new Lexus LS460 the week after it was named the World Car of the Year.
No, I had never heard of this award either and, in fact, I generally mistrust car awards. Take the Car of the Year for example, whose votes are cast along much the same partial lines as the Eurovision Song Contest, which usually results in some compromised and undeserving git of a car winning (although sadly not, as yet, the automotive equivalent of Lordi, which I suppose would mean the Land Rover Defender).
To give you some idea, past winners have included the Ford Scorpio, Fiat Brava, Citroen XM and Peugeot 307 which, if you were aiming for a list of the very worst cars of the past 20 years, would be jostling for a place in the upper echelons of the top 10. The Renault Clio is the current holder of the title. It is not a bad car, but neither is it a great one, although it is at least better than the second placed VW Passat - the automotive equivalent of Mogadon - which really ought not to have been allowed anywhere near any shortlist in the first place.
In contrast, the World Car panel seems to be made up of sophisticated, independent, right-thinking car connoisseurs. I say this because they agree with me. The LS460 is the most thoroughly impressive car I have driven this year. As with all big Lexuses, it is a paragon of exterior panel and paint quality; it is packed to its veneered gunwales with absurd technological excess; and it boasts an acoustic refinement comparable to the £300,000 Rolls Royce Phantom I drove last week. And crucially, unlike all big Lexuses I have driven so far, the LS460 is only very slightly naff. While driving it I did experience a sudden brief but unsettling vision of myself as Cliff Michelmore on a trip to an Arndale Centre, but it wasn't enough to put me off.
Unlike all too many cars these days, the LS460 has been designed to appeal to rational grown-ups, so it doesn't have aggressive, quasi-military styling; a dashboard designed by the props man from Battlestar Galactica; nor silly bits copied from F1 cars. Its suspension has not been set up to make it look good on the Top Gear track, nor has its 4.6-litre V8 engine been tuned to sound like Chewbacca having a rigorous prostate exam. That's not to say it isn't phenomenally fast - it is faster than anyone would ever need a car to be - but more importantly, it is subtle and graceful and, in parts, such as the masterful confluence of precision shut lines around the rear lights, really very beautiful.
If the LS460 has a fault, it is technological overkill. Its automatic transmission has eight ratios, for instance, which is about three too many, and there are far too many buttons relating to things like collision avoidance, lane deviance warning and suspension adjustment (just stick it on comfort and be done with it!). It already costs the price of a small terraced house in Hull less than its rivals from Mercedes or BMW - just imagine how cheap it would be if they got rid of all those extraneous geegaws.
There is one other problem: the fuel economy, or lack thereof. But this summer Lexus will launch the LS600h, a hybrid version of the 460 which, knowing Toyota, will be more technologically advanced than CERN, yet cause less fossil disturbance than Ian McEwan researching his latest novel.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
By Michael Booth
With unusual - oh, if you must - unprecedented timeliness, I happen to have tested the new Lexus LS460 the week after it was named the World Car of the Year.
No, I had never heard of this award either and, in fact, I generally mistrust car awards. Take the Car of the Year for example, whose votes are cast along much the same partial lines as the Eurovision Song Contest, which usually results in some compromised and undeserving git of a car winning (although sadly not, as yet, the automotive equivalent of Lordi, which I suppose would mean the Land Rover Defender).
To give you some idea, past winners have included the Ford Scorpio, Fiat Brava, Citroen XM and Peugeot 307 which, if you were aiming for a list of the very worst cars of the past 20 years, would be jostling for a place in the upper echelons of the top 10. The Renault Clio is the current holder of the title. It is not a bad car, but neither is it a great one, although it is at least better than the second placed VW Passat - the automotive equivalent of Mogadon - which really ought not to have been allowed anywhere near any shortlist in the first place.
In contrast, the World Car panel seems to be made up of sophisticated, independent, right-thinking car connoisseurs. I say this because they agree with me. The LS460 is the most thoroughly impressive car I have driven this year. As with all big Lexuses, it is a paragon of exterior panel and paint quality; it is packed to its veneered gunwales with absurd technological excess; and it boasts an acoustic refinement comparable to the £300,000 Rolls Royce Phantom I drove last week. And crucially, unlike all big Lexuses I have driven so far, the LS460 is only very slightly naff. While driving it I did experience a sudden brief but unsettling vision of myself as Cliff Michelmore on a trip to an Arndale Centre, but it wasn't enough to put me off.
Unlike all too many cars these days, the LS460 has been designed to appeal to rational grown-ups, so it doesn't have aggressive, quasi-military styling; a dashboard designed by the props man from Battlestar Galactica; nor silly bits copied from F1 cars. Its suspension has not been set up to make it look good on the Top Gear track, nor has its 4.6-litre V8 engine been tuned to sound like Chewbacca having a rigorous prostate exam. That's not to say it isn't phenomenally fast - it is faster than anyone would ever need a car to be - but more importantly, it is subtle and graceful and, in parts, such as the masterful confluence of precision shut lines around the rear lights, really very beautiful.
If the LS460 has a fault, it is technological overkill. Its automatic transmission has eight ratios, for instance, which is about three too many, and there are far too many buttons relating to things like collision avoidance, lane deviance warning and suspension adjustment (just stick it on comfort and be done with it!). It already costs the price of a small terraced house in Hull less than its rivals from Mercedes or BMW - just imagine how cheap it would be if they got rid of all those extraneous geegaws.
There is one other problem: the fuel economy, or lack thereof. But this summer Lexus will launch the LS600h, a hybrid version of the 460 which, knowing Toyota, will be more technologically advanced than CERN, yet cause less fossil disturbance than Ian McEwan researching his latest novel.
04-27-07, 06:24 PM
#113
Guest
Posts: n/a
05-03-07, 05:46 PM
#114
Super Moderator
Review from theautochannel.com
THE AUTO PAGE
by
JOHN HEILIG
SPECIFICATIONS
Model: Lexus LS460L
Engine: 4.6-liter DOHC V8
Horsepower/Torque: 380 hp @ 6400 rpm/367 lb.-ft. @ 4100 rpm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 121.7 in. +4.8
Length x Width x Height: 202.8 (+4.8) x 73.8 x 58.1 in.
Tires: P235/50R18
Cargo volume: 18.0 cu. ft.
Economy: 18 mpg city/27 mpg highway/22.2 mpg test
Price: $80,977 (includes $715 delivery, processing and handling fee and $9,262 in options)
The Bottom Line – “The car that parks itself” is a trivial part of the definition of this excellent luxury car. There is enormous legroom front and back, plus more than adequate power from a smooth-running V8. If you’re saving your money for a luxury car, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.
From the day it first hit the highways, the Lexus LS flagship sedan has been the benchmark fro quality and quiet. It excels in comfort and luxury, while transporting its passengers in near silence over all road surfaces.
The new Lexus LS460L (for long wheelbase) is about as close to perfection as you can find in a car that’s “reasonably” priced. Yeah, I know, $81,000 isn’t “reasonable” for many of us, but it’s a lot less than you’d spend for a Rolls-Royce or Maybach.
The longer wheelbase adds 4.8 inches over the standard LS at least that much in rear seat legroom (and about $10,000 to the bottom line). Those rear seats are heated (as are the fronts) and can offer almost-reclining comfort.
Despite the added interior room, there is no compromise on trunk space. The trunk, listed at 18.0 cubic feet, is enormous and is a four-bagger for golfers. This means you can take your foursome (they’ll argue over who sits in back for a change) and their bags to the local course. The trunk also offered power lift and shut, a great convenience.
The 4.6-liter V8 engine is also new in the redesigned LS series that shares a lot of the body sculpting with the Camry. This isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. The “old” LS, to me, was kind of bland and almost boring, while the more sculpted `07 version has more character.
The engine offers 380 horsepower, which is more than enough to propel the LS into illegal speed territory quickly. Cruise control (standard Toyota issue behind the wheel in the lower right quadrant) is an economic necessity. The LS is so smooth and quiet that you’ll find yourself speeding without realizing it.
Without cruise, you’ll pay close attention to the instruments, which aren’t as electronic game-styled as in before, but still are clear and crisp.
The engine is hooked to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission. Eight is the new luxury number and that number of gear ratios offers exceedingly smooth transitions from gear-to-gear. Personally, I don’t think eight are necessary, but they certainly do help in the comfort department.
And yes, this is the car that “parks itself.” Intuitive Parking Assist and the Advanced Parking Guidance System ($1,200 total option cost) are neat, even if they do require s lengthy learning curve. Since I only had the car for a week, I did all my automatic parking with the instruction book in front of me. My first shot at parallel parking, I discovered, was on a slight incline, and the system doesn’t work on hills. We tried it later on a flatter surface between to son-in-law cars and it worked.
My next try included pulling backward into my home driveway. The system worked again, although the car stopped in the dead center of the driveway, while I normally pull off to one side.
I takes a large leap of confidence to take your hands off the wheel, brake and accelerator and let the car “do its thing” without any input. But it does work, and I’m sure that if I had had the car for a longer time, I would have been able to park with more confidence.
I was talking with a couple of reporters at a game and one said she was totally “parallel parking challenged” while the other said that near his office, parallel parking was all that was available, so it would work for him.
The LS has an excellent Mark Levinson sound system ($2,530) with auxiliary input for iPods, etc. There’s an intuitive screen that doubles as the navigation system screen that is helpful if you’re tuned to satellite radio, for example. Audio controls are on the steering wheel, and once you figure them out, they’re fine.
Our tester was a tasteful deep maroon with a semi-aniline tan leather interior that included heated and cooled seats up front. It LOOKED expensive, and of course, it was. But in the world of luxury cars, the Lexus LS has been the benchmark from the day it was introduced. It retains its title.
© 2007 The Auto Page Syndicate
by
JOHN HEILIG
SPECIFICATIONS
Model: Lexus LS460L
Engine: 4.6-liter DOHC V8
Horsepower/Torque: 380 hp @ 6400 rpm/367 lb.-ft. @ 4100 rpm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 121.7 in. +4.8
Length x Width x Height: 202.8 (+4.8) x 73.8 x 58.1 in.
Tires: P235/50R18
Cargo volume: 18.0 cu. ft.
Economy: 18 mpg city/27 mpg highway/22.2 mpg test
Price: $80,977 (includes $715 delivery, processing and handling fee and $9,262 in options)
The Bottom Line – “The car that parks itself” is a trivial part of the definition of this excellent luxury car. There is enormous legroom front and back, plus more than adequate power from a smooth-running V8. If you’re saving your money for a luxury car, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.
From the day it first hit the highways, the Lexus LS flagship sedan has been the benchmark fro quality and quiet. It excels in comfort and luxury, while transporting its passengers in near silence over all road surfaces.
The new Lexus LS460L (for long wheelbase) is about as close to perfection as you can find in a car that’s “reasonably” priced. Yeah, I know, $81,000 isn’t “reasonable” for many of us, but it’s a lot less than you’d spend for a Rolls-Royce or Maybach.
The longer wheelbase adds 4.8 inches over the standard LS at least that much in rear seat legroom (and about $10,000 to the bottom line). Those rear seats are heated (as are the fronts) and can offer almost-reclining comfort.
Despite the added interior room, there is no compromise on trunk space. The trunk, listed at 18.0 cubic feet, is enormous and is a four-bagger for golfers. This means you can take your foursome (they’ll argue over who sits in back for a change) and their bags to the local course. The trunk also offered power lift and shut, a great convenience.
The 4.6-liter V8 engine is also new in the redesigned LS series that shares a lot of the body sculpting with the Camry. This isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. The “old” LS, to me, was kind of bland and almost boring, while the more sculpted `07 version has more character.
The engine offers 380 horsepower, which is more than enough to propel the LS into illegal speed territory quickly. Cruise control (standard Toyota issue behind the wheel in the lower right quadrant) is an economic necessity. The LS is so smooth and quiet that you’ll find yourself speeding without realizing it.
Without cruise, you’ll pay close attention to the instruments, which aren’t as electronic game-styled as in before, but still are clear and crisp.
The engine is hooked to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission. Eight is the new luxury number and that number of gear ratios offers exceedingly smooth transitions from gear-to-gear. Personally, I don’t think eight are necessary, but they certainly do help in the comfort department.
And yes, this is the car that “parks itself.” Intuitive Parking Assist and the Advanced Parking Guidance System ($1,200 total option cost) are neat, even if they do require s lengthy learning curve. Since I only had the car for a week, I did all my automatic parking with the instruction book in front of me. My first shot at parallel parking, I discovered, was on a slight incline, and the system doesn’t work on hills. We tried it later on a flatter surface between to son-in-law cars and it worked.
My next try included pulling backward into my home driveway. The system worked again, although the car stopped in the dead center of the driveway, while I normally pull off to one side.
I takes a large leap of confidence to take your hands off the wheel, brake and accelerator and let the car “do its thing” without any input. But it does work, and I’m sure that if I had had the car for a longer time, I would have been able to park with more confidence.
I was talking with a couple of reporters at a game and one said she was totally “parallel parking challenged” while the other said that near his office, parallel parking was all that was available, so it would work for him.
The LS has an excellent Mark Levinson sound system ($2,530) with auxiliary input for iPods, etc. There’s an intuitive screen that doubles as the navigation system screen that is helpful if you’re tuned to satellite radio, for example. Audio controls are on the steering wheel, and once you figure them out, they’re fine.
Our tester was a tasteful deep maroon with a semi-aniline tan leather interior that included heated and cooled seats up front. It LOOKED expensive, and of course, it was. But in the world of luxury cars, the Lexus LS has been the benchmark from the day it was introduced. It retains its title.
© 2007 The Auto Page Syndicate
.
06-08-07, 10:38 PM
#115
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
New road test on the LS600h L on familycar.com
This is a pretty lengthy article that is quite positive http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/LexusLS600/
This article only talks about the features that are different from the LS460 L. Their article on the LS460 and LS460 L is at http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/LexusLS460/
This article only talks about the features that are different from the LS460 L. Their article on the LS460 and LS460 L is at http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/LexusLS460/
06-20-07, 10:39 PM
#116
Lead Lap
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: CA
Posts: 717
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
07-29-07, 08:51 PM
#117
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: CA
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
"The new Lexus may not be as pretty as the Audi, or as powerful as the Mercedes, or as driver-focused as the 750i, but it is the only one that can park itself. And in the fad-driven, gizmo-obsessed luxury sedan market, that makes it the darling of the moment."
1. Alright prettiness is very very subjective. All of the the above cars mentioned are comparably on the same par on good looks. No one's going to say "Hey you're car's nice but the Audi A8 is nicer" if you roll up into the driveway. They're all very, very nice looking luxury cars.
2. The Mercedes Benz S-class is comparable just as fast but it's way more expensive and the engine is much bigger (5.5 liter S550 compared to LS460 4.6 liter). Also the s550 only has 382hp, which is only 2hp more than the LS460 for an engine with a full liter larger displacement. The Lexus is also lighter by 300-400 lbs depending on if you get the Long wheelbase version of the LS460.
3. Driver focused 750? What does that mean (iDrive? lol)? And how does the Lexus advanced parking guidance and navigation systems not "driver focused."
This review or at least that section makes it look like the only thing the Lexus LS460 has over the other cars is the parking computer.
1. Alright prettiness is very very subjective. All of the the above cars mentioned are comparably on the same par on good looks. No one's going to say "Hey you're car's nice but the Audi A8 is nicer" if you roll up into the driveway. They're all very, very nice looking luxury cars.
2. The Mercedes Benz S-class is comparable just as fast but it's way more expensive and the engine is much bigger (5.5 liter S550 compared to LS460 4.6 liter). Also the s550 only has 382hp, which is only 2hp more than the LS460 for an engine with a full liter larger displacement. The Lexus is also lighter by 300-400 lbs depending on if you get the Long wheelbase version of the LS460.
3. Driver focused 750? What does that mean (iDrive? lol)? And how does the Lexus advanced parking guidance and navigation systems not "driver focused."
This review or at least that section makes it look like the only thing the Lexus LS460 has over the other cars is the parking computer.
07-30-07, 02:04 AM
#118
Motor Trend LS 460 test update...
Motor Trend Fleet updates:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/..._lexus_ls_460/
MT Asphalt Jungle column:
http://www.motortrend.com/features/e...sphalt_jungle/
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/..._lexus_ls_460/
As Reynolds discovers, though, the LS at least drives like a dream. "After journeying to Phoenix and back, I have to say that this is one fantastic machine for long-distance driving. My mileage for the round trip was 25 mpg, and the range is simply extraordinary-it appears to be about 530 miles on the highway."
http://www.motortrend.com/features/e...sphalt_jungle/
Fortunately, before I'd descended into the ninth circle of Hughes, I discovered the perfect antidote to L.A.'s roadgoing toxins: our long-term Lexus LS 460. If there's an automobile that better defends its driver from the slings and arrows of outrageous things that happen on the other side of the windshield, I haven't driven it.
Mind you, the LS 460 is not a sensory-deprivation chamber in the grand tradition of Bygone Detroit - i.e., steering ratio inspired by lottery odds, body panels stuffed full of old issues of National Geographic, shock absorbers set on "Brie." Instead, it's almost as if the Lexus injects its occupants with an invisible dose of Prozac: You still notice the annoying things going on around you, but you just don't care.
Mind you, the LS 460 is not a sensory-deprivation chamber in the grand tradition of Bygone Detroit - i.e., steering ratio inspired by lottery odds, body panels stuffed full of old issues of National Geographic, shock absorbers set on "Brie." Instead, it's almost as if the Lexus injects its occupants with an invisible dose of Prozac: You still notice the annoying things going on around you, but you just don't care.
08-02-07, 01:51 AM
#119
Lead Lap
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: CA
Posts: 717
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
or as powerful as the Mercedes
The new Lexus may not be as pretty as the Audi
09-27-07, 10:54 PM
#120
Roadfly LS 460 L review: http://www.roadfly.com/2007-lexus-ls460l.html
Carsreview.com LS 460 L test drive: http://reviews.carreview.com/blog/20...-460-l-review/
Carsreview.com LS 460 L test drive: http://reviews.carreview.com/blog/20...-460-l-review/