2007 LEXUS LS 460 L

They’re stammering in Stuttgart, they’re shaking in Swabia and they’re incredulous in Ingolstadt… thanks, Lexus, for all you’ve done to upset the world’s luxury car balance

In the great global high-end car theater, the German Three have held sway for more than a generation. First it was Mercedes-Benz, bringing a Teutonic status and European elegance to what the market came to know was good and right. Mercedes, frankly, set the standard. BMW piped in with its own bundes of titanic cars reserved for aristocracy and those who want to pretend they belong in that rarified status. Most recently Audi has, through guile and design, technology and tenacity, snuck in to give us a more-than worthy option in the A8 L, a car AutoWeek readers have repeatedly crowned the best luxury car available on these shores.

Well, boys, the toys in your sandbox have just been scattered. That’s because Lexus introduced its LS 460, in short- and long-wheelbase (LS 460 L) configurations, to a buyer segment hungry for style, efficiency, price competitiveness, and that’s chock-full of electronic amenities reserved for ultra-exclusive chariots from Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Maybach. In other words, the ante just got upped.

While the LS 460 L test car I had for the weekend topped out at an astounding $86,000 and change—astounding because who in their mind could have even suggested a Japanese automaker could command near $90k for one of its cars just a few short years ago?—it supplied the experience that cars of its ilk, and cars costing 10, 20 and 30 percent more, cherish giving. That’s the good news. The better news is that in many ways the LS 460 L did it with the latest technology available and in as seamless a manner as possible.

What’s “seamless” mean? It is what’s expected, and there is little room to argue with it. The leather seats are spectacular, both in finish and in comfort; the hand-grabs seem to be the precise diameter for everyone’s hand to fit comfortably (how is that possible?); the navigation system identifies accidents that lie ahead and forewarn you of impending congestion; the ride is silk; the power possessive; the comfort in the back would thrill a sultan.

And then there is the way it presents itself. After spending tens of millions of dollars on establishing design studios around the world in an effort to embrace a global influence and to attract the brightest design minds, this LS 460 L’s shape is uniquely Lexus (no derivative here) and incredibly attractive. For a company that had been dinged time and again as delivering boring, repetitious and derivative styling, that seems to be the last cog in the marque’s wheel.

Can we ***** and moan? What self-respecting automotive journalist would leave a critique without the opportunity to do so? Well, this one, that’s who.