Thoughts after one week of ownership
01-21-07, 06:49 PM
#1
Driver
Thread Starter
Thoughts after one week of ownership
After one week and about 300 miles of owning my LS460L, I thought I would take some notes on my initial thoughts on the ownership experience for those of you who are still thinking about buying one. I've been taking notes throughout the week on things that catch my attention, and they are a bit random, so pardon me if this comes across a bit unorganized.
First of all, I am absolutely thrilled with the car. It has exceeded my expectations in just about every way, and I look forward to having a need to go somewhere so that I can spend more time in the car. The quality of the interior, the smoothness and power of the engine, and the amazing assortment of technology have made this an incredibly fun car to drive. I am very pleased that I chose this car over the Mercedes Benz S550, which was the only other car I was considering.
Because the car is such an incredible vehicle, the things I am going to write about may seem a bit petty, but that is to be expected when you drive a car as tremendous as this. In any case, I'm curious to see what other owners think about my observations to see if it's just me, or if others have noticed the same things. So here goes:
The brakes: they seem different from my LS430, which I thought had incredible brakes. These brakes just seem a little less natural to me, and a little bit touchy. It's not enough to be a real problem, but I suspect the electronically controlled braking just tends to give the brakes a little bit less of a natural feel than what I am used to driving.
The horn seems a little bit hard to use. The two logical places where I would typically press the horn are taken up with a telephone button and a volume up/down control. In addition, I find the volume control hard to use. In the LS430 the up/down buttons are vertically mounted, but in the LS460 they are horizontal, which makes it difficult for me to reach with my thumb (especially the up button). I find that whenever I honk the horn I also advance the song I'm playing on the DVD player.
The rear windshield is more slanted than in the LS430, which reduces the overall visibility out of the rear of the car.
The advanced parking guidance system is pretty worthless. I've tried more than a dozen times to get it to work and at best I would say it has worked twice. It almost never can detect the spot I want to use, and even playing around with the arrows, moving the car back and forth, and trying anything to get a green box to show up has failed to work. I suspect I will eventually figure it out, but nobody could suggest that parallel parking the car the old fashioned way could be even remotely as difficult as getting this system to do it for you.
The music recording capability is a very nice feature, and I've downloaded more than 15 records so far. Every one I have downloaded has been properly identified by the gracenotes database. I have also tried recording some individual songs that I downloaded from Itunes. While it worked fine, I had to manually enter the song titles and artists for these songs. Where the system seems to fall short is in managing the music. This is very rudimentary compared to an Ipod. There are no playlists, and you can only display a small amount of information on the screen at a time, so if you want to see all of the songs on the hard drive, be prepared to hit the up/down button hundreds of times once you fully load the hard drive up with music. In addition, the screen can only display two pieces of information about the song - artist, album, song title. You can't display all three of these at once, as far as I can tell. I suspect they will fix these things in a future model.
If you plan on downloading hundreds of CDs to the hard drive, this could prove to be a challenge. The car must be on to record music from a CD, and it is not practical to run the car battery without the engine running. After a while you will end up with a dead battery. Nor is it practical to run the engine just to record music. So basically you are left with adding music to your library while you are driving the car. To make things more complicated, you can not begin the record process while the car is driving, so you will need to coordinate selecting the CD and tracks you want to record at red lights and stop signs. Lexus would have been much better off simply allowing you to synchronize with either an Ipod or similar portable audio device that you load with music from a computer in your home. I'm not sure what they were thinking when they advertised the capability of adding 2,000 songs to the hard drive. This could take you thousands of miles of driving to accomplish, all while you are trying to drive safely and without distractions at the same time. I suspect many people will not bother with this and will just plug their Ipod into the auxiliary input jack.
Speaking of the sound system - did I mention the 19 speaker ML sound system? Awesome is the only word I can think of to describe it. I haven't even tried a DVD-audio disc, but I have one on order which will arrive on Wednesday. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like. It should really show off the true capabilities of the system.
The navigation system with traffic updates is far better than the LS430. The screen is very easy to read and I like the new woman's voice much better than the voice in the LS430. I've only used the traffic update a few times, but it definitely rerouted me around a major traffic jam in Los Angeles and got me home much faster than I normally would have arrived had I gone the usual route.
The bluetooth phone seems to work much better than it did in my LS430. The sound quality is better, the connection is reliable, and I get connected in time to hear the person answer the phone, rather than the delay the LS430 had. The answer/hangup button on the steering wheel is a great addition, also lacking in the LS430.
The LWB model is noticeably bigger than the LS430, and it takes some getting used to. I find that I have to look extra far toward the side of the car to make sure there is nobody on my left or right before I switch lanes. When I twist my neck to the left, instead of seeing out of the rear window, I see out of the pillar that separates the two doors. Also, when I back up, the rear seat appears to be really far away from me. It just takes some getting used to I guess, but not really a big deal.
The glove compartment is made of plastic instead of the leather I had on the LS430 (ultra luxury model only). The glove compartment seems to be a bit of an after thought. It's not nearly as elegant as every other component in the car. In addition, the doors have a little more plastic on them than the LS430 UL did.
The heated steering wheel is fantastic. With the cold California weather we have been having, a warm toasty leather steering wheel feels fantastic to touch!
The rear seat in my car is supposed to have body temperature sensors and air diffusers, however I can not find anything in the manual the describes where these are or how they work. I looked around the Lexus web site as well and could not find any documentation on them. If I set the temperature in the back seat to 74 degrees, how will it be different if the passenger in the rear is particularly warm or cold? I can't figure this out.
I love the power trunk opener/closer. That has got to be one of the best improvements over the LS430 design!
I'm not sure about the brake hold feature yet. It's interesting, but when I use it I can't quite figure out where to put my foot instead of having it rest on the brake. It also feels a little wierd to not have that rolling start that you normally get when you take your foot off the brake and get ready to accelerate. In stop and go traffic it definitely is not useful and makes me a little uncomfortable if I need to just move a few feet forward. I find it better to disable it in these circumstances. I'm going to continue trying it out to see if it is something that grows on me over time.
The rear seat is so over the top luxurious I'm almost bummed out that I will probaly never get to sit in it. The recline feature really works well in this car because it has so much leg room. Unfortunately I don't have the massager in this car as I did in the LS430, and everyone who has rode in the back seat so far has commented on it. I do have power side and rear shades though. In the LS430 the rear shades were manual, and I had one passenger who always put them up and left them up when he left the car, and left it up to me to take them down. I don't particularly like how the view is obscured when they are up, so I generally leave them in the down position. Having them all operate electronically really is a big improvement.
The steering on the car seems tighter than the LS430. It still is not a BMW, but it definitely seems to corner better than the LS430. I have tried the sport, normal and comfort mode briefly. I can't say I noticed much difference between them, but I suspect I will after I drive the car a while longer.
So, to sum it up, there are a lot of little things that I noticed in my first week of ownership, but what I notice the most is the big smile I have every time I get in the car. This is truly the best car I have ever driven, and maybe the best luxury car you can possibly buy. I suppose there are things you get in a Bentley or Rolls that you won't get in a Lexus. However, if you love the technology aspects of a car (as I do), I don't think you will ever find a car more technologically complex than this one, and so for me, that makes it the only car I'm interested in driving. I highly recommend the LS460 to anyone who is on the edge, and I can't even imagine how boring it would be for me if I had chosen the Mercedes.
Sorry for the long rambling. Hope it's helpful to whoever ran across it.
Cheers.
First of all, I am absolutely thrilled with the car. It has exceeded my expectations in just about every way, and I look forward to having a need to go somewhere so that I can spend more time in the car. The quality of the interior, the smoothness and power of the engine, and the amazing assortment of technology have made this an incredibly fun car to drive. I am very pleased that I chose this car over the Mercedes Benz S550, which was the only other car I was considering.
Because the car is such an incredible vehicle, the things I am going to write about may seem a bit petty, but that is to be expected when you drive a car as tremendous as this. In any case, I'm curious to see what other owners think about my observations to see if it's just me, or if others have noticed the same things. So here goes:
The brakes: they seem different from my LS430, which I thought had incredible brakes. These brakes just seem a little less natural to me, and a little bit touchy. It's not enough to be a real problem, but I suspect the electronically controlled braking just tends to give the brakes a little bit less of a natural feel than what I am used to driving.
The horn seems a little bit hard to use. The two logical places where I would typically press the horn are taken up with a telephone button and a volume up/down control. In addition, I find the volume control hard to use. In the LS430 the up/down buttons are vertically mounted, but in the LS460 they are horizontal, which makes it difficult for me to reach with my thumb (especially the up button). I find that whenever I honk the horn I also advance the song I'm playing on the DVD player.
The rear windshield is more slanted than in the LS430, which reduces the overall visibility out of the rear of the car.
The advanced parking guidance system is pretty worthless. I've tried more than a dozen times to get it to work and at best I would say it has worked twice. It almost never can detect the spot I want to use, and even playing around with the arrows, moving the car back and forth, and trying anything to get a green box to show up has failed to work. I suspect I will eventually figure it out, but nobody could suggest that parallel parking the car the old fashioned way could be even remotely as difficult as getting this system to do it for you.
The music recording capability is a very nice feature, and I've downloaded more than 15 records so far. Every one I have downloaded has been properly identified by the gracenotes database. I have also tried recording some individual songs that I downloaded from Itunes. While it worked fine, I had to manually enter the song titles and artists for these songs. Where the system seems to fall short is in managing the music. This is very rudimentary compared to an Ipod. There are no playlists, and you can only display a small amount of information on the screen at a time, so if you want to see all of the songs on the hard drive, be prepared to hit the up/down button hundreds of times once you fully load the hard drive up with music. In addition, the screen can only display two pieces of information about the song - artist, album, song title. You can't display all three of these at once, as far as I can tell. I suspect they will fix these things in a future model.
If you plan on downloading hundreds of CDs to the hard drive, this could prove to be a challenge. The car must be on to record music from a CD, and it is not practical to run the car battery without the engine running. After a while you will end up with a dead battery. Nor is it practical to run the engine just to record music. So basically you are left with adding music to your library while you are driving the car. To make things more complicated, you can not begin the record process while the car is driving, so you will need to coordinate selecting the CD and tracks you want to record at red lights and stop signs. Lexus would have been much better off simply allowing you to synchronize with either an Ipod or similar portable audio device that you load with music from a computer in your home. I'm not sure what they were thinking when they advertised the capability of adding 2,000 songs to the hard drive. This could take you thousands of miles of driving to accomplish, all while you are trying to drive safely and without distractions at the same time. I suspect many people will not bother with this and will just plug their Ipod into the auxiliary input jack.
Speaking of the sound system - did I mention the 19 speaker ML sound system? Awesome is the only word I can think of to describe it. I haven't even tried a DVD-audio disc, but I have one on order which will arrive on Wednesday. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like. It should really show off the true capabilities of the system.
The navigation system with traffic updates is far better than the LS430. The screen is very easy to read and I like the new woman's voice much better than the voice in the LS430. I've only used the traffic update a few times, but it definitely rerouted me around a major traffic jam in Los Angeles and got me home much faster than I normally would have arrived had I gone the usual route.
The bluetooth phone seems to work much better than it did in my LS430. The sound quality is better, the connection is reliable, and I get connected in time to hear the person answer the phone, rather than the delay the LS430 had. The answer/hangup button on the steering wheel is a great addition, also lacking in the LS430.
The LWB model is noticeably bigger than the LS430, and it takes some getting used to. I find that I have to look extra far toward the side of the car to make sure there is nobody on my left or right before I switch lanes. When I twist my neck to the left, instead of seeing out of the rear window, I see out of the pillar that separates the two doors. Also, when I back up, the rear seat appears to be really far away from me. It just takes some getting used to I guess, but not really a big deal.
The glove compartment is made of plastic instead of the leather I had on the LS430 (ultra luxury model only). The glove compartment seems to be a bit of an after thought. It's not nearly as elegant as every other component in the car. In addition, the doors have a little more plastic on them than the LS430 UL did.
The heated steering wheel is fantastic. With the cold California weather we have been having, a warm toasty leather steering wheel feels fantastic to touch!
The rear seat in my car is supposed to have body temperature sensors and air diffusers, however I can not find anything in the manual the describes where these are or how they work. I looked around the Lexus web site as well and could not find any documentation on them. If I set the temperature in the back seat to 74 degrees, how will it be different if the passenger in the rear is particularly warm or cold? I can't figure this out.
I love the power trunk opener/closer. That has got to be one of the best improvements over the LS430 design!
I'm not sure about the brake hold feature yet. It's interesting, but when I use it I can't quite figure out where to put my foot instead of having it rest on the brake. It also feels a little wierd to not have that rolling start that you normally get when you take your foot off the brake and get ready to accelerate. In stop and go traffic it definitely is not useful and makes me a little uncomfortable if I need to just move a few feet forward. I find it better to disable it in these circumstances. I'm going to continue trying it out to see if it is something that grows on me over time.
The rear seat is so over the top luxurious I'm almost bummed out that I will probaly never get to sit in it. The recline feature really works well in this car because it has so much leg room. Unfortunately I don't have the massager in this car as I did in the LS430, and everyone who has rode in the back seat so far has commented on it. I do have power side and rear shades though. In the LS430 the rear shades were manual, and I had one passenger who always put them up and left them up when he left the car, and left it up to me to take them down. I don't particularly like how the view is obscured when they are up, so I generally leave them in the down position. Having them all operate electronically really is a big improvement.
The steering on the car seems tighter than the LS430. It still is not a BMW, but it definitely seems to corner better than the LS430. I have tried the sport, normal and comfort mode briefly. I can't say I noticed much difference between them, but I suspect I will after I drive the car a while longer.
So, to sum it up, there are a lot of little things that I noticed in my first week of ownership, but what I notice the most is the big smile I have every time I get in the car. This is truly the best car I have ever driven, and maybe the best luxury car you can possibly buy. I suppose there are things you get in a Bentley or Rolls that you won't get in a Lexus. However, if you love the technology aspects of a car (as I do), I don't think you will ever find a car more technologically complex than this one, and so for me, that makes it the only car I'm interested in driving. I highly recommend the LS460 to anyone who is on the edge, and I can't even imagine how boring it would be for me if I had chosen the Mercedes.
Sorry for the long rambling. Hope it's helpful to whoever ran across it.
Cheers.
Last edited by exBMWowner; 01-21-07 at 08:24 PM.
01-21-07, 06:56 PM
#2
Forum Administrator
iTrader: (2)
Nice writeup, thank you! 
01-22-07, 05:53 AM
#5
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FL
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The navigation system with traffic updates is far better than the LS430. The screen is very easy to read and I like the new woman's voice much better than the voice in the LS430. I've only used the traffic update a few times, but it definitely rerouted me around a major traffic jam in Los Angeles and got me home much faster than I normally would have arrived had I gone the usual route.
Regarding the Advanced Park Assist, you will get better once you keep using it, at first I thought the same thing (I did not want that feature but it was already in the car) but now I am getting so much better on the paralell that it is a breeze so if you keep using it you will get better at it.
Again, congratulations and thanks for such a great personal report.
01-22-07, 11:34 AM
#6
Thanks for the writeup!!! Glad you are enjoying the car. I think you made very good points about the vehicle.
Regarding the diffusers, they are rounded items above the passengers' heads on the rear seat roof liner...
Hehe and in LA I recently wished I had a steering wheel heater!
Regarding the diffusers, they are rounded items above the passengers' heads on the rear seat roof liner...
Hehe and in LA I recently wished I had a steering wheel heater!
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01-22-07, 04:11 PM
#9
Driver
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Indiana
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Just curious
Are you getting any wind noise,more than the LS430?
Do you hear the faint diesel engine like ticking at idle or coasting speeds?
In direct sun light does you glove box door look like it has been properly dyed
or does it look faded or almost like some areas have not been dyed or have very little dye.
Do you hear the faint diesel engine like ticking at idle or coasting speeds?
In direct sun light does you glove box door look like it has been properly dyed
or does it look faded or almost like some areas have not been dyed or have very little dye.
01-22-07, 04:23 PM
#10
Driver
Thread Starter
Are you getting any wind noise,more than the LS430?
Do you hear the faint diesel engine like ticking at idle or coasting speeds?
In direct sun light does you glove box door look like it has been properly dyed
or does it look faded or almost like some areas have not been dyed or have very little dye.
Do you hear the faint diesel engine like ticking at idle or coasting speeds?
In direct sun light does you glove box door look like it has been properly dyed
or does it look faded or almost like some areas have not been dyed or have very little dye.
The one odd thing I noticed is that the carpets came extremely dirty from the dealer. I didn't notice until after they left. I have tried cleaning them with warm water. At times, they still look really dirty. Other times, they look perfectly clean. The way the sun hits them seems to have a major impact on their appearance. I have not noticed this with the glove box though.
Regarding the nav traffic, I am not really sure how long the traffic delay was. I had the auto reroute option on, and it prompted me to ask if I wanted it to reroute the system. Traffic in LA can be absurd, and I wouldn't doubt if it was a 10 mile or longer backup.
01-22-07, 05:15 PM
#11
Driver
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Canada
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I also feel that the glove box is a little plasticky and somehow is below the standard of some of the other features of the car e.g. the centre console which is designed very elegantly.
Even the total volume of the glove box is less than in the LS430 and I miss the dual gloveboxes.
But I love the car.
Even the total volume of the glove box is less than in the LS430 and I miss the dual gloveboxes.
But I love the car.
01-25-07, 09:31 AM
#14
Pole Position
test drove a new 2007,, was certainly nice but just not ready to let go of the 05 with only 20k on the meter,,
did notice the difference in the feeling of the braking,, also felt like the drivers seat was a tad tighter for my 6'4" frame,,
did notice the difference in the feeling of the braking,, also felt like the drivers seat was a tad tighter for my 6'4" frame,,
01-26-07, 07:54 AM
#15
Driver
Thread Starter
Week two of ownership
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to provide a quick update after completing the second week of ownership. This car just continues to impress me with its sophistication and amazing design. It is an absolute joy to drive and I continue to find more things about it that I like each time I drive it.
I thought I’d mention a few more observations from driving the car over the past two weeks.
1) I have downloaded about 30 CDs to the hard drive. All 30 have been properly recognized by the Gracenotes database and labeled correctly. I had one disc that was not able to record one song properly. I received a “disk error” message while it was trying to read the song. It’s probably not a big deal, but I know my computer was able to read it when I downloaded it to Itunes.
2) One time when I tried to open my trunk by pressing on the button under the trunk lid, it unlocked the trunk but the power door opener did not open the trunk. It just unlocked it, but otherwise would not move, similar to how the trunk on the LS430 worked. Using the key fob I tried it again and it worked fine.
3) The auto feature on the headlight failed to turn off the headlights during daylight driving one morning. I was able to reset it by turning it to “off”, and then back to “auto”. I’ve never seen that before on the LS430.
4) My traffic updates stopped working yesterday. After spending an hour on the phone fighting with XM, they agreed to reset my 90 day trial, and then it started working again. The XM music was working fine, just no traffic data.
None of these things are really a big deal, but I suspect all of this new technology still has a few bugs to be worked out. I’m confident that Lexus will take care of things if they present a real problem, so I’m not concerned about it. Just hoping that I’ve experienced the majority of little surprises and otherwise hope to see everything stabilize shortly.
I’m curious to know if any other owners have experienced any of these little quirks. Anyways, I’m still loving the car. It’s amazing!
Just wanted to provide a quick update after completing the second week of ownership. This car just continues to impress me with its sophistication and amazing design. It is an absolute joy to drive and I continue to find more things about it that I like each time I drive it.
I thought I’d mention a few more observations from driving the car over the past two weeks.
1) I have downloaded about 30 CDs to the hard drive. All 30 have been properly recognized by the Gracenotes database and labeled correctly. I had one disc that was not able to record one song properly. I received a “disk error” message while it was trying to read the song. It’s probably not a big deal, but I know my computer was able to read it when I downloaded it to Itunes.
2) One time when I tried to open my trunk by pressing on the button under the trunk lid, it unlocked the trunk but the power door opener did not open the trunk. It just unlocked it, but otherwise would not move, similar to how the trunk on the LS430 worked. Using the key fob I tried it again and it worked fine.
3) The auto feature on the headlight failed to turn off the headlights during daylight driving one morning. I was able to reset it by turning it to “off”, and then back to “auto”. I’ve never seen that before on the LS430.
4) My traffic updates stopped working yesterday. After spending an hour on the phone fighting with XM, they agreed to reset my 90 day trial, and then it started working again. The XM music was working fine, just no traffic data.
None of these things are really a big deal, but I suspect all of this new technology still has a few bugs to be worked out. I’m confident that Lexus will take care of things if they present a real problem, so I’m not concerned about it. Just hoping that I’ve experienced the majority of little surprises and otherwise hope to see everything stabilize shortly.
I’m curious to know if any other owners have experienced any of these little quirks. Anyways, I’m still loving the car. It’s amazing!