Road Test

Andy Stonehouse
August 25, 2007

As Toyota’s marquee brand, Lexus has long come to epitomize a level of impeccably detailed perfection that rivals the European luxury models — yet is not in the shop every second week, as the German cars tend to require.

It’s no surprise, then, that the brand-new Lexus LS brings with it a rolling cocoon of comfort and technology. And despite having more automated systems and technological doodads than an Airbus, the new LS 460 is grand, gracious and absolutely stunning. Even better, its smooth, sweeping looks are much more like the new GS line than the boxy previous version of the LS.

It’s also still pretty fun to drive, despite some detractors’ comments suggesting that the vehicle has robotically done away with the joy of the motoring experience. Finally, it’s not cheap — the vehicle starts at $71,000 and very quickly arrived at $85,720 with some important options — but it’s damned classy. Here’s what I discovered during my drive.

I borrowed an LS 460L (featuring an additional 4.8 inches of space than the standard model) during a weekend jaunt from Phoenix to Sedona, Ariz., where I offered to play chauffeur to my parents, plus an aunt and uncle.

Picking up the car at the airport, it took me a full half-hour to acquaint myself with the basics of the LS’s techno-envelope, including the voice-activated navigation system, the 19-speaker, 450-watt Mark Levinson surround-sound system and DVD changer (with a built-in, 2,000-song-worthy hard drive and XM radio, as well as finding the perfect blend of buttons that control the air suspension and such).

But when I headed north on Interstate 17, the large and powerful 460L quite capably held its own and kept pace with the crowd of Arizonans, all of whom seem to drive 95 mph when not stuck in gridlocked traffic. Electric power steering and 18-inch wheels are certainly more suited to cruising than extreme high-speed agility — for those who want that buy the IS models. Anyhow, the LS’s more sedate experience seemed perfectly fine.

The big Lexus features a 380-horsepower 4.6-liter V-8 engine, connected to the much ballyhooed eight-speed transmission; add all of those numbers up and you get power that’s remarkably smooth, subtle and capable, with the car hitting 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. All of that displacement — even with the automobile’s considerable 4,332-pound curb weight and 203 inches of length — still generates up to 27 mpg on the highway.

The car’s interior is indeed the lap of luxury, with sumptuous leather seating (which can be heated or cooled and infinitely adjusted) and loads of beautiful walnut, maple or ash wood highlights. Your pick, of course.

Those who’ve watched TV in the last half-year know the LS 460 as the Lexus that parks itself, although that particular subset of the car’s technological experience is very much more for show than practicality.

Essentially, the Lexus uses a complicated system to determine if there’s enough space to parallel park itself (a matrix of lines come up on the navigation display/rear-view camera, which you have to point to confirm); you then take a magical leap of faith and throw the car in reverse, and it spins the wheel for you (you get to keep control of the speed using the brake pedal) and effortlessly moves the car into the right spot.

At least it does on paper. We messed around with the parking system for two days and finally determined that if you’re not competent enough to parallel park an $85,720 car by yourself (or can’t hire someone to do it for you), you probably shouldn’t be driving in the first place.

More practical is the dynamic radar-cruise-control system and the pre-collision system: The former automatically slows and speeds your pace in traffic, the latter senses the potential for a crash and pre-tightens your seatbelts and primes the brakes for extra stopping power.

The family loved the large back seat and extra leg room; the middle of the back seat wasn’t especially suited for long trips (the transmission hump is fairly large), but we managed many hours of happy motoring nonetheless.

If you plan on spending many hours as a back-seat passenger, the optional Executive Class starting package can provide leg rests that adjust to 45 degrees, plus a retractable wood-trimmed table. My goodness.