Approach angle / ground clearance of LC500

LDeleuran

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I am tinkering with the idea of getting an LC500. Unfortunately the slope down to my garage is rather steep, and I do not want to park the car outside.

When my CT200h drives down the driveway, its 20cm front clearance is reduced to 6cm where it is closest to the ground. The difference between the CT and LC is supposedly +4.0cm of front overhang and -6.7cm ride height.

Basic geometry tells me that this will not work. However. I have measured the ride height of my CT at the front lip as being 20cm, where the spec sheet says 14cm of ride height. If the LC measures 15cm or taller at the front lip (or 'splitter'), then it should be possible to get one without having to rent another garage.

There is also another thing that bothers me. When I went to the dealership I was recommended against getting an LC by the salesperson. I am looking for a cruiser, and the GSF is no longer available here, so I though the LC would have been the ideal match. Am I wrong about this?
 

Ian Schmidt

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Why did the salesperson recommend against it? It seems weird to me that they wouldn't want to sell you a $100k car.
 

LDeleuran

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I don't know. It might be a sales tactic :D

I was supposed to have a test drive tomorrow, but it just got cancelled due to the car being sold. I have called another dealership for a test drive next week. Hopefully third time is the charm.

But I would really like to know if I can park it at home.
 

Ian Schmidt

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I think the test will be to actually try taking it into your driveway on the test drive. If it fails the dealership won't be too happy, but it's certainly important to know :laughing:
 

LDeleuran

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I asked them and it was a definite nono! I am under no circumstances allowed to even attempt that! :D

My new test drive is scheduled for Friday. I found a dealership 600km away which has one available.
 

mmcartalk

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Sometimes you can solve problems with low-air-dams and other low-hanging body parts over ramps and angles by putting durable boards over the area you will be going over. They will help lift the car another inch or two, gradually, over the angles and sometimes prevent the air dams from hitting. It depends, of course, exactly how the vehicle is designed, the amount of clearance you have, and the nature of the bend/angle itself. Going over the bend at an angle helps, too.....I often do that with my Lacrosse.
 

LDeleuran

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I have measured the ground clearance at the front to be 17cm on 20 inch Winter tires.

With my CT being 20cm above the ground with 4cm shorter front overhang and a 6cm ground clearance while parking, the geometry adds up and I should be able to get the LC through the ramp I have to the parking garage without additional floor boards.
 

mikeavelli

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I have a really steep entry into into my driveway. The modified LC and RF C with bodykits can slowly be taken up at an angle. Any other way and there could be an issue.

With a stock LC you should be okay. Maybe ask for a loaner or some way to test it?
 

LDeleuran

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Unfortunately it was completely out of the question to get a loaner. The dealership in Hamburg (700km away) was helpful in letting me measure the height of the front lip, and also gave me the height difference between the car with and without driver. With those numbers my Greek friend, Pythagoras, convinced me that the car would fit. A couple of days ago it cleared the ramp, and now sits nicely in the underground car park.
 

krew

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Unfortunately it was completely out of the question to get a loaner. The dealership in Hamburg (700km away) was helpful in letting me measure the height of the front lip, and also gave me the height difference between the car with and without driver. With those numbers my Greek friend, Pythagoras, convinced me that the car would fit. A couple of days ago it cleared the ramp, and now sits nicely in the underground car park.

That's awesome, congratulations!
 

LDeleuran

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Thanks. The car is great. There are some idiosyncrasies in it - especially in the infotainment. Everything else is even above expectations. I did not expect the car to be able to both cruise silently at 160km/h and be a complete riot when accelerating.

Having read and viewed tons of reviews first, I noticed how all reviewers simply say the infotainment is bad. At most they give a run-on sentence like "it's complicated to get to the seat heating". I don't know if it is due to time constraints, laziness, or lack of understanding of UI's, but there are a series of very obvious reasons why the track pad system is such an Achilles heel. I am puzzling with the idea of making a video of it. With Lexus already moving on to touch pad, it might be good to properly see what went wrong with the old system.
 

krew

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I'm in Europe. I have neither Carplay, Entune, nor Alexa.

What a fragmented world we live in. I've found that CarPlay and Alexa really smooth out the edges of the current Lexus infotainment.

Let me find out if Europe will be offering CarPlay upgrades, I'm curious.

What I do have, however, is a particle filter robbing me of 13HP, so there's that :)

I admire your desire to own an LC, my friend.
 

LDeleuran

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I admire your desire to own an LC, my friend.
It is an amazing machine, despite all the regional shortcomings. I can honestly not tell the difference between the 477 and 464 HP versions - it is less than a 3% reduction, after all. It is a much bigger issue with all the time I am wasting looking at it instead of doing something productive.