Thanks to
@Brooks2IS, I finally had a chance to get some seat time in the new LS last night. The car was obsidian on parchment leather with the artwood organic trim. At this point, I won't go on and on since we've all read the reviews, but I'll provide my opinions:
Exterior:
- I've seen 3-4 new LSs on the road already, but getting a chance to be up close and personal with the car reinforced how much I love the design. This is such a handsome, sophisticated and elegant car - from every angle. It really looks like something special at every glance. It's big in person - very big - but beautiful and looks very much like a flagship car. I would say that I prefer the exterior of this car to the S Class. The grille and front end are my favorite part by far.
Interior:
- Interior is similarly beautiful, but what was interesting to me is how much this car didn't really feel like an LS from the driver's seat. The dash, console, seats and doors are beautiful and the build quality is second to nothing. It's flawless. However, the small three-spoke steering wheel and compact gauge cluster, combined with how the dash and doors wrap around you, makes it feel very different from any LS before. Previous generations had lots of space and a sense of opulence that was quite simple - it was there, it was big, it was loud and it was proud. This car just feels very different, much more like an ultra-lux version of an IS or GS than a car that claims LS lineage. I don't necessarily like it or dislike it, but it's just different.
- I played with Remote Touch a bit and don't see it being the embodiment of satan like the media would lead you to believe.
- Massaging seats and Mark Levinson audio are both incredible.
- You can feel that there is less headroom in this car than before. I am 6' - 6'1" and to get comfortable in the driver's seat with the HUD adjusted at the right angle was not particularly easy. However, I think I got it to a workable point and was pretty comfortable overall.
- There has been some discussion about the back seat and I have heard that some dealers are unhappy about it because consumers find it smaller than the LS 460L. I definitely understand the frustration now. You can sit back there and you can definitely get comfortable, but the roofline seriously cuts into headroom and it's just not as large or spacious as it was before. There would definitely be room for Lexus to do a "L" version of this car that adds ~6-8" of rear legroom.
- The hologram screen on the passenger side of the dash is absolutely awful and I cannot believe this was approved for production. It looks like the etched glass they use to separate booths in all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets. This is my #1 nitpick on the interior. Can this just be wood trim with some nice LED back lighting?
Drive:
- Regardless of what any reviews have said, I was so excited to drive this car and experience the TT V6 for myself. As much as I loved the exterior and interior, I couldn't wait to get the car out on the road.
- Leaving my neighborhood and going less than 30mph, you can immediately feel that this car does not have a V8. To Lexus' credit, I don't think I have seen them make claims that the V6 is as smooth as a V8, but I have seen them mention that this engine is comparable to competitor's V8s. More on that later. Even if you're idling or just barely pressing the pedal, you can feel that the car lacks the depth and smoothness of a V8. Even with that said, I was excited to get it out on regular roads to see if the tradeoff was worth it.
- Unfortunately, it isn't. I drove the car on city streets and the highway for about 30-40 minutes to get a solid feel for it, and I also used each of the drive modes as well. Sport and Sport+ were my least favorite - the transmission feels like it's trying too hard to pick the right gear, there's more hesitation, and the extra sound piped into the cabin just sounds like a raspy V6. I have a lot of seat time in a 3IS 350 F Sport and would say it sounds very similar. If you didn't know the car was lacking a V8 before, you definitely would once you put it into sport mode. Normal was actually my favorite drive mode - it seems to do a better job of picking and holding gears while filtering out some of the not-so-flattering V6 engine noise.
- I made this point to start off with, but I really wanted to love this engine because I love the rest of the car. However, I do not. When you mash the throttle, there is a half second delay between input and reaction, then about a 1 second delay due to turbo lag, and then the engine builds power very linearly. The power delivery after the turbos have spooled up is very similar to a naturally aspirated engine and you don't get any sense of there being dead spots in the RPM range, but it is fairly weak on the bottom end.
- The power delivery combined with the weight of this car does not make it feel particularly fast around town. In fact, I would say that the engine is adequate but not going to impress anyone who is cross shopping with a S560, 750i, Panamera, etc. If you have driven an IS or GS 350, the overall sense of acceleration and noise are very similar in this LS... perhaps not shocking as all three of them are 0-60 in the mid-5 second range.
- I will say that at the top end, this engine absolutely wails. It seems like you can go 65 or 70mph up to 100 in the blink of an eye... the LS 500 is much faster than the LS 460 on the top end, but it does feel more sluggish and less refined in stop and go traffic, or when you're asking for quick acceleration under 60MPH.
- I don't know if the culprit is the engine, the transmission or the weight of the car, but the powertrain overall feels pretty flat and character-less. It never feels as torquey as the 442lb-ft would have you expect, and the 10AT seems to bang through gears so quickly that you never really feel like you have any consistent sensation of being in the power band. As noted above, it does HAUL at the top end - but it sounds like a raspy V6 in the process.
- The real disappointment with the engine is how good the chassis is. This car has a solidarity, confidence and rigidity that is unlike any LS before... you can feel that the car is looking for curves and opportunities to be driven hard, which is not a characteristic of any LS before, IMO. It's balanced, poised feels extremely capable - while also being very smooth and solid. Handling is great - it's confident and makes the car feel much smaller than it really is. Similar to how the acceleration feels similar to a bigger IS or GS, it drives much the same way - athletic, capable, good feedback, playful and confident. What a great car to drive!
Tech:
- I was shocked at how great LSS was, and how easy to use and unobtrusive the system feels. It was raining and I was going 70-80mph on the highway and the car confidently maintains it's position in the lane, automatically brakes, corrects your steering, etc. in a way that feels natural and never overbearing. Really impressed here.
- To the point above, it was raining pretty good - not POURING, but raining hard - and the automatic wipers could not work fast enough. I overrode them and tried to use the manual setting, and that did not work either. This is a serious problem, IMO. The wipers were on their fastest setting and leaving plenty of water on the windshield that was making it difficult to see the road ahead.
Overall:
Walking away and thinking about it overnight, my overwhelming opinion is that this car doesn't feel like a Lexus LS. Depending on what you like, that could be good or bad. There are many things I love: it looks great, the interior is absolutely beautiful, the chassis is rock solid and feels incredibly capable. But with all of that said, there is something "LS" that is missing from the experience.
On one hand, it has a sophisticated, dramatic design that shifts the image of the car, and it has the chassis and handling that dynamically elevate "LS" beyond anything it ever was before. On the other hand, there is something about this car that feels less special, less bespoke, and less "flagship" than any LS before it. I kept coming back to the fact that it feels like a big, ultra luxury GS or IS instead of an LS. There was a time when the LS felt wholly different than the GS or IS - more solid, more opulent, more blatantly luxurious, and it delivered an overall driving experience that felt elevated from the rest of the lineup. I think a big part of that was generations of solid, buttery smooth and effortless V8s under the hood. The LS 500 drives and generally feels similar to both the IS 350 and GS 350, and I think the reason is the TT V6 dropped into a confident and athletic chassis. On paper, it packs the right amount of power but in execution, it lacks the smoothness, character and solidarity that 8 cylinders brings to a car like this. In addition, the interior just feels so different from anything we've seen before: the small steering wheel, lack of a full wood rim wheel, compact gauge cluster and cheap hologram on the passenger side seem.... not like an LS. Is it bad? No - it's really not. It's just such a dramatic shift from the LS formula we always had before.
I feel like this car is what the GS should have become - a four door coupe that slots under the LS. The tight roofline and overall interior feel make sense for a car like that, as does the lack of a V8. The dash and sporty cockpit/steering wheel would be great for a GS, but they seem sort of out of place in an LS. I thought Lexus was smart to avoid the four door coupe trend and just try to style their sedans with more aggressive lines and greenhouses, but I'm now not so sure that strategy worked. I believe there would be a place for an ES, a four door coupe GS, and an LS that is slightly different from this LS 500 - more upright, more luxurious, and more powerful.
At launch, I thought the 3.5L TT V6 would be the perfect engine for this car, based solely on the high torque figure. I was convinced the 5.0L V8 would not be the right engine for this LS 500 because it makes less than 400lb-ft of torque, but I was completely wrong. I think the 2UR-GSE would have actually been the perfect engine for this platform - a powertrain that made sense with the rest of the car. That V8 has so much more character, a perfectly linear power delivery and a ton of power on the top end - these things make more sense in a car with such a wonderful chassis, and a presence that is so radical. This TT V6 should have been offered as "LS 400" and the V8 should have been offered as "LS 500," IMO. This TT V6 in no way feels like a replacement for a V8 - it feels like an entry level engine option, or one that would be great in the IS and GS.
On one side, it feels like the car has the looks, chassis and interior to seriously challenge cars like the Panamera and XJ, but the powertrain completely lacks the performance or personality to make the LS a real competitor to either one. On the other side, the LS feels less opulent and less special than the S Class, primarily from the cabin and when driving it on the road. It seems to me that the LS has slid into "no mans land" along with the 7 Series and A8... a group of cars that don't know if they're trying to be sporty or luxurious, and do neither very well. At least it's pretty.