Bon voyage, LS460. Hello LS500

[krew]

So happy for you @Ian Schmidt! Beautiful car.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

LS500 interior in Noble Brown may be some of Lexus' best work EVER. Absolutely beautiful!

Agreed. I actually prefer the Noble Brown / dark artwood combo on the doors to the fancy glass and pleated fabric in the executive package.

Now, if they'd have made the Kiriko glass light up with RGB LEDs that would've been really cool.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

I hope you wring the heck out of that Twin-Turbocharged V6 engine, because I am really excited to see your opinion on that. Now that you own a car that has this engine, you can potentially fill in on the experience this power unit provides. There still hasn't been a reviewer who has been able to capture the magic of this engine.

Thanks! I've driven it every day I've owned it now, including a sprint on the freeway, and at least initially I'd say the TTV6 is beyond capable as a replacement for the 1UR. I've never found myself wanting for more power, and been surprised a couple of times by how much I got from a quick foot stomp while cruising. It's much more aggressive at the low end than the 1UR, and it's as good or better at high speeds. And it has a very nice aggressive sound too - I assume Lexus probably tuned that a bit. So I'd say it's absolutely got the power for small truck / SUV applications, and in a lighter car like an IS F it would probably be even more entertaining.

 

[FearTheYu]

Congratulations! I love the color choice too!

 

[CIF]

Congrats on the new ride! Awesome!

- How you do feel about the runflat tires in terms of overall comfort, performance and no spare tire?
- Aside from powertrain performance and handling, what are your overall favorite qualities about the car?
- What are your least favorite qualities about the car?

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Congrats on the new ride! Awesome!

- How you do feel about the runflat tires in terms of overall comfort, performance and no spare tire?
- Aside from powertrain performance and handling, what are your overall favorite qualities about the car?
- What are your least favorite qualities about the car?

I suspect at least part of the slightly harsher-than-4LS ride is attributable to the runflats, but I don't have the money to test that theory. I have no complaints about the performance of the tires otherwise, and I'm sure someone on LE will put normal tires on one to try it out eventually.

My favorite things besides performance/handling are the styling (inside and out) and some of the little things they've done for quality of life. For instance, if you're in a drive-thru and the parking sensor goes off because you are (by necessity!) close to a building on the driver's side, there's now the ability to push the OK button on the steering wheel and silence the warnings until you've moved away from the building. On the 4LS you had to disable the parking sensor entirely and then remember to re-enable it before you're in a real parking situation. Also, the instrument cluster is fully virtual and can be customized in several ways in terms of speedo / tach / analog / digital and what other info it shows (radio, lane keeping status, boost amount, MPG, tire pressure, etc). Also, the machined and weighted tuning and volume knobs for the radio look and feel lux.

Least favorite things? The power shade on the moonroof takes some getting used to. My muscle memory has many years of pulling that back manually that I'm still reprogramming. And the remote touch trackpad, while better than the mouse/puck, still sucks. Just give us a touchscreen. Hyundai of all makers gets this right while the "premium" brands each have their own fresh hell to inflict on users. Related to this: I appreciate that there's a button to jump right to the seat adjustment/massage screen, but I don't like that that's the only way to get to that screen (as far as I can tell). Similarly, I wouldn't mind buttons to jump to at least a few of the menu categories like Destination.

 

[CIF]

I suspect at least part of the slightly harsher-than-4LS ride is attributable to the runflats, but I don't have the money to test that theory. I have no complaints about the performance of the tires otherwise, and I'm sure someone on LE will put normal tires on one to try it out eventually.

My favorite things besides performance/handling are the styling (inside and out) and some of the little things they've done for quality of life. For instance, if you're in a drive-thru and the parking sensor goes off because you are (by necessity!) close to a building on the driver's side, there's now the ability to push the OK button on the steering wheel and silence the warnings until you've moved away from the building. On the 4LS you had to disable the parking sensor entirely and then remember to re-enable it before you're in a real parking situation. Also, the instrument cluster is fully virtual and can be customized in several ways in terms of speedo / tach / analog / digital and what other info it shows (radio, lane keeping status, boost amount, MPG, tire pressure, etc). Also, the machined and weighted tuning and volume knobs for the radio look and feel lux.

Least favorite things? The power shade on the moonroof takes some getting used to. My muscle memory has many years of pulling that back manually that I'm still reprogramming. And the remote touch trackpad, while better than the mouse/puck, still sucks. Just give us a touchscreen. Hyundai of all makers gets this right while the "premium" brands each have their own fresh hell to inflict on users. Related to this: I appreciate that there's a button to jump right to the seat adjustment/massage screen, but I don't like that that's the only way to get to that screen (as far as I can tell). Similarly, I wouldn't mind buttons to jump to at least a few of the menu categories like Destination.

Thanks for the info!

I always appreciate knowing such little details that only owners notice. Many of these details were never mentioned by any reviews that I've seen. A dedicated button that jumps right to the seat adjustment/massage screen is a small but important detail that somewhat alleviates the criticism of not having full physical controls for all seat functions.

Would love to hear about more quality of life improvements that you discover with time . That parking sensor trick is definitely a nice real world improvement. I personally place a pretty high priority on quality of life improvements and touches in vehicles.

 

[FujiSpeedway]

Ian, that's pretty much my perfect spec. It's a looker. Would love to see more of the side profile.

BTW, you touched on the power delivery, but how does the TTV6 compare to your previous LS460's V8 smoothness?

 

[Ian Schmidt]

I paid extra attention to the smoothness today and I'd say it's as good or better than the V8. The only way I could tell it was shifting was from the engine sound and the tach, there was no feeling of hesitation or anything like automatics used to do.

 

[CIF]

A few more questions :

- How does the real world fuel economy compare so far to your LS460?
- Can you give a detailed opinion of how the car performs in stop and go and low speed traffic? Specifically really heavy traffic, with lots of stop and go moments.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Real-world MPG is currently near-identical to the 460. I attribute part of that to the engine still breaking in (it *just* crossed 1000 miles), and part of that to my driving it rather more aggressively than the 460 because the handling kind of invites it.

I haven't yet encountered true stop-and-go traffic in it so I can't speak to that (my commute largely avoids major roads and I haven't gone on a road trip in it yet) but low-speed driving is no problem.

 

[Berto3818]

Its time to posts so more pics of it really clean!!! getting excited for mine just looking at your pal!!

 

[Levi]

Real-world MPG is currently near-identical to the 460. I attribute part of that to the engine still breaking in (it *just* crossed 1000 miles), and part of that to my driving it rather more aggressively than the 460 because the handling kind of invites it.

I haven't yet encountered true stop-and-go traffic in it so I can't speak to that (my commute largely avoids major roads and I haven't gone on a road trip in it yet) but low-speed driving is no problem.

I hope MPG gets better.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Me too, but it's hard to get my foot off the pedal

 

[Levi]

Me too, but it's hard to get my foot off the pedal

Electric cars are even worse. Their torque and response is so addictive, you smash the pedal at every occasion, greatly reducing the already low range.

 

[ThePenguin]

Stunning spec! Congratulations!

 

[Ian Schmidt]

So I have a new minor peeve, but it's probably not specific to the LS. My workplace is in an office park that was quite literally carved out of a forest in the 1980s. So it's quite common to have trees and brush right up against the outer parking spaces. This means that when I'm pulling into one of those spaces, the Safety System goes nuts thinking I'm about to hit something, even though I'm not and it's just some leaves anyway. That's fine. What's not fine is when I go to leave. When I put the car into reverse, the Safety System again goes nuts even though I'm in reverse and there is no way I could possibly hit something in front of me. This is not only annoying, but it takes away from my ability to tell if there's a legitimate problem behind me or on the rear cross-traffic sensors.

 

[Berto3818]

Morning @Ian Schmidt you need to post some more pics! that noble brown is awesome!!! and that blue.....

 

[Berto3818]

The TTV6 Sir IMO is a very powerful motor! I already drove the 5LS and I will be getting one soon. This engine in my mind destroys the V8 and the reason why I say this is the Torque alone. the 442 pounds comes in at a low 1600RPM and goes out to 4800 but if you use Sport Plus it goes higher than that. 0 turbo lag when I tested it in Annapolis Md.. it has V8 level power that can run with a lot of 8'S its close to Mb SCLASS 4.0 in HP alone.

R,

Markus

 

[Ian Schmidt]

I'll post new pictures next time I get it detailed - the reality of Maryland summer is that it's constantly covered in pollen right now and the rain doesn't do much to clean it up.