Lexus Offers LS Powertrain Update to Japanese Owners

[krew]

The Kinto Factory is a Toyota initiative in Japan that brings current updates to older vehicles, and the latest model to be added to the service is the 2017-2019 Lexus LS 500 & LS 500h.
Priced at either ¥132,000($969 USD) or ¥159,500($1,170 USD) depending on the powertrain, older LS owners can upgrade their transmission throttle mapping to match the latest model refresh. This is welcome news, as the LS did suffer from some non-linear acceleration issues in its first years of production.
The downside, of course, is that this service is only available in Japan.

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[LS500-18]

Hmmm interesting, my biggest complaint of my '18 LS500 was the terrible throttle lag and super non-linear power delivery. The powertrain was not smooth. I hear it was updated for '20 or '21 but haven't actually driven the newer one. This would have been helpful for me before I traded my car away for something smoother.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Throttle response is definitely improved on the '21. I've never had the original 5LS thing where you pull out into traffic and the RPMs go up but the car doesn't move on it. They should've offered this update for the 18-20 day 1.

 

[CRSKTN]