In The Autoblog Garage: Lexus LS460L

Posted Jan 9th 2008 12:05PM by Dan Roth
Filed under: Garage, Sedans/Saloons, Lexus

It's tough to pity Lexus LS owners. After all, Executive-Class luxury sedans don't exactly suck. We wouldn't blame LS drivers for feeling pangs of over-inconspicuousness whenever they see a Camry, though. Understated luxury is one thing, but when you're devoting something like two years of the average worker bee's salary to a frivolity such as a luxury sedan, it'd be nice to have at least some indication to the Serfs that you're the better man.

"Look at Me!" posturing is not what we have in mind. There are Lamborghinis and Excaliburs for that sort of disgusting bourgeois putrefaction. Exuding a bouquet of fine taste, class and craftsmanship shouldn't be out of the question for a car such as the LS, however. The LS 460L we drove failed to portray itself as what it aspires to be; the né plus ultra shark in the S-Class pool. Spend a few more seconds looking and the sheer size of the big Lexus sinks in, but gosh, from 30 feet away you need to concentrate to see something more than a Camry (or the new Hyundai Genesis for that matter).

Overall, the LS460L is a car that has the dual benefit of impressing other people, if that's your thing, and giving you a corner office on wheels. The rear is so commodious that important people can really get some work done while underway. It's finely crafted from excellent materials, and is quiet, comfortable, and capable. It's also chockablock with over-engineered gimmicks. The base model carries much of what our judiciously optioned car had, and there's enough optional equipment to push the price well beyond the mid-$80,000 level of our tester. You'll want for little with the $62,000 base car. If you must have the extra goodies, six figures is possible. What we'd love to see is a version of this car that doesn't have all the extra servo-controlled madness and just offers up a more solid suspension tune and fewer automagic driver hinderances -- err, aids. As it stands, the Lexus LS460L is a car for the driven. Interpret that how you choose.