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I'm likely going to be buying a 2022 LC500 coupe soon. I was able to test drive a used one yesterday, and it's an incredible car.
The biggest issue with my current (and my first) car - the reason I'm replacing it - is road noise and general loudness at speed. I've put 15k miles on it in the 10 months I've had it, 70% of which is long distance highway travel @ 79mph, and it feels like I'm going to eventually get hearing loss from the noise.
So far I've test driven a BMW m440i, m850i, and the LC500. While they're all quite a lot quieter than my current Honda Civic, I was unimpressed by the amount of noise that still intruded into the cabin at low RPMs when cruising on the highway. It's hard to tell since I didn't test them all back-to-back on the same road, but it seemed like the LC500 and BMW 3/4 series had similar noise levels, and the 850 was a bit quieter.
For those who have also been in high end luxury cars like the Lexus LS or the Mercedes S Class: are the LC500 and these other coupes worse than the luxury sedans when it comes to noise reduction, or is this just a case of me having unrealistic expectations for how isolated modern cars can get?
Of course, it goes without saying, the sound of the NA V8 in the LC is amazing at high revs when you're using it :) But I prefer a more calm, peaceful ride once settled in to a constant speed on the highway - that's what I'm asking about.
at highway speed, the lc500 is louder than my previous Genesis G90 large sedan by quite a bit, and somewhat louder than my current Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. my santa though is top trip with side dual pane / laminated glass which helps i'm sure.
the LC (at highway speeds, cruising) is pretty quiet overall though, unless you're on a bad road surface. i think the issue is mainly the runflats which are just noisy on bad roads. i have the dunlops which others on here have said are noisy compared to michelins, but i think lexus was limited in how much sound deadening they could do with such a low/sleek body. they could (and should, imo) have put laminated (dual pane) side window glass on the car, but of course that would add weight too.
like you, i like a quiet car. in fact i removed the engine bay 'snake' that pipes engine noise directly into the cabin at certain rpms. it's still plenty nice sounding and loud enough to let me know what's happening.
imo, ninja 400, the LC is amazingly quiet for its type. if you really want quiet, tho, try test drive a large LS sedan -
these floating living rooms are deafeningly quiet, positively somnambulent ....
And then try a Bentley with double paned glass. Soooo quiet.
Yes those runflats make a lot of sounds on irregular roads, construction, poor roads.
You’re only going to have so much quiet time with that motor though. Can certainly be driven quietly but in real life you are going to hear that growl often.
Would love to drive one of these with “proper” tires to see the difference. At time the runflats are fine, but I have to wonder what driving experience we might be missing.
The LC is on the quiet side as compared to most cars. Quieter than Corvettes up to and including the C7 that I know. Tires as mentioned produce the most noise.
My gauge is being able to comfortably listen to music at 80 mph, and the LC is just fine there.
I'm surprised that the Santa Fe was quieter than the LC. It seems that the cheaper brands have been getting a lot better at this in the last few years - Car and Driver does a lot of quantitative testing on some of the cars they review, and their sound measurements show that the new Honda Civic is only just a tiny bit louder than the LC. Impressive for car that starts at $21k.
I'll be test driving a BMW 7 series tomorrow... the luxury barges like the 7 series and the S class and the Audi A8 are always described as almost silent / bank vault-like, so I'm interested in seeing how much of a difference there is. The LC500 was still very tolerable however, and with non-runflats it should be even quieter, so I'll have to decide between getting the best comfort/silence possible in a modern car (with the S class/etc.), or compromising on that aspect to get all the other benefits of the LC.
For what it's worth, many manufacturers have been using non-runflat tires with a patch kit in the trunk instead of a spare tire. That's been the standard configuration on US Honda Civics for a few years (they have a 12v tire inflator that can insert some slime into your tire to seal it), and I think BMW does something similar if you configure your car to have performance tires instead of the default runflats. Ultimately it's still a risk to have non-RFT without a spare, but a patch kit can help mitigate that risk without taking up much space. On my Civic, upgrading the low quality non-RFT tires that came with it to a set of better non-RFT tires made a noticeable difference in quietness (but it's still very loud); I would assume that going from RFT to non-RFT would make an even bigger difference. I'll definitely be swapping out my tires if I end up going for the LC over the X7.
one caveat i believe - don't remember all the posts on it (there's been a bunch) but i don't think you can get the non runflats in the same size as the oem 21" run flat tires.
I test drove a BMW 750i today with 19" runflats. It's on a completely different level than the LC500 - doing 80mph on the highway has about as much road/wind/engine noise as my Civic at 10mph. And the double paned windows do a pretty good job of blocking other noises from entering the cabin, though they're not perfect. The new Mercedes S Class is supposed to be a fair bit quieter than the BMW 7 series... but unfortunately with the new 2021+ generation of S class, M-B decided to delete all the physical buttons and stick two giant screens in the car, and Audi also has a similar setup so BMW is the only practical option left.
I loved driving the LC500 but ultimately it doesn't fit my needs as well as the 7, and in the long term I think I would end up being unhappy with it, just like with my Civic Si Coupe - I like it a lot and don't really want to get rid of it, but objectively it just isn't the car I need.
I test drove a BMW 750i today with 19" runflats. It's on a completely different level than the LC500 - doing 80mph on the highway has about as much road/wind/engine noise as my Civic at 10mph. And the double paned windows do a pretty good job of blocking other noises from entering the cabin, though they're not perfect. The new Mercedes S Class is supposed to be a fair bit quieter than the BMW 7 series... but unfortunately with the new 2021+ generation of S class, M-B decided to delete all the physical buttons and stick two giant screens in the car, and Audi also has a similar setup so BMW is the only practical option left.
I loved driving the LC500 but ultimately it doesn't fit my needs as well as the 7, and in the long term I think I would end up being unhappy with it, just like with my Civic Si Coupe - I like it a lot and don't really want to get rid of it, but objectively it just isn't the car I need.
Good objectivity. After all these years, the Japanese still have not figured out how to create that "bank vault" feel. Even the LS, despite the most recent new generation's improvements, is not there (compared to an S class). And dare I (again) make the comparison to a 2021 F150 Limited (actually the 157" wheelbase Platinum is even better; Limited can only be 145" wheelbase)--the LC 500 is not as quiet. Range Rovers are pretty good too.
E46CT, I actually test drove an X7 today as well, back-to-back with the 7 sedan.
The stats you're quoting are from Car and Driver's instrumented testing on the X7 40i (I6) and X7 50i (V8); they measured 64db on both models @ 70mph. Here's the issue - BMW killed off the X7 50i recently; now the 40i is the 'base model' and the M50i is the higher end one. BMW won't let you get the really good features on the 40i (upgraded audio, active road scanning comfort suspension, and a bunch of other assorted stuff).
I tried the X7 M50i today and it had horrible road noise - worse than the LC500. I believe it's due to the M-tuned 'sporty' air suspension on it. You could hear every bump in the road as the wheels rolled over them, and there was constant noticeable tire noise. Ride comfort was not nearly as good as the 7 series either. So BMW forces you to pick between getting the higher model with the big engine and fancy options but a bad ride, or the lower model without the big engine/fancy options but with good ride... not a choice one should have to make on a 100k vehicle.
I spent some time finding other noise measurements that Car and Driver have done, and compiled this list of noise levels at 70mph. The figures recorded here match my personal experiences with the Civic / 7 series / 440 / 850 / LC500. A 2 db difference is easily noticeable.
10th gen (2016-2021) Honda Civic, 71.0 (Si model with stiffer suspension is probably louder)
Porsche 718 ,71
BMW m440 Vert, 70
BMW Z4 Vert, 70 11th gen (2022+) Civic, 69
Tesla Model S, 68 LC500, 68.5-69.0 Hyundai Santa Fe, 68
BMW 840 Gran Coupe, 66.5-67.5 2017 F150 EcoBoost 3.5L, 67
BMW 750, 66.0-66.5 (may have been a pre-2020 model with less noise insulation?) Lexus LS500, 66 M-B S450, 66 (pre-2021)
Lexus LX570, 66
Maybach S560, 65
M-B GLS450, 65 BMW 745e, 64.0-64.5 (2020 model) Audi A8, 64
BMW X7 40i and 50i (non-M), 64 Bentayga V8, 61
The whole numbers here (e.g. 64) are from a list in the C&D article which was raving about the X7. The numbers with decimal points are from the specific test sheets they have available for certain vehicles they've reviewed, which list 3 sound measurements taken at 70mph. I believe they do all of their testing on the same road surface, so that shouldn't be a factor.
The luxury sedans are at the same level as the X7; the X7 is not really a special car in terms of noise insulation. The BMW 7 series sedan and Audi A8 are at the same level. The results above include the pre-2021 S class at around 66, but I've heard that the 2021 refreshed model is noticeably quieter than the BMW 7 / Audi A8.
There's unfortunately a huge difference between the LC500 at almost 69db and the 7 series at 64db - the LC500 isn't excessively loud and the sound levels would be tolerable even for long stretches of continuous driving, but the 7 series is super quiet. I do a lot of highway driving (I've put 15k miles on the Civic within 10 months of having it, and 70% of that is long distance @ 80mph) so for me personally the noise tradeoff against the 7 series isn't worth it, even though I love everything else about the LC500. Perhaps in a few years once I have more money I'll be able to get one as a weekend car.
09-07-21, 11:47 AM
How quiet is the LC500 (coupe)?
