Interesting.

 

 

I'm sure if he tilts his head 45° he'll be fine lol.

 

Is it my imagination or does the LS500 (at least the std, non exec version) at least up front, the car pretty much feels like a GS350 in terms of space inside, maybe a scrap more space, but not
much more? Trunk seems somewhat bigger though, obviously.

I sat in one of these cars in the showroom this week in Watertown, and the car is pretty impressive but in terms of the "interior space feel" the LS460 seems to have a drastically larger feel to it.

I mean this is a good and a bad thing- its a good thing if they're discontinuing the regular GS (although thats a bunch of rumors I don't really believe/buy into just yet) and the level of HP and the MPG#s of the
new motor are pretty impressive, but thats a hard sell to get to 80-100K they want for these things... although I don't buy new anymore (taking the depreciation hit sucks, plus here in MA you get dry raped on excise tax if you buy a current model year car... like BADLY) but with a year or three on the clock and under 30K on it, these cars are still going to CPO for probably like 60-70 grand with low miles!

It just seems to me like the LS500 though is like a GS350 with a slight space upgrade an a drastic materials and engine upgrade..... It just doesn't feel much bigger inside than my 2015 GS does... whereas an LS460 feels like a HUGE increase in space/head/leg room over my GS.

-Mike

 

IMHO if your hair rubs the headliner in an LS you're probably not going to like much in most of the Lexus product line... an LS460 to me is huge inside. Did you actually have the seat all the way down?

One fun thing I've noticed at some dealerships is they will have cars in the showroom with dead batteries. I'm surprised they don't put tenders on them so the stuff will still work in the car, because people are going to
adjust stuff... Like every LC500 I've sat in at two different dealerships in two different states... as it sat in the showroom the batteries were either dead or almost dead, because none of the seats would move!

-Mike

 

I don't like the long term maintenance nightmare stuff on an Audi but, I'll freely admit that, frankly, an S8, in terms of raw driving experience, even from a 3+ year old car, is going to take most Lexus cars to the
cleaners. If pure performance is a primary factor for you its not difficult to see the disappointment...

If I only drove like 15K a year there would probably be an Audi in my garage.... but for me on a busy year 15K is like just under 6 months of driving.... I almost bought an S5 with 17K on it, but I had to step away when I realized that I was going to burn up most of that 100K warranty....

-Mike

 

The other problem in that segment is a "niching young millenial" is often also part of the huge "lease and throw away" crowd. So the biggest selling point of any Lexus car- long term reliability, basically gets sent straight out the window. MB, BMW, Audi can easily target this crowd because most of the maintenance issues can be dismissed by the fact that the car will be thrown away by its original owner (or lessor, as it were) long before any serious problems or maintenance costs accrue.

-Mike

 

 

That's IT!!

The 2018 LS is the GS replacement!

 

87k sticker
Not as cramped as I feared. More front leg room than my 2009 LS460.
Ride better than I expected.
Quietness better than I expected.
In person exterior/interior appearance no better than the pictures.
Don't care for the video game instrumentation. Side note, if anyone visits the southeast side of cleveland, take a walk through Marshall Goldman auto sales. All preowned, but EVERY performance/luxury car is avail. Happened to go there after the LS500 drive and seeing the instrumentation confirmed my dislike for video game instruments.

I did like the LKA and adaptive cruise/auto fwd braking of the es350 loaner.
(LS500 has same but I didn't get to evaluate since test drive w/ salesman was only about 8 miles).
Didn't like the fwd wheel spin from easy/moderate starts of the ES350.

So, now I know what the LS500 is, and I know I don't want one.

 

 

I've owned the 2007 and 2012 LS's but it was too long ago to remember interior space. I just turned in a 2015 RC F, so interior space of the LS500 is a non issue.

 

Interesting.

 

Having had a current gen GS350 and two LS460s there is definitely more headroom in the LS.

 

In terms of published specs, they are the same at 38.0" front headroom. How one chooses to adjust the seats can make a lot of difference however.
Sadly, the LS500 has less than both with 37.3 with standard moon roof, 36.8 with panoramic roof.