It’s got bold, extravagant styling. It’s got power and acceleration. It’s a driver’s car. It is endowed with an abundance of safety features. It has a lavish, indulgent interior and the car can park itself. What else do you want in a car?
It is the 2007 Lexus LS 460L – the “L” stands for long wheelbase – and it is one special vehicle, at a price that demands that it be special.
The LS model has been around for 18 years, and this fourth-generation version is built with L-finesse design cues that make the luxury flagship a head-turning ride as you cruise around town or take a high-line drive in the country.
My test vehicle was bathed in dark red paint, but the official color is Nobel Spinel Mica. With sleek lines, bold, athletic shoulders and a long wheelbase, the LS 460L radiates luxury from the outside and it pays it off inside. The extended wheelbase, at 202.8 inches, is about 5 inches longer than standard and provides one of the most comfortable rides in the segment. Width is a spacious 73.8 inches and height is 58.1 inches.
Inside, the cabin is roomy, elegant and state-of-the-art. Sit back and you can drink in the ambience of electroluminescent gauges, grain-matched wood trim, and unmatched fit and finish. Then explore the power tilt-and-slide moonroof, body heat sensor that helps maintain desired temperature for all occupants, heated steering wheel and voice-activated fifth-generation Lexus Navigation with factory-installed XM Satellite Radio and NavTraffic. You also get a fold-away table matched to the interior wood, a nine-inch headliner-mounted rear-screen monitor, interior air filter and smog sensor and Bluetooth technology. The rear section is laid out to resemble first-class seating in a private jet.
Lavishness is all well and good, but this is also a driving machine. Lexus’ credo is that their vehicles are passionate drives. LS 460L delivers on that by powering up this 4332-lb. beauty with a robust 4.6-liter four-cam 32-valve V-8 engine that quietly gallops out 380 horses and 367 lbs.-ft. of torque. The ultra-low emissions system is mated to a production-vehicle-first 8-speed automatic transmission, dual fuel-injection system, electronic throttle control system with snow and power mode, electronic power steering and ventilated disc brakes.
LS 460L glides across the highway. On the autocross I experienced virtually no yaw. The ride is quiet, stable and confident. Lexus uses thinsulate insulation, acoustic glass and ultra-strength sheet metal to absorb sound.
You also get true muscle, and I silently zoomed from zero to 60mph in about 5.8 seconds. The vehicle is EPA rated at 18mpg in the city and 27 on the highway, and as my tests averaged nearly 24mpg during my examination, the LS 460L’s 22.2 gallon tank made for a 500-mile cruising range.
You start the car at the push of a button, but the elegance, power and state-of-the-art technology only begins there.
Safety features make this a very safe ride with driver’s and front passenger’s advanced airbag system, front passenger twin-chamber airbags, front seat-mounted side airbags, driver’s and front passenger’s knee airbags, front and rear side curtain airbags, pre-tensioners with force limiters, electronic controlled braking, anti-lock braking, electronic brakeforce distribution, brake assist and automatic parking brake.
The Lexus LS 460L is priced as a luxury car with a respected badge should be, with a base price of $71,000. My test vehicle didn’t miss a trick and with a treasure trove of exceptional options, it stickered out at $80,977.
The luxury package, priced at $2780, includes rear-seat items generally reserved for front row only. You get semi-aniline leather interior, escaine headliner, climate comfort rear seats with heat/cool knob, power rear seats with memory and rear seat side airbag. An additional rear seat upgrade ($1625) includes four-zone air conditioning with air purifier, rear-seat cool box, power rear door sunshades and audio controls. The sound system is exemplary ($2530 option) and includes a 19-speaker Mark Levinson DVD changer with hard-disc drive, surround sound, DVD audio and video playback and a DVD/CD changer. Digital Lexus Link is $900, trunk mat cargo net and wheel locks will add $227 and destination charges are $715.
The intuitive parking assist is $500 and with the $700 advanced parking guidance system, this car WILL park itself at the push of the touch-screen. You put the lever in reverse and check the DVD screen. You position the box on-screen where you want it, push “OK” and step on the brake. You don’t touch the steering wheel, you only monitor the speed by keeping on the brake. The wheel turns by itself and the car moves into position. If you set up too close to another vehicle, the screen tells you. It really is quite amazing and the forerunner to the day when cars will be on automatic pilot. Good for those who want to get work done during a drive or for those who don’t like to drive, but bad for those of us who enjoy drivers’ cars such as the LS460L.
But that time is far off in the future and today we CAN drive the Lexus LS460L. That’s good news for us.
Visit http://www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years.
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