There are many automotive icons littered throughout history. You can look to the Ford Model T and the Volkswagen Beetle as bringing the car to the masses. Then there are the poster cars like the Porsche 911, and most any Ferrari, or Lamborghini. There’s also the McLaren F1, which serves as the poster (or Need for Speed) car for most people my age. And in the Japanese world, how can you forget The Toyota Supra, Nissan GT-R and Honda NSX?
What gets missed in the conversation about icons is the more run of the mill people movers, ones that didn’t break lap records or make shouty noises, but instead went the other way, and centered their ethos on either practicality, affordability and/or comfort. The Corolla and the Civic both come to mind, but I think we need to add the Lexus LS into the conversation, because it changed the automotive landscape forever.
Believe it or not, the Lexus LS has been dream car status for many. It’s the car my Dad always aspired to own, maybe because it was a somewhat realistic dream or maybe it was something else; all I know is the big Lexus has always been at the literal top of my Dad’s list. And, with my dad being one of my primary influences, naturally the LS has held a special place on my own automotive Mount Rushmore. I may have had a poster of a 911 Turbo above my bed, but I would “drive” around the house with a replica LS400 steering wheel, fashioned out of a styrofoam plate.
You always remember your first
I couldn’t have been more than nine or ten years old when my Dad’s friend lent his late 90s Lexus LS 400 to my dad for a couple of weeks. Even as a kid I knew this car was special, despite not having much of a clue why. Maybe it was because my point of reference was the dying ’91 base Chevy Cavalier that we had, or maybe my car knowledge has always been innate… all I know is that sitting inside the LS felt special. The leather felt soft and slippery, the space was cavernous, the way the vacuum fluorescent gauges disappeared when the car was off and came brightly to life with a sweep of the needles felt so futuristic to me.
I still remember how supernaturally quiet and smooth the car was, which awakened a technical nerdiness inside me I had no idea would evolve to become a part of my adult personality. I remember reading about the champagne glass test and being impressed by Lexus’ tagline: “The relentless pursuit of perfection.” I’ve never actually driven an original LS 400, but have been impressed driving newer generations, which easily embody what the original LS was about; quiet, confident excellence.
When reading about the LS nameplate’s upcoming retirement after 37 long years, I just had to get behind the wheel of one. Thankfully, the big boss man at DoubleClutch is a long time connoisseur of Lexus’s finest, and happened to have a set of keys to a pristine 2014 Lexus LS 460 F-Sport AWD.
Meet your heroes
The old saying “never meet your heroes” rings true so often in this business, yet with the LS, it’s everything the industry says it is, and everything I’ve built it up to be. This particular example is finished in what Lexus calls Stargazer Black Metallic; essentially a deep black with gold flecks in the paint that are very noticeable in the sun, and tuck themselves away at night. The 19” wheels are small-ish by today’s standards, but the 45-series rubber suits the car’s character and purpose admirably. The LS is big, but not noticeably longer or wider than the original, coming in around only four inches longer and two inches wider.
Like the rest of the car, the front end doesn’t take many risks, with rectangular headlights framing a decently sized F-sport specific grille. The headlights feature a checkmark or “L” style LEDs which mirror the lighting signature of the rear tail lamps, also rectangular in shape. The LS is styled exactly how you’d expect someone to draw a luxury sedan from memory, which is to say a tad generic. It looks familiar, like a black suit you’ve worn more than a handful of times. It won’t turn heads, it won’t win any design awards, but it oozes a quiet confidence you can appreciate.
The relentless pursuit of perfection
When the original LS sprung onto the scene back in ‘89, it took a daring shot at Germany’s stranglehold on big luxury sedans. And what a shot it was. The “Circle F” project (get where the F Sport comes from?) started with Toyota buying up a top trim trim S-Class and 7-series and literally taking them apart piece by piece. This wasn’t to copy, it was to understand what made those German cars so good. They then took that knowledge and embarked on making a better luxury sedan.
It starts with the engine. The original 4.0L V8 in the LS 400 was balanced to near perfection, ensuring that vibrations were virtually non-existent. The champagne glass pyramid on the hood wasn’t just a marketing stunt, it was a target. They also achieved a slippery 0.29 coefficient of drag and ensured every window and door seal was meticulously designed in order to keep the outside world on the outside.
The newer 1UR-FSE 4.6L V8 in this LS 460 isn’t a direct evolution of the original 1UZ-FE motor, but it carries the same principles with it, as does the rest of the LS. The 2014 LS460 is good for 360 horsepower and 347 lb-ft of torque, hardly noteworthy today, but it’s the manner in which the power is delivered that draws your attention – or doesn’t. Throttle input is calibrated perfectly, and coupled with the smoothness of the V8 and the nearly imperceptible shifting of the eight-speed auto results in a serene experience. Fun fact: the Lexus LS was the first production vehicle in the world to feature an eight speed automatic.
The engine doesn’t beg you to drive it hard, in fact it politely asks that you don’t. It must be the sum of its parts, because the LS makes you slow down, it makes you relax and realize you aren’t actually in a rush. The ride is plush, with any road imperfection acting as a minor inconvenience at best, and the electric power steering rack has a nice heft to it, avoiding the over-boosted feeling that many other vehicles suffer from. This is hefty praise indeed, but this LS reminds me of the W140-chassis Mercedes S-Class (1991-1999), considered among the best S-class sedans ever made. There’s just a similar tank-like quality that they both share both in how they feel behind the wheel, and how well they’re built.
The AWD system of this generation (not available on the original) ensures that there isn’t any theatre to the power delivery. This doesn’t mean the V8 feels anemic. It has the low-down torque you expect from 4.6 litres of displacement, it just doesn’t encourage you to use all of it, and that’s okay. Similarly, the eight-speed auto isn’t going to rush things, even if you use the paddle shifters – but then why would you?
You’re better off taking your time, and taking in the exquisitely built interior that feels properly screwed and glued together. The black leather seats are supple and comfortable, the dash layout is both quietly attractive and intuitive. All of the touch points feel solid, with Lexus obsessing over the finest of details, like ensuring the volume knob rotates with the stepless smoothness of a high end home audio receiver – a stated goal of theirs. The heated and cooled seat controls are little rotary dials that you pop out to adjust and then press in to make them disappear out of your way, and since this is a 2014, there are plenty of physical controls to ensure you feel right at home in the LS, even if it’s your first time.
No, it’s not perfect, the infotainment system of this generation uses a mouse-like device to navigate, and it’s atrocious, feeling like it’s built on Windows 3.1 architecture. The Bluetooth is outdated, so it operates a bit slowly when changing songs, but the saving grace is the excellent Mark Levinson Reference Audio system, featuring 450 watts of power fed through 19 speakers in a 7.1 configuration. Clarity in the mids and highs is sublime, although the bass starts to get a little boomy if you push it too hard. But, you’re supposed to be listening to classical or jazz in this thing, anyway.
The LS feels like the “American Dream”
To me, and my father (and I imagine many other immigrants), the LS kind of feels like the “American Dream” in automotive form. Here comes a brand new face with a brand new name in the most competitive market in the world, takes its shot, and nails it. Within the first three years of the LS’s release it began outselling both the BMW 7-series and the Mercedes S-Class (in North America). This was no doubt aided by its lower price point, but certainly led by its impeccable attention to detail and serene experience for both driver and passenger.
I think that’s chief among why I resonate with it so much. The LS represents both a childhood car memory, but also parallels a journey many people go through when they land on these North American shores, including my father and by natural lineage, me. Hearing of the LS nameplate’s end hit me harder than I expected it to, but I’m happy a kid who made an LS 400 steering wheel out of a styrofoam plate gets to experience this old friend, and appreciate how far he’s come himself.
