Lexus 460: More Luxury for Less

Even fully loaded, the 460l offers the speed, comfort, and elegance of Mercedes or BMW—and at a better price

by Thane Peterson

Editor's Rating:

The Good: Optional stretched body, executive rear-seating package, self-parking option

The Bad: Bland styling, relatively cramped front seats

The Bottom Line: Dollar for dollar, the new standard in luxury sedans

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Up Front

Coming up with an exceptionally luxurious sedan is tough for manufacturers these days because once-exclusive features such as heated seats, navigation systems, and backup cameras now migrate so quickly into lower-priced models. But Toyota's (TM) Lexus division has made a good stab at making its redesigned flagship luxury sedan, the Lexus LS 460, the fanciest car on the market for under $100,000.

Lexus' new LS has just about every luxury feature you can find on the BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ8, and the Mercedes S550 (back-massaging seats, heated steering wheel, etc.). It's also now available for the first time in an extra-long stretched version, and has a few unusual features all its own. These include a system that allows the car to steer itself into parking spaces, a climate control system that measures occupants' body heat as well as the ambient temperature, and an executive class seating upgrade with club seats reminiscent of the first-class seats in a Pullman rail car.

As of the '08 model year, there will even be a superpowerful hybrid version, the LS 460h L, which will be powered by both a 5.0 liter V8 engine and an electric motor—generating a combined 430 horsepower.

The basic '07 LS 460 is about the same length as the Lexus LS 430, the model it's replacing. But the new model's engine is a high-tech, 4.8-liter, 380-horsepower V8 engine that generates over 100 horsepower more than the 4.3-liter engine in the old LS, yet gets slightly better mileage. The transmission in the new LS is an eight-speed automatic with manual-shifting mode, the first eight-speed automatic on the market, according to Lexus. In the competition to come up with ever smoother and more refined automatic transmissions, that bests Mercedes' new seven-speed automatic.

More Legroom

The stretched version of the car I test-drove, the 460l—the long-bodied, gasoline-powered version of the LS—is quite a machine. At 203 in. long, it isn't huge. It's actually a tad shorter than the stretch versions of top-of-the-line BMW and Jag, and only 4.8 in. longer than the regular LS 460. But all the extra space is used to increase legroom in the rear, so the backseat is quite capacious. I'm 5 ft. 10 in. tall and I could really stretch out in the back seat and still have legroom to spare.

My test car didn't have the "Executive Class Seating" upgrade, which only comes on the long-body version of the sedan and costs an additional $12, 675. But it's a very cool option for the well-heeled business buyer. In that configuration, the LS seats just four (in the aforementioned club seats). But they're cosseted in limousine-style luxury. The seating package also includes a little wood-trimmed table in back, a rear-seat entertainment system with a nine-in. video screen and leather-trimmed instrument panel, power sunshades on the rear door windows, a "cool box" to keep your drinks chilled, rear power-seats and headrests, rear-side airbags, and climate control. Oh, and the right-rear club seat—the CEO's seat—has a massage function and an under-thigh airbag.

The LS 460l starts at $71,715, 10 grand more than the regular-length LS 460. In addition to the $500 to $700 "intuitive parking" system, major options include a navigation system ($3,115), a Mark Levinson sound system with 19 speakers, a hard drive that can store up to 2,000 songs (packaged with the navigation system for $5,645), a $3,620 "comfort-plus" package that includes headlamp washers, power seats and side airbags in the rear compartment, power headrests, sunshade and a heated steering wheel, plus dynamic cruise control and a pre-collision safety system for $2,850 and 18-inch alloy wheels for $1,975.

On the LS 460l, in addition to the executive seating package you can also get sports-tuned air suspension with variable power steering (which makes it easier to turn the wheel at low speeds) for $2,120.