High Tech Lexus

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In the back, the left seat is equipped with a relaxation system that has "vibrating" and "pressure-point application" functions that work by repeatedly passing air in and out of eight pneumatic chambers. "It gives you a shiatsu," says Toyota's Press.

Six Coats of Paint

Even the headlamps are cutting edge. Toyota says the LS600h and LS600hL are the first models to use light-emitting diode headlamps. Produced for Toyota by Koito Mfg., the LED lamps cost more than halogen lights but use less energy and, because the light source can be placed much closer to the headlight glass, designers have more leeway to implement new ideas.

This being Lexus, the manufacturing of the LS600h is also a fine art. On June 28, BusinessWeek was invited to a tour of Toyota's Tahara (Japan) plant where the LS600/LS600hL and other models are built. At the plant, there's a heavy focus on quality. Two hundred workers are dedicated to checking that quality is up to snuff, double the amount at a regular Toyota plant. Where possible, that means efficient use of technology and worker knowhow.

One example is in the paint job. The new LS600hL has six coats of paint, which are checked repeatedly by workers and computers. On the assembly line, cameras attached to a robotic arm take multiple photos of freshly assembled cars, searching for scratches and instantly analyzing the data as they go past. Nearby, Toyota has developed a lighting system that reproduces light conditions at different times of the day. This makes it easier for workers to spot imperfections in the paint. Elsewhere in the facility, away from the factory floor, gloved workers caress painted panels, learning to detect imperfections that are barely visible to the human eye. "We have to keep evolving to stay ahead," Shoji Ikawa, Toyota's chief production engineering officer told reporters at the Tahara plant.

Of course, whether all this technological knowhow will be enough to get more Europeans and Japanese to trade in their German luxury lines for a Lexus remains to be seen. In Japan, the LS600h and LS600hL models have made a promising start. During the first five weeks the cars were on sale, 5,300 orders were taken, compared to a monthly sales target of 300 units. Still, it's unclear how may of those orders are from non-Toyota drivers or whether the high-end models will boost sales of other Lexus models.

Click here to see how a Lexus LS600hL is made.

Rowley is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Tokyo bureau.