The 2013 Lexus LS 460 adopts the maker's new spindle grille.
Few cars have had a more dramatic impact on the automotive market than the Lexus LS. The original sedan – launched in 1989 as a 1990 model – definitively redefined the luxury segment, proving that the Japanese could go head-to-head, toe-to-toe with the best the Germans had to offer.
The original LS put a premium on quality, reliability and customer services, tackling nagging weaknesses German stalwarts like Mercedes-Benz and BMW had long tried to ignore. It paid off for the new Toyota luxury brand, Lexus surging on both the customer satisfaction and sales charts. But as Lexus General Manager Mark Templin readily admits, the quality gap has largely closed and the Germans are pushing hard to improve customer service. So, for many luxury buyers, the real differentiators are again what they were before Lexus arrived on the scene: performance and styling.
That’s been a problem for Lexus, the last decade seeing it settle for bland and general boring designs wrapped around platforms that were more conveyances than driving machines. Last year, however, Lexus gave a first hint of something different, none other than Toyota President Akio Toyoda personally lifting the covers on the new Lexus GS and promising to pump more passion into the brand. But the real test arrives this autumn with the launch of the marque’s newly redesigned flagship, the 2013 Lexus LS.
The Lexus LS line gets several new variants for 2013, including the F Sport.
It doesn’t take much more than a glance to discover that things have changed. The big sedan adopts a decidedly more passionate design, starting with the Lexus brand’s new face, the so-called spindle grille that first appeared on the new GS. But beauty, they say, is only skin deep, so the real question we had as we headed to California for our first drive of the 2013 Lexus LS was whether the underpinnings of the big sedan delivered on the promise the new model’s styling makes.
Parked alongside the outgoing LS sedan, there’s no question the new model is a striking departure. The spindle grille anchors what is, nose-to-tail, a more aggressive and exciting look. The grille is framed by more distinctive headlamps that come standard with HID bulbs but which can be ordered with new LID lamps – that come standard on the flagship LS 600h, by the way. It has become a virtual requirement to accent luxury car headlamps with LED running lights and the new LS is no exception. It frames them with a trio of cool white “light tubes” that pick up the angular “L” logo. The pattern repeats with the LED taillamps.
The LS 600h now comes in standard and long-wheelbase versions.
The overall look of the new LS is more refined and planted yet manages to deliver a sense of power in the broadened haunches flaring out from the rounded C-pillar.
The interior of the LS has always delivered a flagship feel. But the new LS steps things up several notches. There’s a more seamless flow from doors to instrument panel and the new 2013 model adopts several new finishes, including the optional shimamoku wood that undergoes a 67-step process – taking 38 days – to prepare for use in the new LS.
(Lexus looking at options: are a compact CUV, supercar and more hybrids coming? Click Herefor more.)
As Lexus is wont to do, many of the aesthetic changes serve a functional purpose. A closer look at the new stitching on the front seats, for example, reveals how the shape of the bolsters has been refined to ensure better comfort on longer drives. The instrument panel, meanwhile, is a marked improvement both from a visual and functional standpoint. It is anchored by a new 12.3-inch, high-resolution video screen that is, in fact, large enough to display a variety of different elements at once so you’re not distracted paging through menus. If a call comes in, for example, it won’t displace the turn-by-turn navigation instructions you might have been following.
The interior of the new LS 600h, including the sedan's upgraded 12.3-inch LCD display.
The 2013 LS will now be offered with seven different versions, including the “base” car, front- and rear-wheel-drive model variants, the previously mentioned 600h hybrid, short and long-wheelbase variants – and the all-new LS 460 F Sport.
The long wheelbase models can be ordered with a four-zone climate control that measures the temperature of your derriere to adjust temperature and fan setting; and there’s a business jet-style reclining rear seat that even provides Shiatsu massage, Lexus boasts, and all the controls you’d have up front for your HVAC and entertainment systems. Expect that model to hit it big in China, where the affluent prefer to be chauffeured.
But, in the States, Lexus is betting that it can build momentum for the new LS by appealing to active drivers. And that’s where the LS 460 F Sport comes in. To be blunt, Lexus hasn’t done a great job defining what F Sport stands for. There’s the incredible IS-F, a snorting, V-8-powered version of the maker’s smallest gas-powered model. There’s also the RX F Sport, a gussied up version of the popular but otherwise staid crossover.
With the LS, Lexus comes in somewhere in the middle. There are a number of visual changes, as with the RX F Sport, including a mesh grille, revised bumpers and headlamps, and many of them are quite functional, such as the brake cooling air inlets and the 10 mm lower ride height (with the air suspension. It’s 20 mm lower than the standard coil spring sedan). The brakes on the F Sport are bigger, the throttle and shift mapping – at least in Sport Mode – are more aggressive and steering is faster and more taut.
The long-wheelbase versions of the LS can be ordered with a business jet-style rear seat.
Unlike the IS-F, however, the LS F Sport maintains the same powertrain as the standard-issue sedan. The 4.6-liter DOHC V-8 is largely carryover, though it gets six more horsepower, at 386, with torque holding to 367 lb-ft.
The LS 600h, meanwhile, sticks with a 438-hp 5.0-liter V-8 linked to a pair of electric motors through the Lexus Synergy Drive system – essentially a CVT gearbox. For 2013 it is rated at 19 mpg City, 23 Highway and 20 Combined.
We focused our attention on the LS 460 F Sport, which also gets a Torsen Limited Slip Differential and paddle shifters. And, with the air suspension, there’s a 5-mode controlled that can be dialed down to a numb Eco mode or tuned for Sport Plus driving that translates into a more responsive throttle, crisper shifts and tighter turning ratios.
Dialed down to Comfort or Eco, the 2013 Lexus LS 460 delivers the sort of cushy, comfortable, non-challenging ride dynamics Lexus owners have come to expect. Shifted to Sport or Sport Plus, however, the new sedan is a different animal. Yes, it’s still an amazingly quiet automobile but it actually demonstrates some of the passion that Toyota CEO Toyoda promised to deliver on future models.
The new Lexus was unveiled before 500 members of the San Francisco art community - the event featuring pictures like this of actress Devon Aoki and her husband. Photo: Ellen von Unwerth
Give some of the credit to the 2013 LS 460’s new Frequency Adaptive Damping Shocks which can instantly adjust depending on the way the road surface undulates.
That said, this is no Mercedes S63 AMG, nor BMW 750. Yes, you can flog the F Sport more aggressively around corners than the base car, and the base car itself is more fun to drive than the outgoing LS, but the 2013 Lexus clearly isn’t going to be described as the new ultimate driving machine.
Does that matter? Probably not. For those who don’t want or need the Teutonic definition of luxury performance the new LS delivers in just about every category one can imagine. As always, it is loaded with the latest high-tech safety, comfort and convenience technology. That includes those massaging seats, a much-upgraded, voice-operated infotainment system with the new Lexus Enform service, and the updated Pre-Collision System that includes the new Pedestrian Detection technology.
That latter system is rated to operate up to 25 mph. In a demonstration drive we actually saw it stop – abruptly – at over 40 mph. Considering the recent upsurge in pedestrian fatalities – and the insurance industry’s endorsement of collision-prevention technology, in general – this is a definite plus for the new LS.
Expect to see the Lexus "spindle" grille on more products in the future.
At its 1990 peak, Lexus sold 42,806 of its flagship sedans. Last year that was down to 9,568. General Manager Templin doesn’t expect the new LS line to come close to the original, even with all the new variants. But it should do significantly better than the outgoing model. Part of the problem is that the premium-luxury segment isn’t growing like lower parts of the high-line market. But there’s also plenty of new competition.
BMW will be introducing a new 7-Series for 2013, as well, and Mercedes is nearing completion of the S-Class update. And Audi is still going strong with the A8 it updated a year ago. Even Cadillac is hoping for some action with the new XTS – and with a new flagship of its own under development.
But Lexus should do well with the new LS 460, even getting some curious European intenders to take a look. The new sedan is stylish and solid driving. It may not peg the passion meter but it’s definitely learning to emote.