Four Hour Drive: 2024 Lexus LC500

 

Thanks to a friend of a friend (thanks, Rich!), I got to take a 2024 Lexus LC500 out for a drive. I've long been enamored by the LC500, which has been largely unchanged since its launch in 2018. It's almost certainly the last naturally aspirated V8 coupe that we will ever see from Japan. Car critics almost universally love this car, even as they admit that it doesn't win on specs against its competitors (see this recent LC500 vs. Porsche 911 comparison from Throttle House). A significant part of that adoration stems from the incredible V8 noises that this car makes when you put the pedal down.   

But that's not what impressed me most about this car. Here are my takeaways, more or less in order of importance:

  • That blue! Lexus doesn't have many truly amazing colors, but this blue is certainly one of them. Hovering right between electric blue and indigo, this is one impressive factory paint job. I also quite like the stock wheels. And it's a gorgeous car, even better in person than in photos. Unmistakably a Lexus, but also definitely something that will get parked out front by the valet. 
  • This is fundamentally a luxury car. Yes, that big V8 makes sports car noises. But driving this car mostly put me in mind of my 2015 Mercedes S Class. It's quiet (not quite S Class quiet, however), it's smooth, it's comfortable, and the interior is gorgeous. It is also big and heavy. This car doesn't make me want to carve corners in the mountains (I have a Miata for that). Nor does it make me want to drive 125 mph in the desert (that was the 911 Turbo). This car makes me want to engage the radar cruise control and eat up highway miles (it might even get 30 miles per gallon at steady cruising speeds, which is better than it's regular 16 mpg city driving). 
  • The stereo (fancy Mark Levinson branded) is good. It's not spectacular, and I had to fiddle with the settings to get it sounding relatively neutral (why do almost all factory "surround sound" features sound so bad? it should be labeled "grainy and fatiguing treble mode"). But then I've been totally spoiled by the Burmester system in the S Class. I will never again hear a system that good in a car, and I fear it has spoiled me for all others. 
  • The interior is so nice. It's simple, classy, with lots of high quality materials.  I generally don't like all-black interiors, but it really looks good in the LC500. There's plenty of room; it's not "snug like a jet fighter cockpit" the way the Miata and C8 Corvette are. The seats are highly adjustable, including for seat height -- a shorter person could be comfortable driving this. (The rear seats are a joke, of course, but I could imagine a smaller person tolerating it for a short drive.) It certainly has aged better than a lot of luxury cars from the 2018 era. The infotainment system is straightforward, without the infinitude of nested options that a Mercedes throws at you. 
  • The radar cruise control is very good. It will adjust follow distance automatically down to a full stop, and can be re-engaged by pressing the steering wheel button (zero pedal driving!). A dream in traffic. 
  • The ventilated seats are very nice, but the cooling is a lot weaker than the heating (which, in fairness, was also true of the S Class). And while a physical button does pull up the settings on the touchscreen, it would be even better if the buttons just cycled through the heating/cooling modes directly. 
  • Why does everyone put in these giant sunroofs? On a sunny day, it's way too hot on the top of your head. On a cloudy day or at night, why bother? (They make a carbon fiber roof option, but it's spendy.) 
  • Another nit to pick: why don't all cars have the Mercedes "double press the brake pedal to hold the car at a stop" feature? 

The recent Road & Track review summed it up nicely: 

The LC500 is a row of 7.5s across the board, wrapped in a supermodel body. It howls with the kind of intake resonance that shows the people who built the engine really cared. It’s fancy enough to get parked up front, and simple enough that it should work a long time. 



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