Gadgetory

there are a lot worse places to be on a long drive or a tedious commute than sitting in a 416 their flagship sedan hasn't changed much but did it need to let's drive this 15 LS 460 an L the long wheelbase and check the tip now let's be honest the current LS is a little bit long in the tooth it's been on the stage for a while this I think is its fifth model year and the current guys we're probably going to get one more and then it gets a heavy refresh so no you're buying late into the cycle our sample today is what I think is a smart way to go it's an L LS 460 L the L means long wheelbase to me when you get a car of this size and presence to cheat the rear seat passengers out of real comfort kind of makes a mockery of the whole concept the only other major derivation you could do on this car is to select all wheel drive or with rear wheel drive today now inside the ELS a lot of things are familiar we do have a very large 12 inch widescreen LCD here the downside is how you control it unless it's by voice using this thing the remote touch controller which unfortunately has not been jettisoned on the LS some other LexA I are moving away from this it's like playing an 80s video game with a worn-out joystick the map now has 3d and Birds Eye views traffic is now predictive it may suggest a new route along the way much like Google Maps on your phone already does you've got a pretty comprehensive app suite here which is in conjunction with the m4 map on your phone I think we've seen just about all of these before you've got Pandora Yelp Open Table I Heart Radio and Bing I don't know that you're gonna use Facebook places so much and you do also have slacker over here as another audio choice okay so a navigation command you can drive all of this by pretty good voice command and that also lets you do a navigation address as a full phrase that's essential these days the last thing that's new in this cabin tech wise is they now have adopted support for Siri eyes free with your recent iPhone so when you hit the voice button you can get into Apple's voice system not necessarily the one built into the car inside one of the most hidden engines in the business lie eight cylinders and a V developing 386 horsepower and 367 pounds of torque all of which you need given the weight of this car can run as high as forty nine hundred pounds if you don't wan wheelbase all-wheel drive and get the fancy rear seating package even then though zero to sixty never straight is above six seconds delivered through an 8-speed automatic real-world mpg you're gonna see maybe twenty maybe less on average everyday use well the first thing you notice about the LS is it's still an LS super smooth isolated to be honest this is not that sort of high engagement car now I've got this control knob here with comfort Eco normal and Sport Sport+ modes even if I get over to Sport Plus I don't get a big difference in the powertrain delivering the big difference is it definitely brings in the more aggressive part of the adaptive suspension to tighten up the ride nicely that's noticeable I don't think anybody does a micro polish of the wooden part of the wheel better it always amazes me how smooth the polished part of the steering wheel is these are big cars and they do push 5,000 pounds in some configurations but it never feels tubby or lardy I got to hand that to them beyond this central knob by the way there are no real serious drive controls no paddles for example and the shift ability over here on this stick tells you that they don't really intend you to do a lot of that generally I find the sport of your drive modes on the LS almost out of place and since it never matches the more raw aggression of some of its German competitors I prefer to enjoy this car in its default position where it is really satisfying done uh far away in LS is about $100,000 car once you add all-wheel drive adaptive LED headlights all the driver assist technology Levinson audio and a pricey ultra luxury package I don't want but is required by everything else the LS represents the traditional end of what made Lexus smooth coddling comfort with uniquely exacting precision and a nice complement of technologies held back by a dated interface and a frustrating controller so what is the LS it's basically the s-class or the 7 Series or the a8 for the person who frankly wants to spend a little less have a little more residual at the other end and isn't quite concerned as much about the status of the badge you've got tremendous comfort and serene quality here the payoff though is that you don't have quite as much driver involvement as the German competitors get it with a long wheelbase although I don't think that that executive rear seat thing is worth it not for the price of another car to get it