Luxurious, smooth drive, sleek style come to mind at the thought of the Lexus LS 460 4 door sedan. While these words may be no surprise, it should be noted that Lexus has held its ground in the luxury world, even while introducing the all wheel drive options and the first luxury hybrid SUV. Lexus seamlessly merged hybrid technology with their elegant style; making sure consumers didn’t have to give up the luxury look for hybrid technology.
When it comes to elegance, the 2011 Lexus LS 460 is all too familiar with the term. While Lexus combines sportiness and luxury with some of their other models, the LS 460 stands alone as purely elegant. Perhaps it’s the slender exterior lines, the interior matte finish wood paneling or the plush leather seats that welcome you so delicately, either way driving this vehicle makes you feel like the only appropriate thing to do is pop some Mozart in the stereo and enjoy the ride. Although the LS 460 comes in a variety of exterior color options – eight to be exact –the starfire pearl, which had just a hint of sparkle, really did it a whole lot of justice. Even in white, this vehicle had no problem looking sleek and slender; which tends to be a difficult thing to pull off. Both the headlights and taillights wrap nicely around the front and back edges, as well as the side mirror blinkers, blending nicely and seamlessly with the lines of the vehicle.
Driving the LS 460 is very comfortable. The leather wrapped steering wheel gives you a nice grip in all drive modes, whether you cruise softly along the coast or take on some heavier driving conditions to test out the AWD capabilities.
This V8 4.6L 357 horsepower beauty provides a smooth drive and easy handling. The LS 460 (all trims) is equipped with an eight-speed sequential-shift and automatic Electronically Controlled Transmission (ECT-i), which detects slippage and will transfer torque from the slipping wheel to the drive wheel with the most traction. The front and rear suspension are multi-link double joint suspension arms with air springs, shock absorbers and a stabilizer bar which helps decrease the lean or sway on sharp turns, however this could be improved because I felt more sway than I would have liked. While the drive is smooth and comfortable, it doesn’t come without a slightly expensive cost at the gas pump. Only getting about 16 miles per gallon in the city and 23 miles per gallon on the highway, the LS 460 isn’t the most practical vehicle during the outrageous soaring of gas prices. However, when compared to its rivals such as the BMW 740 LI which gets 17city/25hwy with 315 horsepower and the Infiniti M56x which gets 16city/23hwy with 420 horsepower, the Lexus LS 460 isn’t really the only one lacking in fuel efficiency in its class.
The Lexus LS 460 is suited quite nicely for five passengers, of course as long as you can give up the executive class seating package which includes the perks of seat massage systems, rear heated/cooling power reclining seats with foot rest, rear DVD entertainment system with full control panel, rear foldaway table and infrared temperature sensors to maintain desired climate. Personally, the executive class seating is worth losing the fifth passenger seat for. The HDD Navigation System was very easy to use; very often you find yourself getting lost even before you have had a chance to enter your destination however I found this was not the case in the LS 460. All the controls for climate, audio, display settings, information, and menu were easily located on either side of the LCD screen which eliminated much confusion. The voice activation settings are a nice feature which keep your eyes safely on the road but allow you to still control the navigation with ease. The matte finish wood paneling is a bit of a turn off compared to the option of the glass-like wood paneling, but I wouldn’t say it takes away too much from the overall interior look and feel. As mentioned before, driving in this vehicle might prompt you to play a little classical music, however the premium surround sound audio system takes you on a whole different musical level – perhaps I allowed some Michael Buble and even a little hip hop to sneak its way into the play list. The audio system did not disappoint at all.
The Lexus LS 460 provides elegance and luxury at a starting MSRP of $66,230 and goes up to $74,080 for the LS 460 L AWD. For more information on the 2011 Lexus LS 460 please visit www.NADAguides.com.