MoneywebDrive: Feature
When seeking to buy a top class luxury executive sedan, people often tend to immediately
lean towards the German brands. Lexus have,
however, proven over the last few years that they
can compete very competitively in this sector of
the market. In Lexus LS460 guise, the company’s
flagship, they offer levels of craftsmanship and
attention to detail comparable with the best luxury saloons the world has to offer.
Smooth ride quality and a serene limo-like
and an ultra-luxurious interior remains the
cornerstone of the Lexus LS460. This was
exactly where I found myself torn between
two choices: to drive the car or to be driven.
In many ways these top-end executive saloons do cater more for rear passengers.
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Therefore, in the rear of the LS460 you will
also find ventilated, heated seats that massage, Just as you would in the front. But with
one added benefit for the hard-working
executive: they recline in the rear. Furthermore you get a centre console panel that
can control basically all the main functions
of the vehicle from the rear. So watching
Blu-ray movies on the automatic folding
centre screen in the rear is probably not a
bad proposition.
But for me, the driver seat remained the
place to be. Here I could sample the 4.6-litre 32-valve VVT engine and 8-speed automatic transmission first hand. Since the
very first model back in the 1990s, the Lexus
drivetrain has always been praised for its
silky smooth nature and in its latest form it
delivers just that.
The engine is hardly audible from the cabin
while the sophisticated gearbox shifts between
ratios almost undetected. While the air-suspension can be raised or lowered, it also offers comfort, sport and sport + settings. I especially found
in the comfort setting that the car will simply traverse most irregularities in the road as if they never existed. The Lexus truly does deliver one of the
most relaxed and comfortable drives you are
likely to encounter in an executive luxury saloon.
Although not of great importance for a car
of this nature, it nevertheless performs really
well too. With 285kW of power and 493Nm on
tap it is claimed to reach the 100km/h mark