CARLOS LAGO: This is my favorite part about Lexus LC 500.
[ENGINE ROARING]
That sound!
[CHUCKLING]
The LC is the new Lexus flagship luxury car.
In fact, LC might stand for luxury car.
And on the outset, I mean we have
to talk about the way this looks because it's easily
the most stunning Lexus they've done yet.
In my eyes, it's the most successful adaptation
of their new design language, what with the spindle grille
and all of the other elements that happened behind it.
And there's a lot to take in.
I'll say honestly this thing looks so much better in person
than it doesn't pictures that when I first saw it back at I
forget which auto show, it was like simply astounding.
I stepped behind it and just looked at if for probably
a good 10 minutes because there's
a lot of stuff to take in.
We'll talk about a couple of elements that I like.
A couple of designs that I'm like yeah maybe
we should done something different
as we go around the car.
The grille is definitely the car's most striking feature
from the front aside from the headlights.
The way it morphs as you go down and sort of stretches downward.
The effect is like when you look at a point of view camera
on a car going fast down a road and the bottom of the screen
sort of stretches out.
That distortion gives this sense of movement,
even though the car's sitting still.
And it's a really an interesting approach that flows nicely
into the front end of the car.
| headlights and the daytime running lights here
on the side--
there's some interesting elements happening here,
but probably the one of the more puzzling ones
is if you get up close and look at the design
inside of the glass itself there's interesting wavy
structure, wavy material that just kind of looks weird
up close.
And that kind of defines a lot of the car here.
Stepping back, we have these massive 21 inch wheels that
are sort of black and chrome.
And are really eye catching design
on this kind of car that matches the overall look.
Now, to me the overall look reminds me of the SC 430
if you were to evolve that car another 40, 50 years.
And it's an important thing to do
because this car is a descendant of that car in a sense.
It has the same general proportions,
and it just looks like the same kind of spaceship vibe
that that car would give you when you first saw it.
As we saw the profile of the LC, one other thing
that happens here that you only notice
is if you look straight on at the car,
is that there's sort of a virtual belt line that
extends from here to here.
That's where it would normally sit.
But because Lexus has scalloped it,
that's what gives you that extra visibility at the sides.
And that's what creates that strange effect
from the gesture of the car.
Going in the back we have not a ton of vents.
There's some here, some in the front.
I'm not sure how many are functional.
But my favorite part on the back,
my favorite visual aspect of the car, are the tail lights.
When you step on the brake the way they light up,
there's like this row of lights that get dimmer
the further away they go.
And the effect is similar to when you open up
like your bathroom mirror into another mirror
and you get that infinity like effect.
It looks really cool.
There's almost something like 80s about how it lights up.
And something very modern about it as well.
Some of the other questionable parts
like the top of the tail light here
has a sort of like textured plastic
that you kind of wonder if would've been better served
if it was just the mirror finish like it is right here.
And then down at the bottom, the exhaust finishers,
these aren't the real exhaust tips
those are somewhere inside.
But they've repeated them here, which is kind of curious.
But it's these kind of like this mixture
of like kind of curious things and really eye
catching things that make this car overall something
striking-- something that you won't mistake
for anything else on the road.
The first thing we have to talk about
from behind the wheel of the LC is this.
That is a sound you would never expect this car to make--
especially a Lexus to make.
But when you fire this car up and it gives you that bark,
and that sound, and you rev it out to 7,000 RPM,
whoa man is that a glorious first experience.
But though we have 470 odd horsepower from this 5 liter
V-8, the acceleration may not feel as fast as it sounds.
It does sound-- that sounds amazing.
It's just you dip into the throttle when you get a chance
and it makes you forget about everything else.
But the nature of this car is more
on the luxury side of things.
It wants to have a smooth ride.
It wants to feel good at all speeds.
Not necessarily the fastest ones or going around corners
quickly as possible.
So because this car is more about comfort,
you can't really criticize it for not
being the most exciting to drive at the absolute limit,
or being the fastest car that it can possibly be.
So let's back off a bit.
Let's put it in its comfort mode.
Let me put the transmission back in drive,
and let it do its own thing.
Leave it up to its own devices.
And when you do that, you find that the ride is very smooth.
There's not a lot of road noise or wind noise.
There's just that engine noise.
And on top of that the way this car
looks, how strange and striking it is,
and how rich this interior feels,
the combination is a car that feels special.
And ultimately, when you're forking
over six figures on a car it should freaking feel special.
That's what this car does.
And that's the mission it's set out to do.
Visibility is not terrible, especially
in conjunction with blind spot monitoring.
The windshield feels large enough.
And although these eight pillars are rather large,
you still get plenty of visibility through the left.
Blind spots aren't bad, like I mentioned.
Large rear glass makes it easy to see out.
And all these things combined with the steering
and the accuracy it has makes for a car that
doesn't feel big in its lane, makes
for a car that's easy to place.
And that's important because a car that feels easy to place
is one that also feels easy to drive.
But really, though, it's about that.
It's all about-- it's all about that.
That just sounds good.
[ENGINE ROARING]
[CHUCKLING] Man, glorious.
I could do that all day.
The difficult thing with an exterior design
that looks as spaceship like as this one
is having an interior design that
matches it, or reinforces it.
And somehow when you sit in the Lexus LC, it does it.
Lexus is one of the few luxury brands at this level of car
that deliver a richness with the interior
both with regard to overall design
and lay out to materials that really makes the car feel
special when you sit inside.
It's a traditional layout.
We've got a steering wheel with shift paddles.
You've got a shifter right here.
You've got an Infotainment controller here.
But everything else-- the way the dash strings way
with this horizontal bar, the leather on top of it,
the stitching-- it looks really good.
And even the burgundy suede like substance
they even managed to pull that off too.
Now, that's just the materials.
And it's just scratching the surface of the experience
of sitting in this car.
You're low, the hood comes up almost
in line with the steering wheel right here.
You feel like you're in a low slung coupe.
And that's the experience you should
have in this kind of grand touring car.
Now, as we put the accessories on,
the electronics come to life.
When you fire the car there's this like splash
of color on the screen that is made to make turning on the car
an experience that you also get when you fire up the engine.
All right, now we've got the ignition on
and we have the full display.
First, we'll talk about this entertainment system.
Big wide screen display that by actually using this touch pad
controller down here, it responds
to pinching and swiping gestures like you know
a tablet or your phone would.
And you have some buttons over here
to navigate through the rest of the system.
It might be OK with some practice.
We haven't had extensive use with it.
I tend to prefer a rotary dial or something that
has a little bit more haptic feedback
when you're trying to drive and navigate this.
This Is an idea that I've thought would work really well
and hopefully it can.
This screen does have a little bit more of a delay
though than some competitors within this segment.
Overall, it seems like a pretty easy system to use.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
As we get to the gauge cluster, this is really
one of the neat party tricks.
As you cycle through different drive modes,
the screen changes.
When I get to sport plus for example, the tach changes
to white, the red line gets more pronounced.
All the numbers stay in the same place.
I believe in the LFA super car they would actually
adjust the numbers to put the red line right in the 12
o'clock in the tach.
But here it stays in the same place.
But everything gets bigger and easier to read and clearer.
When I put it back in normal, it gets a little more subdued.
And if I back it down to comfort or eco
it changes slightly as well.
The other trick is if I hit this button here,
the tach actually moves over.
And you don't see a lot of cars that
do something like that, if any.
And that gives you an additional display
to look at like engine oil temp and a bigger picture.
Or to cycle through some more different displays here.
That's really neat tech like this
that adds to the experience in ways
that you really can't put in numbers,
or you really can't describe beyond.
It just looks cool, and it just feels special.
And that's what a car like this is supposed to be.
The Lexus LC looks like a concept car that's
snuck out of an auto show.
It attracts attention wherever it goes.
More importantly, the driving experience
backs up that design.
You have this level of comfort, driving refinement,
and build quality you'd expect from a Lexus.
Overall, this makes the LC 500 a very compelling car.
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