Detroit debut: Lexus LS 460

Newswheel staff :: 08 January 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, Lexus, Lexus LS, Europe & UK, US

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All new Lexus luxobarge

Here’s a shock. A bona fide new car debut at the Detroit show that hadn’t been leaked during the run up. Except, of course, Lexus has already shown the new LS, albeit slightly disguised as the LF-Sh concept car, back at the Tokyo show.

Spot the difference. The new LS 460 above, the LF-Sh showcar from Tokyo below

So, it’s been 17 years since Toyota wheeled out the original Lexus LS at the Detroit auto show. And as every good car enthusiast knows, Lexus now spanks the competition in the US luxury market.

The competition, therefore, will be busy evacuating their bowels at the very sight of the all new LS 460. Right? Well, the list of tech specs isn’t quite as white hot as you might expect. Yes, there’s a new 4.6-litre V8 with 380bhp and 370lb/ft which will no doubt utterly humiliate everything on the planet for sheer refinement. And with a zero to 60 time of less than 5.5 seconds, the new LS is surely pokey enough for most needs - despite the loony power output of some current Mercs. The 380bhp power rating also proves that the self-imposed 280-ish bhp limit Japanese manufacturers used to observe is truly toast.

And yes the LS 460 packs an eight-speed slushbox (a world’s first, much rejoicing, etc), a completely redesigned multi-link suspension system and more ECB, VSC, ABS, EBD-type stability control, brake assist and traction control jiggery pokery than you can shake an ECU at.

But for now, there’s no revolutionary, heart-stopping, my-God-what-have-they-done technology or feature. Maybe the much rumoured hybrid variant, due to be unveiled at the New York show in April, will deliver the real wow-factor. As for that eight-speed box, well, it’s hard to imagine many luxury car owners have been tooling about in their S-Classes and 7 Series thinking, what I really need is another cog or two.

Another innovation, for Lexus anyway, is the inclusion of a long wheelbase model. The snappily monikered LS 460L receives a bump in wheelbase of around 13cm over the 297cm spec of the standard car (the overall length of the uber LS is 5.16 metres). The “L” also sports a single super-comfort rear passenger seat which reclines up to 45 degrees and has electric leg rests and a massage feature. If nothing else, the “L ” will make life tough for Grand Fromages attempting to justify a Maybach on the corporate fleet.

But what of Lexus’s revolutionary L-finesse design language, which is now found on the full house of IS, GS and LS saloon models? Inevitably, the LS 460 looks a little tame next to the jazzed-up concept shown at the Tokyo show. And overall, it’s contemporary rather than boundary-pushing. But it’s reasonably sleek, definitely inoffensive and most of all, a sight sexier than the chintzy outgoing model.

FYI, Lexus says the LS 460 will hit show rooms this autumn.

P.S. If you like getting greasy with your four-wheeled steed, steer clear of the new LS: