The game of "reinventing" oneself has been played well by a few auto makers in recent years, but none have surpassed Lexus. The sleek sheet metal and newfound performance of its sedans has moved this Japanese luxury car company toward a "world-class" status, starting with last year's makeovers of the IS and GS series. While both worthy, it's the brand's latest "remake" that might just seal its ever-increasing lofty position.
The all new 2007 Lexus LS 460L characterizes itself with distinctive bodylines - a significant departure from the previous generation's less-than-intriguing styling cues borrowed from an early '90s S-class. It's bold, sexy and sleek, even if it still carries a smidgen of Germanic design. New power comes via a silky smooth 380hp V-8 that feeds the rear tires through a nearly transparent 8-speed transmission. Like its rivals from Audi, BMW and Jaguar, the "L" at the end of its moniker signifies a wheelbase stretch from that of a standard model, making for limousine-like rear seating. With legroom aplenty, our Luxury Package-equipped LS had reclining rear seats with comfort features such as memory and seat temperature controls. Other additions allowed passengers to make use of the individual rear climate control (yes, four-zone climate control!), power sunshades, rear seat cool box and audio controls, all adjusted through the digital rear armrest interface. Yes, all you need to do is mark the appropriate boxes at the dealer and your Lexus can be had with Maybach-like options for a fraction of the price.
The LS 460L interior has an old-school elegance with simple flow lines that coddle its occupants in real wood, supple leather and soft-touch plastics. On the road, this classy cabin is astonishingly quiet, even at high speed, making for an as-close-to-perfect listening environment to be had on four wheels. With such a tranquil setting, it makes sense to have an entertainment offering that makes good use of it, and the Mark Levinson Reference Surround Sound option fits the bill. At $2,530 it's an easy tack-on for those who can afford the $71K base price of this vehicle, and a colossal value at that.
The Reference Surround Sound system was obviously not planned with a less-is-better philosophy. Its 7.1 architecture - which provides remarkable 5.1 playback for both front and rear passengers - consists of a 19-speaker barrage. That's a lot of speaker grilles to contend with, as was pointed out by a couple of our editors. Topping the dash are three pairs of 2-way components, L/C/R, consisting of a 1" titanium dome tweeter and a 4" metal cone midrange, each. The rear contains four more 2-way components (same drivers as the front), with a set in the top of each door panel and the remaining two filling voids in the C-pillars. Bass comes from several locations including a 6 x 9 woofer in each front door, a 6 1/2" metal cone woofer in the bottom of both rear doors, and a single 10" subwoofer mounted to the rear deck for the lowest of notes. The speakers are powered by a single, 15-channel processor/amplifier boasting 450 watts, with bridged channels used to provide 100 watts of power to each 6 x 9 and the 10" sub.
At the bottom of the center console stack are the main controls for the audio and a slot for the quick loading/unloading 6-disc DVD changer. The latter is media compatible with DTS music discs, DVD video and audio, SACDs, CDs and CD-Rs and will play formats ranging from Dolby and DTS 5.1, 2-channel stereo, 2-channel surround, MP3, and WMA. Most media can be ripped automatically or by choice to the system's 30GB hard disc drive (shared with the navigation) at 128K or 256K and catalogued by genre, album or artist. Additional devices such as iPods or portable audio players can be played through an aux input. Our tester was also equipped with XM Radio as well as an AM/FM tuner with RDS capability.