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2018 Lexus LS500 Dissected: Powertrain, Styling, Platform, and More!

In an apparent effort to make Prius owners feel at home, Lexus adopted the hybrid’s dopey shift pattern. But the shifter itself is a lovely palm-sized leather nugget.

Interior

When you think Japanese luxury, you should think of plump sofas. At least, that’s the message LS buyers will get, because the design team’s goal with the seats was to create the impression of sinking into a big, comfy couch or easy chair. They paid close attention to the relationship between the padded center-console lid and the door-mounted armrests, the latter seeming to float apart from the door panel with ambient lighting tucked behind to further the illusion. And if you happen to be sitting opposite the chauffeur in the right-rear easy chair, Lexus claims best-in-class legroom with the seat fully reclined and the front-passenger seat leaned up against the dash.

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Seats aren’t the only place where the LS departs from other Lexus designs. The interior as a whole is warmer, more welcoming, and more organic in its forms than other Lexuses. Six thin bands of magnesium span the dash, beginning at the driver’s door before bunching up as they bend up and over the instrument panel, then fanning back out as they continue their stretch across the dash to the passenger door. Contrast-­stitched leather is de rigueur in a modern luxury car, but the LS is the first that we can recall to have it around the gauge faces.

Those wounds might have come from the chrome lower-body strip, the rear-most extent of which is meant to evoke a katana blade.

Rear-wheel drive is standard on the LS, while all-wheel drive will be an option. A hybrid will join the lineup shortly. And with the Germans all packing V-8s and even V-12s in their full-size sedans, Lexus would be foolish to cap the LS at six cylinders. We do not believe Lexus is foolish. Nobody at Lexus will cop to it, but, seeing as Lexus’s current V-8s all date fairly deep into the last decade, we suspect they’re working up a new one to take on the smaller, higher-output Teutons—perhaps like the one reportedly bound for the 600-hp LC F.

Crystal Ball

Our preview of the Lexus LS included a short drive of some early engineering mules. Engineers were still finalizing powertrain ­calibrations, so we can’t comment on the twin-turbo six at this time. But with the optional air springs, the ride is excellent, and the rear-wheel steering helps the LS feel surprisingly nimble without compromising straight-line stability. The steering is satisfyingly hefty and the brake pedal progressive. The original LS won the first comparison test we threw it into in 1989; we’ll find out in another year or so if its latest descendant can repeat that feat.