Review of the new Lexus LS460

Confidence is a wonderful thing. It makes giants out of mere mortals and confident businesses become greater than the sum of their constituent parts. One company that's brimming with self assurance is Lexus and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in their current LS flagship luxury saloon. This is a model that finally allows the Japanese company to stamp its own identity on the luxury car market. The LS460, as seen here, could well put a significant dent in the bottom line of Jaguar, Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

Perhaps the company has stood accused for too long of basing its LS around a previous generation Mercedes S Class because now Lexus is going its own way and the results look stunning. Emboldened by the acclaim given to the IS series - a model which contrived to make BMW's 3 Series look old and frumpy - the latest LS now features that same taut athleticism and purposeful stance. It could be nothing other than a Japanese car and it's certainly the way forward for Lexus.

Rarely has a car more packed with technology been launched to the general public. The difficulty is knowing where to start. That 4.6-litre engine is as good a place as any. At first glance this big V8, good for 375bhp, looks to be fairly conventional but delve a little deeper and there's an innovation that's genuinely fascinating. The D4s dual injector system with Electric Motor Drive VVT might sound like the deepest of jargon but it's really fairly straightforward. Some cars boast 'direct injection' a system adopted from diesel cars whereby fuel is fired directly into the combustion chamber rather than into the more traditional intake port. Both systems have their own inherent advantages. This engine has both, with an injector into the combustion chamber and another into the intake port to offer power and torque across a huge rev range. This is helped by the electrically operated variable valve timing system, a technique which Lexus claims allows better efficiency than a traditional hydraulic valve operation. With a combined fuel economy figure of 25.4mpg it's clear that the system works very well. Peak torque is rated at 493Nm, enough to punt the LS460 through 60mph in 5.4 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 155mph. The carbon dioxide figure of 261g/km is, on the basis of power versus emissions, unmatched by any of its rivals.

"The LS460 is a technological tour de force the like of which is virtually unprecedented"

Quick, clean and efficient is only the start. This Lexus is also one of the safest cars on the road and adopts a whole host of vehicle control systems. Unlike most other manufacturers, Lexus have gone a couple of stages further and integrated them more effectively, the Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM) system centralising control of the anti lock brakes, brakeforce distribution, traction control and vehicle stability control systems with the electric power steering, adaptive variable suspension and variable gear ratios to ensure that this vast array of control systems works in harmony.

VDIM also oversees a very interesting development whereby the electric steering system can work in concert with the stability control system to detect oversteer - that situation where the rear end of the car steps out of line and threatens a spin. Whereas rival cars use the brakes and cut power to combat this problem, Lexus goes one step further. The LS460 automatically countersteers into the impending skid for you, nipping an emergency situation in the bud. It's so subtle that no steering input is visible from outside the car, but rapid and minute corrections are going on unbeknown to the driver. It's very impressive when put through its paces. The LS also features a system whereby the car can come to a stop in a straight line even if one side of the car is running on a low friction surface such as snow or ice and the other on a high friction surface such as tarmac. Most cars would try to spin away from the slippery surface when the brakes are applied, but clever electronics in the Lexus keep things on the straight and narrow.

Let's put together a scenario that illustrates how smart this Lexus is. You've maybe popped down to see the in-laws for the Bank Holiday weekend. Rather than hit all the traffic on the way home, you elect instead to travel back late. It's gone midnight, you're sitting with the cruise control activated on a featureless motorway having eaten well, your partner is fast asleep beside you and you nod off. The Lexus' Driver Monitoring System, a miniature camera on the steering column, detects that you are no longer looking ahead and interrogates the millimetre-wave radar and stereo cameras as to whether anything is in front. If so, the system will sound an alarm and gently apply the brakes. The most usual cause of crashes with dozy drivers is a sudden awakening when the car hits the rumble strips, followed by a wild, panicking veer. The Lexus' Lane-Keeping Assist system uses its stereo cameras to keep the LS460 in lane, the cruise control offering steering power support to nudge it back into line.

Most drivers only doze off for a few seconds, enough to cause an incident. The Lexus will sound an alarm and activate the pre-crash system if somebody has really conked out and you're winging in at 80mph on a stationary traffic queue. This is normally enough to wake the dead, with the car beeping loudly, pre-tensioning the seatbelts and applying the brakes. There's a rear Pre-Crash safety system as well which, if it deems there's a high probability of collision, will move the head restraints forwards and upwards to reduce the chance of whiplash. Should the worst come to the worst, the chassis features an enormous amount of impact absorption as well as front, side, curtain and knee airbags for both front passengers. Bigger in every dimension than its predecessor, rear passenger space in this LS is also improved enormously.

The LS 460 is available in three grades: LS 460, LS 460 SE and LS 460 SE-L. Aluminium brake callipers and an eight speed automatic gearbox are just some of a whole host of standard features that I'd love to talk about but space precludes it. Suffice to say if you want the cleverest car on the road, you might well be looking at it here. No wonder Lexus is confident.

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