2001 Lexus LS430
Yes it's another one of my old luxury car reviews. I would review the new LS460, but I haven't come across anyone that has one, much less anyone who is willing to let me drive it.
Lexus, around the time this car was made, wasn't as impressive as German luxury marques like Mercedes; but I think Lexus has now crawled its way to the top where owning one is just as good a way of flashing your successful stock portfolio as any other luxury marque. You would expect that driving a Lexus would not produce much hatred towards you especially compared to driving something from BMW because it's less flamboyant, but after driving around a bit in the LS430, I find that people will still glare at you with seething hatred. I do however think that driving around in a 3 series BMW will indeed garner more hatred, because the average driver of a 3 series is a tosser and we all know it. Anyhow, If you can afford this luxury barge (certified pre-owned as of now admittedly) is it worth selling some of your portfolio assets to buy it?
I'm going to treat this car as what it is, a luxury car, and not as if it was supposed to be all things to all men (like I do with most of my reviews really). I'm sure we've all seen reviews where a car falling into a specific genre gets torn apart because it doesn't do something it wasn't meant to do. I may mention a shortfall but I will be sure to state it's irrelevance. For example if the LS430 isn't capable of going down a glacier without resulting in death, I'm not going to hold that against it.
Positives: Fortunately, this car does exactly what it advertises and provides pure luxury to the driver. The leather on the seats for instance is of such a high grade that designer hand bags will start to feel a bit cheap. As a result, the seats won't burn your butt cheeks off when you leave the car out in the sun for too long and while you drive around the seats will cosset your entire body in comfort.
The rest of the cabin is very nicely appointed making the LS430 a very pleasant place to be. The wood trim is actually wood and it has been placed in locations that accent the interior rather than anywhere that needed filling in. The door trim is made from the same leather the seats are made of and the dashboard material is very soft and are properly pieced together. Even the plastics are of such high grade that you won't believe they're plastic. Overall, everything about the interior of this car can be described with one word... quality.
The LS430 has been fitted with loads of sound deadening material so it's eerily quiet. When the engine is idling, you might think that the car stalled out because you can't hear it, especially if you have the stereo on. At highway speeds the sound level picks up a bit, but the car is still very quiet. This is the first car I've been in where you can listen to classical music from the Romantic era with no trouble. Romantic music (not the music for getting it on) if you don't know has an enormous dynamic range where some parts are whisper quiet and other parts sound like a storm has blown in. On most cars you have to turn the stereo up to hear the quiet parts, then your ears are suddenly bombarded so you turn the stereo down... then the song goes quiet again and you have to turn the stereo back up or not hear anything etc. In the Lexus, you just set the volume level to where your ears don't bleed on the loud parts and you're set. Nice!
I feel that classical is the only music genre appropriate for being played in the LS430. This car is so comfortable and so refined that any other type of music just seems wrong. This is especially true considering the ride quality this car possesses. I may have said that ____ glides over potholes and bumps for other cars to describe how comfortable the ride is, but the Lexus very literally glides. This car doesn't feel like it rides on four wheels, it feels like it's hovering over the ground on a fluffy cloud.
Now we get to the drive train of the LS430. This car CAN be quick if you want it to be. The 4.3 liter V8 can propel this car to 60 in about 6.5 seconds, but unless you stick the car in "power" mode and floor it you wouldn't believe that statistic. Most of the time this car feels slow in a good way. Everything about this car was made to provide some form of luxury, so setting off never provides a jarring experience. The car accelerates very smoothly, you can never tell when the automatic gearbox changes gear (unless you stare at the tachometer), and the engine, despite being a thumping great V8, is as smooth as a super model's skin. Even when you do floor it, the car still feels quite smooth, the only difference being that the scenery goes past faster than before. Even with your foot planted you still can't hear the engine very well, which is kind of a shame because it makes a great noise; however, not being able to hear it does keep up with the luxury theme.
Another fantastic thing about this car is the passive safety. I'm not talking about crash test ratings and airbags neither, although this car has a very good safety rating and a flurry of airbags. The traction control and other computer wizzardry on board the LS430 genuinely keeps you safe from crashing in a ball of fire. The only real example I can give you is one that I experienced personally. I was driving this car down the highway and a metal shard shredded the right front tire, but other than the funny noises coming from outside, I had no idea that the tire blew out. I was going straight and true at 60 mph down the highway trying to figure out what the noise was. Naturally I decided to pull over and saw that most of the right front tire was missing, which was quite a shock considering the lack of drama that had occurred. I got the full sized spare on and I was on my way again. Usually when you have a blowout of this magnitude, your car digs in, spins out of control, and you have a really bad accident; but in the Lexus, there wasn't a single moment of drama.
This particular LS430 was pretty basic as far as luxury cars go, but this isn't true for all of them. If you're willing to spend the money on advanced packages, this car can easily turn into a complicated tech fest. Examples of how ridiculous things get with the extras, there's "laser" guided cruise control which keeps you the same distance from the car in front of you at all times, a minifridge (which can hold up to six cans) just behind the arm rest for the back seats, and in case you don't close the doors properly they'll do it themselves.
Negatives: As a driving experience this car isn't very good. The steering wheel is incredibly light and gives no feedback from the road, the throttle is mapped for smoothness so it's not very responsive, and I plain hate the brake feel. Also, the overt luxury of the cabin makes you feel isolated from the rest of the world, making it even more impossible to garner any feeling about what the car is doing at all. Other than the brake feel though, which I'll get to, these aren't very big problems considering this car was made for wafting and not for blitzing the Nurburgring. In addition, despite the lack of feel, this car actually has decent handling; though you probably won't bother to probe the limits because it's scary to do that in a car which delivers pretty much no feel at all.
So the only real negative I truly have is the brake feel. Like most Toyota products the brake pedal requires quite a lot of travel before anything happens which I find to be quite annoying. Unfortunately, the problem on the LS430 is worse than just that for a couple of reasons. The first being that the Lexus's brakes are actually very strong; so, you'll step lightly on the brakes to slow down; realizing that nothing happens you push harder, then your face comes off. The next problem occurs when you're at the lights. The 4.3 liter V8 engine delivers quite a lot impulse power and if you couple that with the long brake travel, you will find yourself inching towards the car in front of you and eventually giving it a nudge at a red light. You can alleviate this problem by consciously stepping harder on the brake pedal, or by sticking the car in park, but you just don't have to do that in any other car!
Conclusion: If you view this car as just a luxury car or a comfortable way of getting from A to B, it is very hard to fault it. This becomes especially true if you talk to the owners of Jags, BMW's and Mercedes's because they tend to spend a lot of time at the service garage. Lexus however, has legendary Toyota reliability AND they are built to higher standards than normal Toyotas making them... better.
If you do want something that offers more than just comfort... Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and Mercedes will all offer cars that drive better than the Lexus LS430. I personally enjoy being a passenger in the Lexus a lot more than being the driver. This car is sleep inducingly relaxing no matter which seat you're in, and seeing how I don't fancy a crash from falling asleep at the wheel, this isn't a car I particularly like to drive.
I still hold that, as a luxury car, the LS430 is a good one. It does everything a luxury car is supposed to do by giving you comfort, quality, and technology. The problem is, if you're like me and you don't find driving to be a chore, you might want to look for something a little more engaging to drive.
Summary:
The good: Sleep inducingly comfortable
The bad: Sleep inducingly boring to drive
Verdict: Excellent car if you're a passenger or if you find driving to be overly stressful.
Random Stats:
Engine: 4.3 liter V8, 290 hp 320 lb-ft torque
EPA Fuel Estimate: 18/25
Observed Fuel Economy: 22 mpg combined cycle
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