2020 Lexus LS500h Gets Away With Unparalleled Luxuries

Working from home with a 6-year-old daughter has its joys (daily Zoom calls, pre-recorded homework lessons, yet another Lunchable for lunch), but also makes one a little mental.  With hotels reopening, we decide to make a break for it and go to Turkey Run State Park for a couple of days.  It’s an easy drive and we have two worthy steeds:  A Mercedes-AMG GLC43 or a Lexus LS500h.  The 6-year-old chooses the Lexus to get away with unparalleled luxuries.

We need to back this parade up a moment to explain why.  She was all ready to take the Mercedes until she slid into the LS500h’s rear cabin and realized she could command the reclining seats with heat/vent, sunshades, and audio system from a touchscreen in the armrest.  Rich giggles ensued.  Bigger laughs came when her dads found seat massagers, four-zone climate control, heated steering wheel, and the ability to heat and cool their own thrones up front.  The 23-speaker Mark Levinson audio system is holy.

Asian-influenced Interior Design

It would be difficult to complain about the accommodations that surpass our room at the inn.  An Asian aesthetic pervades as layers of wood, leather, and aluminum appear swept by wind, rain, and rake.  It’s sumptuously beautiful with precise stitching and glossy veneer.  Air vents stretch across the dash as if groomed in a rock garden.  But, there’s a lot of technology too.  Flatscreens provide for instrumentation and infotainment, the latter controlled by a touchpad in the console.  I despise Lexus’ touchpad interface, but at least the volume and tuning knobs are placed next to the driver.  A 24-inch head-up display kept track off speed, audio, navigation, and safety systems.

It made quite an impression rolling up in front of the inn, parked where a famous photo from the '30s shows a Ford Model A.  We’re clearly in a different era, broached by a garish version of Lexus’s spindle grille, flowing bodywork, 20-inch wheels, and chiseled LED headlamps.  While wholly modern, there’s a classic beauty to the fenders and long roofline.  If there was a 2020 Duesenberg, it might go something like this.  Hybrid badges on the rear doors identify it as something more.

Swift Efficient Travel

Her Highness gave no care to the powertrain that makes this sleigh fly.  It’s all quite sophisticated, but not difficult to drive.  Behind the big grille is a 3.5-liter V6 working with Lithium-Ion batteries, motors, and all-wheel-drive to deliver a combined 354 horsepower to pavement.  That’s not ridiculous power in a full-size sedan, but whisks the car from 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds.  Driven rationally, expect 23/31-MPG city/highway.

Compared to German competitors that feel like a locomotive couldn’t move them off course, the LS is nimble and sporty.  Riding on an adaptive air suspension that can be raised for covered bridges and mountain lanes, the car wafts along serenely or can tighten up for play.  The powertrain sometimes makes weird noises in the background as it goes into re-gen mode, but you get used to it quickly.  Out on the road, lane change assist, front traffic monitor, crash mitigation systems, and blind spot alert keep everybody safe.  Put the car into adaptive cruise, set the lane centering system, and it nearly drives itself.

Lexus was founded on “the relentless pursuit of perfection.”  Even my daughter would agree we’re getting much closer.  As it’s elevated the LS over the decades, it’s also elevated its price.  The LS500h starts at $80,010, but came to $101,215 fit for a 6-year-old.  Competitors include the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, and Genesis G90.

Storm Forward!

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2020 Lexus LS500h

• Five-passenger, AWD Sedan
• Powertrain: 3.5-liter V6, Li-Ion batteries
• Output: 354hp
• 0-60 mph: 5.2s
• Top speed: 136 mph
• Suspension f/r: Air Ind/Ind
• Wheels f/r: 20”/20” alloy
• Brakes f/r: regen disc/disc
• Must-have features: Comfort, Efficiency
• Fuel economy: 23/31 mpg city/hwy
• Assembly: Tahara, Japan
• Base/As-tested price: $80,010/$101,215