Skip navigation
LS driver door pleats
Cut-glass trim, pleated leather stunning features of new LS.

Lexus Design Dazzles Again

Artfully patterned ‘diagonal-L’ perforated seats, stunning hand-pleated door trim, titanium-look metal bezels and plenty of leather and suede make Lexus’ flagship sedan a winner. (Scroll down for 10 Best Interiors video profile.)

Just a year off its win for the LC coupe, Lexus is back in the Wards 10 Best Interiors winner’s circle with the redesigned LS flagship sedan.

Both cars have a strong ‘wow’ factor thanks to their stunning ambient lighting and swooping lines, but the LS kicks it up a notch with artfully patterned ‘diagonal-L’ perforated seats, stunning hand-pleated door trim and, depending on the grade, Waterford-crystal-like Kiriko cut-glass or patterned wood trim.

Our nearly $90,000 LS 500 F Sport test vehicle also had great titanium-look metal bezels and generous amounts of suede-like Alcantara and semi-aniline black leather dressed up with edgy geometric patterns.

“Metallic accents bracket suede from wall-to-wall,” says judge Bob Gritzinger, who also praises “the machined touch and feel of the volume knob, like the kind you’d find on a high-end home audio system.”

Adds judge Drew Winter: “The sweeping chrome strips on the instrument panel and floating door armrests accented by ambient lighting look like works of art.”

The LS also boasts great ergonomics, with buttons easy to access from the driver’s seat.

The luxury brand’s touchpad controller for the infotainment screen is much improved from its controversial past, now boasting robust haptic feedback to let a driver know his or her selection of an item on the huge infotainment screen was made without having to take eyes off the road.

Winter loves the LS’ gauges and enormous 24-in. (61-cm) color head-up display, the latter easy to see even in bright sunlight while donning sunglasses, he says.

Meanwhile, voice activation takes more naturally spoken grammatical structures, says Gritzinger. “Just say ‘get me to XXXX’ instead of the usual ‘enter address,’” he advises. 

As a nearly six-figure luxury car, the LS 500 has a fantastic array of advanced-driver-assist systems – including intuitive parking assist to detect objects around the vehicle and auto-stop to put the brakes on while parking if a potential collision is detected – as well as exemplary fit-and-finish, including grab bars without exposed pins.

Comfort is high in both front and rear seats, with plenty of legroom in the latter space – not surprisingly aimed at the executive crowd – and soft-touch materials abounding everywhere.

“It’s pretty cush throughout,” says Gritzinger.

Adds judge Winter: “This car is worth every penny.”

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish