Lexus LS 500 Sports Luxury 2021 Review

A price rise that coincided with a technical upgrade earlier this year pushed the flagship 2021 Lexus LS 500 Sports Luxury to $201,078 – exceeding $200,000 for the first time.

Lexus has apparently reduced the price again, understood to be a consequence of adjustment to the luxury car tax threshold. The vehicle tested here remains priced above $200,000, however, and sells for $200,955 plus on-road costs.

There are no extra-charge options fitted to our test vehicle. Not that it needs them. The LS 500 Sports Luxury is the flagship of the range, and there is enough standard kit to sink a battleship.

For example, all LS variants – two powertrains, two grades – have a sliding sunroof, powered boot lid with gesture control, keyless entry/start, soft-close doors, rain-sensing wipers, digital rear-view mirror, 23-speaker Mark Levinson audio system, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, digital radio, satellite navigation, a head-up display, leather upholstery, heated/ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, 28-way electrically-adjustable front seats with position memory, and a heated steering wheel.

For the flagship Sports Luxury trim level, the LS 500 also features hollow-chamber 20-inch alloy wheels, four-zone climate control, dual rear seat entertainment systems, electrically-adjustable outboard rear seats with position memory, ‘Ottoman’ function for the near side (left) rear seat, massage for outboard rear seats, touch-screen interface for audio, climate and massage controls of the rear seats, rear side sunshades, a rear cooler box (not available on hybrid) and rear seat ventilation.

Buyers are also offered Encore Platinum membership for three years in the LS 500 Sports Luxury. This provides owners with four Lexus ‘on demand’ bookings, each up to eight days at a time – 32 days in total driving another Lexus product. Membership also includes valet parking passes for participating shopping centres.

On top of all that, the LS 500 is covered by a four-year/100,000km warranty, four years of roadside assistance and services are scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km.

Unsurprisingly, the 2021 Lexus LS 500 has not been tested for crash safety by ANCAP. Nor have any of its competitors, such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series or Audi A8.

This is partly due to the high costs involved and the relatively low sales volume of the vehicles in question. Such top-flight models also usually represent the pinnacle of safety for their respective brand, so it’s fair to assume they’d perform to a high standard in independent crash testing. 

The Lexus LS reeks of safe and solid construction, plus no end of airbags (12 in all, including one for the Ottoman seat in the left rear) and safety assist technology.

Among the latter, you’ll get forward collision warning (with both pedestrian and cyclist detection), autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist.

There’s blind spot monitoring, 360-degree camera monitoring, traffic sign recognition, ‘Bladescan’ active shadowing LED headlights, Lexus Connect emergency telematics and a Front Lateral Side Pre-Collision System – which ANCAP refers to as ‘junction assist’.

The Bladescan headlight system doesn’t seem as ultimately sophisticated as similar systems from rival brands, particularly Audi’s matrix headlights. While the Lexus set-up does fade in and out progressively to save drivers in oncoming cars from being blinded, it’s slow to react – and at least three other drivers flashed their lights when the Lexus took too long to dip its lights.

On a country road that is a test of lane departure warning systems in general, the Lexus coped fairly well with reading the line markings and alerting the driver. The system can be enabled or disabled from a button on the right spoke of the steering wheel.

Another warning system will inform the driver when the vehicle speed reaches 3km/h above the speed set for the cruise control. It’s a little annoying in hilly country, and the Lexus does have the capacity to brake and reduce speed, but too often it won’t react in time ahead of the warning trigger.

Unlike a Lexus RX 350L tested recently, the traffic sign monitoring of the LS 500 Sports Luxury cannot distinguish between peak-hour speed limits in school zones and off-peak limits at other times of day. In a typical school zone the head-up display will tell you the car should be travelling no faster than 40km/h, even at 9pm.

The Front Lateral Side Pre-Collision System – intersection turning assist or junction assist by any other name – is a useful and welcome addition to the safety arsenal of the LS 500. It displays dynamic arrows in the head-up display to reveal the direction of approach for a vehicle on an intersecting road.

Lexus claims the system will also brake the car automatically if there’s imminent danger of a collision.

Thoroughly reworked for the latest model year, the turbocharged petrol V6 of the 2021 Lexus LS 500 is subdued and docile when driven gently, and is inaudible for all intents and purposes at 100km/h.

It’s refined all the way up to the redline above 6300rpm in fact, but it does build up a head of steam in the Sport and Sport+ modes on the way there.

While the engine is not especially economical in isolation, based on the figure of 14.0L/100km posted for the 70km test run, it’s somewhat worse around town and on short trips from cold starts. Then the fuel consumption is more like 18.0L/100km.

Nevertheless, it’s significantly more frugal than other rivals I’ve reviewed over the years.

Driving through the rear wheels, the LS 500 really does provide excellent traction. The Lexus can strike out in a straight line without any untoward behaviour, and the stability control also keeps the powertrain from swinging the rear-end – yet there’s little evidence of either system suppressing performance to any significant degree.

The transmission in the Lexus is very smooth, even when set in manual mode and operated sequentially with the shift paddles. It is reluctant to change down if that should lead to the engine revving high.

Dynamically, the 2021 Lexus LS 500 Sports Luxury is roughly on par with the previous-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but the BMW Alpina B7 and the first-generation Porsche Panamera GTS outgun the Lexus for roadholding.

Those two vehicles are outliers in this segment, however. Ride comfort is more important to most consumers at this end of the market, and the Lexus and Mercedes deliver that in spades.

Although the LS 500 lopes along, floating over bumps and potholes in Normal, Comfort and Eco modes, it doesn’t wallow. And when Sport or Sport+ modes are selected, the LS 500 will handle and hold the road quite adeptly for a vehicle of its bulk.

The steering is precise and responsive in the Sport modes, but is also lightly weighted in the other modes.

Under heavy braking the Bridgestones will bite hard – protesting loudly but also staying very stable and progressive in the Normal mode.

Gentle braking brings the Lexus to a soft stop and the car will wait until it comes to a complete halt before the idle-stop system kills the engine to save fuel. There’s a delay between lifting the foot off the brake pedal and the engine restarting, but it’s a delay that’s easily anticipated for a swift launch at the traffic lights.

Despite gusty winds on the night of its test drive, the Lexus LS 500 proved to be remarkably quiet inside. About the only thing heard at 100km/h (1300rpm) was some tyre noise from the Bridgestone Turanza 245/45R20 tyres.

The Lexus just wafted along, and remained unperturbed by the wind – in terms of straight-line stability as well as noise suppression.

Finished in Sonic Quartz outside and an all-white leather interior inside, the Lexus certainly conveys a sense of occasion.

For such a large car, it seems to shrink around you in the driver’s seat, even without setting off. That’s due to the placement of the stubby gear shifter, for example, and the high-rising centre console. You feel cocooned.

The driving position is on the money, however, with the right relationship to wheel and pedals available by the medium of a seat with more than enough powered adjustment to suit anyone, including lumbar adjustment for more support in the lower back.

Fairly prominent contouring ensures the front seats hold the occupant in place securely. On a cold night, the heating for the seat and steering wheel were very welcome indeed.

With some familiarity, the instruments are easy to read and the controls are simple to use. The head-up display is at once informative and visually dramatic on start-up, with a sequence that looks like hyperspace travel from a science-fiction film.

There are two USB ports, a 3.5mm aux port and a 12V outlet in the centre console under the arm rest, plus two more USB ports (charging only) in the rear, two 3.5mm ports and an HDMI port for the DVD player and two rear-seat screens.

A cooler box resides underneath the centre arm rest where a ski port would normally be, along with two cup holders that deploy from the same arm rest when folded down. The arm rest also houses a touch-screen for rear-seat climate control and seat adjustment – including the left-seat Ottoman facility.

Adjustable vents can be found in the rear of the centre console, the B-pillars and in the headlining over the doors. The amount of room provided in all key directions is fine for adults, although not as generous as other upper-large limousines reviewed in the past.

Boot space is not as large as expected in a car as long as this one, but the motion gesture worked for me! This is something almost unique to Lexus – a swift kick under the posterior actually triggers the boot opening without endlessly waving the foot around under the bumper like you’re dancing the hokey-pokey.

It’s a system that has worked for me with the Lexus ES in the past, but I can rarely get any other brand to play ball. It’s a miracle.

A lot of enthusiasts write off cars like the 2021 Lexus LS 500 Sports Luxury, but like the memorable tagline from that famous toilet paper brand, the big Lexus is ‘soft AND strong’.

It’s also typically Lexus, in that you don’t begin to appreciate its subtler virtues until you miss them.

Such was the case after swapping out of the LS 500 into a smaller car from a German prestige brand.

Powered by a gruff four-cylinder engine and riding quite harshly on the archetypal ‘liquorice-strap’ tyres, the German car left me muttering to myself: “I want the Lexus back...”