2018 Lexus LS 500 Review: Big Sedan's Twin-Turbo V-6 Crushes the Hybrid Powertrain
The latest Lexus flagship shines brighter and drives better with one of the industry's strongest V-6 engines.
Some choices are easy. Formula One over IndyCar. Craft beer, not Bud Light. Nirvana over the Foo Fighters. And when it comes to Lexus four-doors, it’s the LS 500 sedan, by a country mile, over the LS 500h hybrid.
My choice became clear after about 10 minutes in the LS 500 sedan, Lexus’s bid to reinvigorate a flagship four-door franchise that had gone old and stale. I’d already sampled Lexus’s hybrid powertrain twice, and spat out the dubious concoction both times: Once in Spain, in the otherwise-excellent LC Coupe, and again in New York in the LS sedan.
These hybrid Lexii subsist on the 3.5-liter V-6 from a Toyota Camry, one that’s further neutered to save fuel by running on the Atkinson cycle. To that, Lexus adds dual electric motors; a continuously variable transmission and a conventional four-speed gearbox combine to create the illusion of 10 forward gears.
But no amount of engineering magic or cabin soundproofing can completely obscure the Walmart roots of the Camry V-6, or the clunky, moaning operation of the hybrid system. Both are sadly out of place in a luxury sedan that starts around $80,000 and can soar to nearly $120,000.
But the standard LS 500 adjusted my attitude, and the car’s, in a big way.
It even managed that feat not with the burly 471-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-8 that powers the pretty LC Coupe, but with a mere V-6 engine. Ah, but what a V-6: This long-stroke, 3.5-liter, twin-turbo beauty pumps out 416 horsepower and a bountiful 442 pound-feet of torque—44 more pound-feet than the Coupe’s naturally aspirated V-8. Compared with the 4.6-liter V-8 with 386 hp and 369 lb-ft that powered the previous-gen LS460 sedan, the new direct-injected V-6 brings 30 additional horses and 73 additional pound-feet to the party.
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