Judging from the article’s title, you know that this write-up is more about passion than impartiality. Passion around what we like about cars, and how they make us feel. I had the opportunity to finally take a Lexus LC500 for a few days, as the last press loaner for 2025, and it was a very special way for me to send the year off.
I still remember when the Lexus LC was first unveiled, initially purely as a concept. Very low, wide, and dramatic, it felt almost implausible, especially for someone that had barely seen a handful of Lexus cars before – this was back when I lived in a country where Lexus are still a rare sight.
Yet, it happened. Made in the Motomachi plant that was also responsible for the moonshot LFA, it looked almost like a carbon copy of that concept when it eventually came out in 2017. I always thought the exterior design was not going to be a home run with my captive audience, but I am both pleased and surprised to report it received unanimous approval. Of course, the long silhouette and the swoopy lines help, but it is executed in a way that could not be more Japanese.
Up front, the tri-beam headlights flank what is possibly the final realisation of Lexus’ main design cue, the spindle grille. While it can look overdone in a few other models, here it fits the size and purpose of the vehicle and dominates the front end. At the rear, the 3D effect taillights and the chiseled bumper lead to a signature that is unmistakable, even within the Lexus brand.
This very car I had features optional equipment, including a carbon fibre roof and a deployable rear wing, and both give the LC a slightly sportier vibe, but that doesn’t go too far to detach it from the Luxury Coupe idea the initials project, which are corroborated by the 21 inch polished wheels, chrome details around the whole car, and a side profile that looks more sculpted than wind tunnel optimised.
As you pull on the cool recessed door handle and let your body drop on top of the seats, the LC shows it’s not finished wowing you. The same way the grille’s final form is found on the LC, the interior here is a showcase of everything Lexus knows how to do best. You’d struggle to find cheap materials, with mostly everything being leather, suede, brushed metal or carbon fibre, and screwed together with a lot of attention to detail.
The (also optional) seats have a suede inlay and a more sporty design versus the L package, and are the first hint to how this car’s interior was configured. The LC had many different interior colour options over the years, and this red and black works well with the subdued silver exterior. My choice will always be the Toasted Caramel tan colour, but you can still go way crazier with the Inspiration Series if you feel like standing out even more.
These colours extend to the door cards, that continue the theme of mixing many materials in impressive craftsmanship. The carbon fibre shell supports leather and suede, and is finished off with the floating door handles. They look and feel incredible, but they achieve the worst of both worlds by being massive – so impossible to leave my tight garage – while having basically no storage.
That’s because space, in the general sense of the word, is not one of the LC’s strengths. For a coupe of this footprint, and with GT pretenses of being able to cover long road trips, you better pack light. Storage solutions are very limited inside, with a single cupholder, a very shallow armrest cubby, and a tiny glovebox. The boot floor is high, which limits things even further, so at least you have the back seats to carry stuff in, because you’re not realistically carrying anyone back there. I tried it for a gag and it wasn’t ideal, as of course you’d expect. For the most realistic use case of a couple with some suitcases and duffel bags, the LC gets that covered no problem, but anything over that will be a stretch.
But, as time went on, what people reacted the most negatively about the LC wasn’t its practicality (or lack thereof), but its tech. The familiar touchpad also seen in other models is present here to control most infotainment features, and it is not great. Thankfully, some specific functions are accessed through perfectly weighted metal dials that are just so much better to use than a screen.
Speaking of screens, the facelift saw a bigger, touch sensitive unit moved closer to the driver and yes, it brought a snappier, easier to use system, but I feel like it ruined the integration seen here in the earlier models. It looks great, even all these years detached, but it is the interaction that is the LC’s Achilles’ Heel.
Having (wired) Apple CarPlay mitigates most of it, but I still couldn’t get to type an address using the touch pad, having to resort to voice commands. During my time with it, the system became set-and-forget and therefore less of an issue, but it is easy to understand why Lexus moved away from this implementation. The Mark Levinson is another highlight here, with a balanced delivery and their customary bright sound signature.
But we’re not done talking tech until we’ve discussed the drivers cluster. When watches combine analog and digital features, we call them Anadigi, and this is sort of the case here. You have two digital screens mounted one on top of the other, with a motorised track that allows for you to move the tachometer to the side to have the other screen show more detail. Plus, it changes colours according to the drive mode you’re in, with Sport+ having an incredible nod to the LFA.
When both the exterior and the interior are already that special, it feels weird to say the powertrain (namely the engine) is the start of the show of a car, but I’ll go that far. The 2UR-GSE 5 liter V8 is one of the last naturally aspirated V8s around and, due to this architecture, it only makes peak power all the way at 7100 RPM. That means it is beat in power by most of its competitors that went the way of the forced induction, but it also brings immediate response, no lag, and a soundtrack is literally unlike anything else you can buy new.
Attached to that lovely engine is a conventional automatic gearbox with 10 speeds, linked to a LSD at the rear wheels – that steer, thanks to another option. That gearbox has underpinnings almost ancient at this point, but some interesting behaviour that creates a full Jekyll-and-Hyde experience with the LC. Other sporty Toyota/Lexus models do the same, with a lurch forward when under heavy throttle upshifts in Sport+, which help build engagement as you are working through the power band. Ah, and the ability to fully ride the rev limiter as you climb all the way there, always a plus when the car sounds this good.
For a car of this size, it surprised me with its ability to move around and be agile, possibly due to rear wheel steer. Or, maybe, just to feel agile, because I then took it to a very tight and technical piece of road I take sporty cars and it was incredibly unhappy there, with barely any opportunity to stretch its legs all the way to where power is, and having to ride the brakes and fight its weight. Physics.
But flicking it to Comfort instantly turns the LC into a pussycat, allowing you to revel in the comfortable seats and nice sound system. This dual personality approach This . If you can live in that mode long enough, you might be able to get better efficiency figures than I did, because 13.6L/100km is less than ideal, so let’s just say that I didn’t drive it in the most roadtrip-friendly manner.
It is a novelty to have a car with 351kW of power that you can floor and have nothing happen. You will most definitely lose that race to merge against pretty much any other car with the same level of power, but the fact that you can enjoy the crescendo of the engine sound is something we get less and less today, especially with a car with these power figures.
So, I think it is clear at this point that this was a Meet Your Heroes kind of moment for me. I thought that was no way the LC could deliver on the idealised image I had of it for all these years, and expectation is the mother of disappointment. But I think that I managed to set those expectations quite accurately, because it did deliver.
Is it perfect? Absolutely it isn’t. But compromise many a great car has built. The LC falls flat whenever you want to be objective, as you will easily find cars that best it in every single metric, and it manages to be worse to live with than other cars in the same tier and category.
But ever since it was released, it was never about reason with me and the LC, and that cannot be measured in figures. It is very clear I struggle to be unbiased here, but it is also undeniable that this is one of the most special modern cars at our disposal, and one the industry unanimously believes time will be very kind to. I just hope I can get into one of my own before everyone realises what they’re missing. And do meet your heroes! Thanks, Lexus of Auckland City, for this opportunity, and thank you for reading this far.
