2025 Lexus LS

The volume LS 500 runs the V35A-FTS 3.4-liter twin-turbocharged V6 at 416 hp, a figure unchanged across the fifth-generation (XF50) run and the strongest standard output among full-size luxury sedans' base cars. 2025 is explicitly a carry-over year, so this is the same engine the generation launched with in 2018.

442 lb-ft available from 1,600 rpm sits near the top of the sedan normalization band and is the highest base-trim torque figure in the full-size luxury set. It is the number that explains the LS's effortless part-throttle character, which is how a car of this mission is actually driven.

Lexus quotes 4.6 seconds to 60 mph for the LS 500, which is quicker than a base 7 Series or A8 and within a couple of tenths of an S 500 — genuinely fast for a car built around isolation rather than pace. Instrumented tests of the heavier AWD F SPORT land nearer 5.0 seconds, so the claimed figure is best read as the rear-drive car's number.

Lexus's NVH work is the best part of the car — the twin-turbo V6 is near-silent at cruise and pulls hard from the bottom of a torque plateau that starts at 1,600 rpm, so lag is barely an issue in normal driving. It stays out of the top band because reviewers consistently fault the V6's coarse, characterless note when extended, a gap the inline-sixes and V8s in its rivals do not have.

The Aisin Direct Shift-10AT shifts almost imperceptibly in the light-throttle driving the LS is built for, and ten ratios keep the V6 inside its torque band without drama. It falls short of the top band because reviewers note it will hold constant revs under sustained acceleration and is slow to pick a gear on kickdown, where the ZF 8-speed in its German rivals is decisive.

All-wheel drive is offered across the 2025 LS 500 grade range rather than reserved for the top of it, using a full-time system with a Torsen limited-slip center differential — the right hardware for a car of this weight, and the LS 500h is AWD as standard. It sits mid-band because AWD remains a cost option on a rear-drive baseline and brings no torque vectoring, terrain modes or low range, unlike rivals where quattro or 4MATIC is standard fit.

The 2025 LS offers two genuinely distinct powertrains — the twin-turbo V6 LS 500 in rear- or all-wheel drive, and the AWD-only LS 500h Multi Stage Hybrid — which covers the mainstream buyer and the efficiency-minded one but nothing beyond. There is no V8, no plug-in hybrid and no battery-electric LS, so against an S-Class spanning inline-six, V8 and PHEV the slate is thin.

A 416-hp 3.4L twin-turbo V6 hauling a heavily sound-deadened flagship returns 22 MPG combined on the EPA cycle — near the bottom of the gas-sedan band, which spans everything from a Versa upward. The LS 500h lifts that to 25 MPG combined, but it is a $30k-plus step up rather than the representative configuration.

City is the LS 500's weakest figure: a large turbocharged V6 moving roughly 4,700 lb with no electrical assist at low speed lands at 18 MPG, below the sedan band floor. This is precisely the duty cycle where the LS 500h's Multi Stage Hybrid earns its premium, adding four MPG in town.

Highway is where the LS is least compromised — a tall tenth gear and slippery bodywork give it 29 MPG, and notably the gas car matches the hybrid's highway rating exactly, so the LS 500h's case rests entirely on city driving. It still trails the downsized-turbo and electrified competition in the segment.

A 21.7-gallon tank offsets much of the thirst, giving 477 miles between fills — mid-pack for the sedan band and genuinely adequate for the long-haul touring this car is built around. The hybrid stretches that to 555 miles, which is the strongest efficiency argument in the LS range.

Twenty-two MPG combined on required premium puts the EPA's annual energy bill at $3,500 — above the $3,200 ceiling of the sedan band, so it scores zero. The figure is a real ownership cost rather than a rounding detail: the hybrid saves $400 a year at the same mileage, and the AWD gas car costs $200 more.

Lexus specifies premium unleaded for the twin-turbo V6, and the LS 500h asks for the same grade, so there is no way to configure a 2025 LS that runs on regular. There is no flex-fuel, diesel or plug-in variant to hedge with either, which lands it in the low band — though it is no worse on this count than the S-Class, 7 Series and A8, which all require premium too.

NHTSA lists the 2025 LS 500 in both drivelines but has never crash-tested it: every field — overall, frontal, side barrier, side pole and rollover — returns "Not Rated" for both the RWD and AWD cars, as is normal for a low-volume full-size luxury flagship. The 4.5-star inferred value follows the catalog's existing treatment of untested flagships (Audi A8).

The fifth-generation LS (XF50, 2018–present) has never been rated by IIHS — there is no ratings page for any model year of this generation, the LS is absent from the large-luxury-cars class summary and from every recent Top Safety Pick list, and the newest LS data IIHS holds is from a 2007 LS 460 test applying to 2007–17 cars. No award is possible and no crashworthiness result can be verified, but there are also no adverse findings: the car scores at the bottom of the middle band on capability rather than measured performance.

The gas LS 500 carries Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 standard on every grade — the newest version in the Lexus range, and one step above the 2.5 suite fitted to the LS 500h — covering Pre-Collision System with pedestrian and cyclist detection, Left Turn Oncoming Vehicle Detection/Braking, Risk Avoidance Emergency Steer Assist, full-speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control with Curve Speed Management, Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist, Lane Tracing Assist, Proactive Driving Assist, Road Sign Assist, Automatic High Beam and Emergency Driving Stop System. Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Intuitive Parking Assist with auto braking and a head-up display are standard alongside it; the only notable gap is the surround-view camera, which is not standard.

The LSS+ 3.0 Pre-Collision System is capable on paper — vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist and motorcycle detection with day and night operation, plus intersection support via Left Turn Oncoming Vehicle Detection/Braking and emergency steer assist — and the same generation of the system earns a Good IIHS pedestrian front crash prevention rating on the Lexus RX. But IIHS has never run a front crash prevention test on the LS itself, so none of that is verified on this car; it scores on demonstrated system family capability rather than a measured result.

Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert is standard on every 2025 LS 500 rather than packaged, which is better than the segment norm — but it is alert-only: there is no rear cross-traffic braking, and the radar-linked Safe Exit Assist Lexus fits to the NX, RX and RZ is not offered here. The gas car also goes without the Front Cross Traffic Alert and Lane Change Assist that the LS 500h's LSS+ 2.5 package adds.

Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist and Lane Tracing Assist are standard, and LSS+ 3.0 adds Proactive Driving Assist for gentle steering and braking support outside cruise control. Lane centering holds well on clearly marked highway lanes but is conventional hands-on Level 2 that only centers with radar cruise engaged, and it gives up on faded markings — competent rather than class-leading against the centering in a BMW 7 Series or Mercedes S-Class.

Full-Speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is standard and works down to a complete stop and back with stop-and-go traffic handling, and LSS+ 3.0 adds Curve Speed Management so the car sheds speed into bends rather than carrying the set speed through them. Paired with Lane Tracing Assist it makes a well-integrated highway assist; Traffic Jam Assist is available on top, but behind an active Drive Connect subscription, and the more capable Lexus Teammate Advanced Drive is reserved for the hybrid.

Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive — the brand's hands-free highway system — is offered only on the LS 500h AWD, so the gas LS scored here cannot be ordered with it. What remains is Traffic Jam Assist, which is hands-off but narrow on every axis: congested low-speed traffic on limited-access highways only, and it requires an active Drive Connect subscription. That is a real hands-free capability, but nothing like the road coverage of BlueCruise or Super Cruise.

The LS runs full-LED adaptive headlamps with Automatic High Beam standard across the range, and Lexus's BladeScan Adaptive High-beam System — which sweeps LED light off a rotating mirror for far finer glare-free control — is offered on upper configurations. None of it has been measured: IIHS has never rated headlights on this generation, so there is no Good/Acceptable result to lean on, and the better BladeScan optics are not what the volume car ships with.

This is the LS's weakest safety trait. The coupe-like XF50 body trades glass for style — reviewers call it the worst visibility in the nameplate's history, with smaller openings all round, a high beltline and thick rear pillars — and the camera compensation that would offset it is not standard: a surround-view Panoramic View Monitor arrives only with F SPORT or the $14,725 Luxury Package, so a base car near $100,000 can leave the lot without one. Standard Intuitive Parking Assist with auto braking and the reversing camera keep it out of the bottom band.

The LS carries the expected two complete LATCH sets in the rear outboard positions plus a top-tether anchor for the center seat, and a 123-inch-wheelbase full-size sedan gives wide door openings and generous rear legroom to work in. Against that, the lower anchors sit buried in deeply bolstered leather seat bases rather than being exposed, loading a seat through a sedan door means stooping rather than sliding in at hip height, and three-across is not realistic once the rear center armrest and console are in play. IIHS has never published a LATCH ease-of-use rating for this generation.

The volume LS 500 is a conventional five-passenger sedan with a three-place rear bench, which tops the 4-5 seat sedan normalization band. Only the low-volume Executive Package deletes the center position for a 22-way reclining rear lounge with ottoman, dropping capacity to four.

37.3 in sits in the lower third of the 36-40 in sedan band — the XF50's 57.1 in coupe-like roofline and steeply raked windshield cost front-row headroom that the car's 206.1 in length does not suggest. Reviewers report the raked A-pillars make getting in harder than the numbers alone imply.

At 41.0 in the LS sits near the bottom of the 40-44 in sedan band despite a 123.0 in wheelbase — XF50 packaging spends its length on the long hood and the rear cabin rather than front-row stretch-out room. Consumer Guide additionally notes the wide center console eats into front hip space.

Rear headroom of 37.3 in lands mid-to-upper in the 35-39 in sedan band, and is the better half of the LS's interior story — the tapered rear roofline takes less from the back seat than the raked windshield takes from the front.

This is the defining space compromise of the fifth-generation LS: Lexus dropped the long-wheelbase LS L when the XF50 arrived, so US buyers get one 123.0 in wheelbase and 38.9 in of rear legroom — several inches short of the extended-wheelbase 7 Series and A8 L that set the benchmark in this segment. Consumer Guide calls it 'a fair amount of second-row seating space' rather than a flagship's rear cabin.

The gas LS 500's 16.9 cu ft trunk sits in the upper third of the 10-20 cu ft sedan band and is the car's quiet practicality win — meaningfully larger than the S-Class's or A8's hold, and enough for four people's luggage. The hybrid gives back roughly two cubic feet to its battery.

Competent and well-finished but conservative: a split-opening console bin, decent door pockets, a standard wireless charging pad and six USB ports, with no packaging innovation of the sort the top band rewards. The rear seatback does not fold, there is no underfloor bin or frunk, and the wide, heavily styled console leaves less open stowage than a 206-inch car implies.

A long-standing LS strength and the strongest part of this category. Even the base LS 500 gets 16-way power heated and ventilated front seats with memory, and the Interior Upgrade and Luxury packages take that to 28-way power with multifunction massage and cushion extenders front and rear. Held below the top band only because the rear bench is constrained by the 38.9 in legroom above it rather than by the seat itself.

Better than mid-band but short of segment-leading, and the reason is equipment: the volume LS 500 rides on Adaptive Variable Suspension with steel springs, not the Adaptive Variable Air Suspension that is a standalone option or bundled into the Luxury/Executive packages. Reviewers consistently describe the standard setup as steady and well-controlled but firm, with sharp impacts reaching the cabin more than a flagship should allow.

The clearest best-in-class attribute of the LS. Standard 19-inch noise-reduction wheels, extensive body sealing and active noise control make it a benchmark for suppressing wind and road noise at any speed; the only intrusion reviewers reliably report is the twin-turbo V6's nasal note at full throttle, which is a character complaint rather than a volume one.

Rich but not as standard-heavy as the flagship badge suggests. Heated and ventilated 16-way front seats, a heated leather steering wheel, a power rear sunshade, a power moonroof and a hands-free trunk are all standard, and remote climate preconditioning runs through the Lexus app. What keeps it out of the top band is that the four-zone Climate Concierge with infrared sensors, heated rear seats and rear massage are package or option content on an $81,685 car — the base LS 500 leaves the factory with plain dual-zone climate.

The entry LS 500 RWD opens at $80,335 plus a $1,350 delivery charge, which Lexus publishes as an $81,685 starting MSRP for 2025. That is well beyond the top of the sedan pricing band, as it is for every full-size luxury flagship — though the LS undercuts an S 500 by roughly $35,000 and a 740i by about $17,000.

LS 500s rarely leave in stripped form — AWD ($84,935 delivered) or the Premium/Luxury package is on most cars — so roughly $84,900 is the realistic as-equipped price of the volume gas configuration. CarEdge's observed average new transaction price of $85,954 for the LS 500 lands within a thousand dollars of that, which is the corroboration for the figure.

The published estimates bracket widely: CarEdge projects $2,329 over five years — a figure that reflects Lexus's strong reliability record and the 4-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper coverage absorbing most repairs, but excludes tires and wear items — while Edmunds' True Cost to Own runs the LS 500h to roughly $13,000 on dealer-rate scheduled service. Roughly $6,000 reconciles them for the gas LS: about seven 10,000-mile services beyond the two free ones, two sets of 245/50R19 tires and a brake service over 75,000 miles, with genuine repairs rare. That puts it below a 7 Series ($7,054) and far below an S-Class ($9,800), which is the correct ordering for a Lexus flagship.

Kelley Blue Book named the 2025 LS its Best Resale Value winner in the full-size luxury sedan class at 42.3% five-year retention, the model-year-specific published figure and the one used here. Strong by flagship standards — a 7 Series is projected near 31.7% and an S-Class near 38% — but a percentage this healthy still means losing roughly $49,000, because the retention is measured against an $85,000 car.

Lexus's 4-year/50,000-mile basic coverage is the luxury-segment norm — identical to Mercedes-Benz and BMW — and one year short of Genesis's 5-year/60,000-mile term. Mid-band, no more and no less.

Six years/70,000 miles beats the flat 4-year/50,000-mile powertrain terms Mercedes and BMW attach to their flagships, but sits well short of the 10-year/100,000-mile coverage Genesis puts behind the G90 — which is what the band's upper end is calibrated to.

LexusCare covers only the first two scheduled services — 6 months/5,000 miles and 12 months/10,000 miles — which is a thin included-maintenance period next to BMW's 3-year/36,000-mile Ultimate Care or Genesis's 3-year/36,000-mile program with valet pickup, and on a 10,000-mile service interval it runs out after one visit for most owners. What lifts the LS above a bare-minimum score is the surrounding package: 4 years of unlimited-mileage roadside assistance, unusually long 10-year Safety Connect and Service Connect trials where most brands give one to three years, and dealer loaner/shuttle service that is effectively standard practice at this price point. That is squarely the 'short included-maintenance period' band rather than the multi-year coverage an 80+ would require.

$84,900 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (42.3% retained, or about $35,913) leaves about $48,987 in depreciation. Add the projected $6,000 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $54,987 in total.

The 2025 LS is an explicit carry-over of the fifth-generation XF50 car (launched for 2018, facelifted for 2021) — eight model years of running changes with no new platform, engine or electrical architecture to introduce first-year faults, which is the strongest structural argument available for predicted reliability. It sits well clear of every German full-size rival in this dataset (7 Series 80.2, S-Class 71.5, Genesis G90 77.6) on Lexus's track record, but below the simpler compact IS (89) because the LS remains a content-dense flagship — adaptive suspension, 24/28-way front seats, active noise control, a large infotainment stack — and complexity is where even Lexus's dependability results are weakest.

Lexus is the verified benchmark for this model year: it finished first overall in the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study — its third consecutive win — at 140 PP100 against a 202 PP100 industry average that was itself the worst since 2009. Consumer Reports' 2025 brand report card puts Subaru first with Lexus and Toyota immediately behind, so the brand no longer sweeps both studies outright, which is what keeps this out of the 90s' upper reaches.

Two NHTSA campaigns reach the 2025 LS and both are software with over-the-air or flash remedies — the rearview-camera freeze covering 2022-2026 Toyota/Lexus/Subaru vehicles with Panoramic View Monitor, and the instrument-panel startup fault covering a wide 2023-2025 Toyota/Lexus set. Neither is powertrain, fire or structural, and the LS's specific hardware drew nothing; the score sits below the 84 on the 2026 car only because two confirmed campaigns touch this model year rather than none, and short of the top band because the generation's earlier years were swept into the industry-wide Denso low-pressure fuel-pump action.

The volume LS 500 pairs the V35A-FTS 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with Aisin's 10-speed automatic — the gearbox is a robust torque-converter-conventional unit shared with the LC and LX with an excellent field record, and the LS has shown no chronic engine failure mode across eight model years. The score is deliberately held out of the top band because this engine family is the one modern Toyota design with a documented systemic defect: the 2024 machining-debris campaign that replaced V35A engines in Tundra and LX 600 models. The LS was not included and uses a different production window, but it is the same architecture, and a direct-injected twin-turbo carries more turbo, carbon-buildup and cooling exposure than the naturally aspirated Toyota V6s that anchor the brand's durability reputation.

The LS cabin is the most craft-forward interior Lexus builds — hand-pleated Nishijin-inspired door trim, Kiriko cut-glass and shimamoku wood options, semi-aniline leather and the brand's characteristically damped switchgear — and reviewers consistently single it out as a genuine point of difference against screen-forward German rivals. It lands just under the S-Class and 7 Series equivalents because those push harder on visual richness and metal content, and because the LS's lower trims share visible switchgear and secondary surfaces with far cheaper Lexus models, which an $81,685 base price does not fully justify.

This is the LS's single strongest quality attribute. It is built at Toyota's Tahara plant under the brand's takumi inspection regime, on a line and body that have had eight model years to converge — tight, repeatable panel gaps, essentially no squeak-and-rattle thread in owner reports, and class-leading NVH isolation. A carry-over year with no tooling changes is the best case for assembly consistency.

Coverage is thinner than BMW's or Mercedes-Benz's at roughly 240 US stores, but Lexus is the industry reference point for luxury service satisfaction, regularly leading or placing top-three in J.D. Power's Customer Service Index, with loaners and pickup-and-delivery standard practice — and flagship LS buyers sit at the front of that queue. Scored identically to the 2026 LS and the brand's other sedans since the network is a brand-wide attribute.

The LS is the weak spot in an otherwise strong Lexus ownership case: a low-volume flagship whose adaptive and (package-fitted) air suspension, multi-way seats and model-unique glass, lighting and body panels are dealer-dependent, expensive and essentially unserved by an aftermarket. It still beats the German full-size field because the V35A engine and Aisin 10-speed are shared with high-volume Toyota trucks and SUVs, Lexus parts and labor pricing runs below the Germans', and independent shops will take the work — but it is far below the Toyota-commonality cars in Lexus's own range.

The LS runs one 12.3-inch high-resolution touchscreen on every grade — mid-band against the 7-15.5 in sedan normalization range, and visibly smaller than the pillar-to-pillar displays the German and Korean flagships now fit. The screen moved forward on the dash in the 2021 update so it can be reached, which is why the touchpad could be deleted.

The 2023 model year replaced the widely criticized Remote Touch touchpad with Lexus Interface — smartphone-style menus, a fast high-resolution panel, and retained physical knobs and switches for volume and climate, which reviewers single out as the right call. It stays in the upper part of the middle band rather than the top because the display is small for the class and the retrofit shows: critics describe the panel as visually grafted onto a 2018 dashboard.

Both wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are standard on every 2025 LS trim, with no wired-only base grade and no subscription gate — exactly the top-band condition. Dual Bluetooth pairing backs it up.

The 'Hey Lexus' Intelligent Assistant is a genuine cloud natural-language system with dual microphones, noise cancellation and seat detection, paired with Cloud Navigation using Google POI data and live Destination Assist agents. It is held out of the top band by the business model rather than the engineering: both the assistant and cloud nav require an active Drive Connect subscription once the three-year trial lapses, so a four-year-old LS can lose the feature entirely.

The optional Mark Levinson 23-speaker, 2,400-watt QuantumLogic Immersion Reference Surround system is among the strongest factory audio installations sold in any sedan, and the standard 12-speaker Lexus Premium system is a competent floor rather than a penalty box. Reviewers rate the Mark Levinson setup outright excellent.

A 12.3-inch fully digital gauge display is standard across the range, using the LFA-derived sliding-ring motif that physically shifts the central dial aside to expose secondary menus — crisp and distinctive. It is a generation behind the widescreen curved clusters of its rivals in raw real estate and configurability, which caps it below the top of the band.

Lexus Interface brought real over-the-air software updating to the LS — the multimedia system and maps refresh over the embedded DCM connection without a dealer visit, which is more than the pre-2023 car could do. It stays in the middle band because these are infotainment and map updates, not the whole-vehicle, feature-adding OTA campaigns that Tesla, BMW and Rivian ship.

The Lexus app covers the full core set — remote start and climate preconditioning, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, status and alerts — and the LS adds Digital Key phone-as-key as standard equipment on the gas car, which most rivals charge for. Subscription gating after the three-year Remote Connect trial is what keeps it out of the top band; Safety Connect and Service Connect, by contrast, carry up to ten-year trials.

Six USB ports across both rows plus a standard wireless charging pad is a generous count and appropriate for a flagship. It sits mid-band rather than higher because the port complement dates to the 2018 architecture — a mix of older USB-A alongside USB-C rather than high-wattage USB-C throughout — and there is no household AC outlet anywhere in the car.

Near-complete keyless convenience as standard: SmartAccess proximity entry with push-button start, a hands-free power open/close trunk, remote start through both fob and app, and Digital Key phone-as-key standard on the gas LS. Only the subscription requirement behind Digital Key keeps this off the very top of the band.

The hardware on offer is comprehensive — Panoramic View Monitor surround camera, Intuitive Parking Assist with Auto Braking standard, a Digital Rearview Mirror option, and Advanced Park self-parking — but the volume LS 500 leaves the factory with only the backup camera and sonar, because the surround view is an option (standard on F SPORT and bundled with the Luxury/Executive packages) and Advanced Park is a paid extra or hybrid-only Teammate content. Reviewers have called out the missing 360 camera on a near-six-figure car.

A 10-inch color head-up display is standard equipment on every gas LS — not a top-trim option — projecting navigation, driver-assist status and, with the Lexus Safety System+ A package, pre-collision pedestrian alerts into the driver's sightline. Standard fitment on the volume trim is exactly what the top band asks for.

Workable but compromised family logistics. The 16.9 cu ft trunk swallows a stroller easily and the two outboard LATCH positions are conventional, but 38.9 in of rear legroom is tight for a full-size flagship, the rear seatback is fixed so nothing long passes through, and reviewers report the rear door openings are small relative to the car — the awkward part of installing a seat in an LS is the aperture, not the anchors.

Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 is standard on every gas LS — pre-collision with pedestrian detection, full-speed radar cruise with curve speed management, lane tracing, Proactive Driving Assist, left-turn oncoming-vehicle braking and Emergency Driving Stop — alongside standard blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert and ten airbags. What holds it back is the crash-test record rather than the equipment: the LS is unrated by NHTSA and its IIHS credentials are incomplete, so the safety case rests on hardware rather than verified outcomes.

Strong on the things that matter over six hours — a benchmark-quiet cabin, a standard power rear sunshade, excellent seats and a trunk that stays fully usable with all five seats occupied. It falls short of the top band because the rear-seat amenities families notice are package content: the four-zone Climate Concierge, heated rear seats and rear-armrest touchscreen controller all sit behind the Luxury Package, and 38.9 in of rear legroom is the tightest in the full-size luxury field.

This is close to the LS's natural habitat. 442 lb-ft from 1,600 rpm makes it effortless in traffic, the steering is deliberately light so a 206-inch car never feels heavy at low speed, full-speed-range radar cruise with Proactive Driving Assist handles stop-and-go, and the cabin isolation keeps fatigue low. It is not top-band only because the standard steel-sprung Adaptive Variable Suspension transmits sharp urban impacts more than a flagship should.

Expensive to commute in by any measure. The volume LS 500 RWD returns 22 MPG combined and the AWD car 21 MPG, both on required premium fuel, working out to roughly $3,500 a year at EPA's 15,000-mile assumption — and the consumables on 19- or 20-inch flagship tires and six-piston brakes are not cheap either.

Mixed. The turning circle is genuinely good for the size and the light steering makes low-speed work easy, but the car is 206.1 in long and 74.8 in wide, outward visibility is the worst in the nameplate's history by reviewer consensus, and the surround-view camera that would offset that is an option on the volume trim rather than standard equipment.

No US tow rating, no bed, no hitch provision and no payload capacity beyond passengers and luggage — a full-size luxury sedan is not a work tool. The one point of separation from the German flagships is a usefully bigger trunk, which is a sample-case advantage, not a work one.

Mechanically this is the toughest car in its segment — the V35A-FTS twin-turbo V6 is the same engine family Toyota uses in the Tundra, Sequoia, LX 600 and GX 550, and Lexus's reliability record is the brand's defining asset. But the item measures fitness for abuse, and everything above the driveline is wrong for it: leather and Ultrasuede surfaces, air-suspension options, low-profile tires on 19- and 20-inch wheels, and 5.9 in of ground clearance.

Essentially nothing to score: no bed, no factory hitch, no roof rails, no 120V household outlet, no washable surfaces, no tie-down system beyond trunk carpet, and no upfit ecosystem of any kind. The trunk lid opens hands-free, which is the sum total of the work-oriented provision.

The LS's core mission and where it earns its keep. A benchmark-quiet cabin, 16-way heated and ventilated front seats (28-way with massage on packaged cars), roughly 477 miles of range on a tank, and full-speed radar cruise with lane tracing and Proactive Driving Assist add up to an outstanding mile-eater. Reviewers call it a 'highway king' outright; only the firm standard suspension over poor surfaces keeps it off the ceiling.

Pavement-bound, and less provisioned for it than its rivals because all-wheel drive is a paid option on the LS 500 rather than standard as quattro is on an A8 or 4MATIC on an S-Class. With 5.9 in of ground clearance, no roof rails, no tow rating and no onboard power, the outdoor use case ends at a well-graded gravel road to a trailhead.

Volume is good — 16.9 cu ft is a third larger than an S-Class trunk and takes four people's luggage without argument — but flexibility is poor. The rear seatback does not fold, so nothing long or bulky goes in, and with no roof rails or hitch there is no way to carry gear outside the car. That combination is squarely mid-band: fine for suitcases, restrictive for anything else.

Secure and composed rather than agile. Body roll is well restrained for a 4,700-lb car and the adaptive dampers keep it tidy, but 0.85 g of measured grip is modest for a modern flagship and the car never shrinks around the driver — reviewers describe it as a wide machine that feels out of its element on a twisting road. The F SPORT's Dynamic Handling Package adds active rear steering and air springs, but that is not the volume configuration.

Deliberately light and consistently weighted, which serves the car well at parking speeds and on the highway, but almost nothing about the road surface reaches the rim. That is a tuning choice rather than a defect — the LS is set up for isolation — and it lands mid-band as 'precise enough but numb'.

Pedal feel is firm and progressive with no fade in normal use, but the measured performance is the weakest instrumented number on the car: 183 ft from 70 mph is long for a modern luxury sedan on any tire, and this was the F SPORT with its larger six-piston front calipers. The standard LS 500 has less brake hardware, not more.

One of the car's clearest strengths. The 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6's 442 lb-ft plateau starts at 1,600 rpm, so the ten-speed rarely has to work and shifts are close to imperceptible in the light-throttle driving the LS is built for. It stops short of the top band for a beat of turbo lag off the line and a transmission that will hold revs rather than pick a gear decisively under sustained acceleration.

Near-silent at a cruise — Consumer Guide describes only 'a carefully calculated amount of engine noise' reaching the cabin — and free of vibration through the controls. The score is held out of the top band by what happens at full throttle: reviewers are unanimous that the twin-turbo V6 sounds nasal and strained where an inline-six or V8 would sound expensive, which is a character failure rather than a volume one.

Genuinely good for a 123.0-in wheelbase: the volume LS 500 on its standard 19-inch wheels turns in 36.8 ft, mid-band on the 34-40 ft sedan scale and tighter than an A8 or an S-Class without rear-axle steering. The 20-inch wheels fitted to the F SPORT and the hybrid push it out to roughly 39.4 ft.

Excellent adjustability — 16-way power front seats standard, 28-way with cushion extenders on packaged cars — and a control layout reviewers specifically praise for keeping physical knobs and switches for climate and volume rather than burying them in the screen. It is pulled down by the car's packaging: the raked windshield and A-pillars make ingress awkward, the roofline is low for the footprint, and outward visibility is reported as the worst in the nameplate's history.

Engineered as a serenity machine and successful on those terms, but there is little here to seek out for its own sake. Effortless thrust and available rear drive keep it from feeling like an appliance; numb steering, 0.85 g of grip, a nasal V6 soundtrack and deliberate responses keep it well short of engaging, and enthusiast outlets recommend it for craftsmanship rather than for driving.

At $81,685 delivered the LS 500 arrives with Lexus Safety System+ 3.0, a 12.3-inch navigation touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a head-up display, a 12.3-inch multi-information display, Digital Key capability, heated and ventilated power front seats and 19-inch noise-reduction alloys — content a 740i at roughly $98,000 or an S 500 at roughly $121,000 charges a great deal more to match, and a head-up display in particular is an option on both. The 28-way massaging seats, Mark Levinson audio and heated rear seats that define the flagship experience sit in the Premium, Luxury and Executive packages rather than in the base car, which is what keeps this short of the top band.

The gas LS is the bargain of the full-size luxury class on content-per-dollar: 416 hp and 442 lb-ft, a genuinely world-class interior and Lexus build quality for $35,000 less than an S 500 and $17,000 less than a 740i, with reviewers consistently naming the price 'reasonable by class standards.' The range is dragged down at the top by the LS 500h, whose $116,560 ask buys a slower car with only a modest efficiency gain — a configuration critics single out as poor value — so the score reflects a strong gas car inside a lineup that is not uniformly well-priced.

Four gas configurations — LS 500 RWD and AWD, F SPORT RWD and AWD — layered with Premium, Luxury and Executive packages give real spread between about $81,700 and the low $100,000s once boxes are ticked. But there is only one wheelbase and one body, no V8 or long-wheelbase option, and a $32,000 chasm between the top gas car and the single hybrid configuration with nothing in between — thin next to an S-Class lineup that spans six-cylinder to Maybach.

The LS sold 1,082 units in the US in 2025, down almost exactly 50% from 2,163 the year before, making the flagship the worst-selling vehicle in the Lexus lineup — behind even the niche LC and RC coupes — and Lexus has since confirmed the nameplate leaves the US market after 2026. This is the bottom band on both counts the item measures: a slow seller and a sharply declining one.

Lexus carries one of the strongest ownership reputations in the industry — Kelley Blue Book's Best Resale Value: Luxury Brand for 2025, its third consecutive win as of 2024, won on the strength of class wins in six separate categories, and a durability reputation that the used market prices in directly. It lacks the outright aspirational halo the S-Class badge still commands at the very top of the class, which is the gap between this and a 90+.

Scored as buyer benefit, and the benefit is real: a flagship selling roughly a thousand units a year with a confirmed end date sits on dealer lots, so factory cash, subvented lease money factors and genuine negotiating room are routinely available — the opposite of the at-or-over-MSRP position an S-Class or a limited-run flagship holds. The reason the deals exist is weakness, but that is exactly what this inverted item is meant to credit; the score stops short of the very top because the published factory cash is modest rather than desperate.

2025 is the eighth model year of the fifth-generation XF50, which launched for 2018 and last saw a substantive update in the 2021 refresh; Lexus states the 2025 car 'carries over unchanged from the previous model year.' Worse than aging, the replacement risk is settled — there is no next-generation LS for the US, and the nameplate ends after 2026 — so a 2025 buyer is purchasing the tail end of a discontinued line. The interior craftsmanship holds up better than the eight-year-old infotainment and chassis hardware do.

Reviewers respect the LS without recommending it: praise runs to the interior craftsmanship, quietness, build quality and reliability, while the criticism — ride and handling less polished than rivals', dated infotainment, a hybrid that makes no sense at its price — is consistent enough that it finishes mid-to-bottom of class roundups (KBB ranks it #9 among luxury full-size cars at a 4.3 expert rating; MotorDonkey places it last of six). Its real awards are ownership-economics ones, the KBB Best Resale Value class win in 2024 and 2025, not comparison-test or 10Best/NACTOY honors. That is the 'well-reviewed, rarely the pick of the class' band exactly.