2021 Lexus LC500 review: Why I think THIS is the BEST sounding n/a V8 on sale!

CarExpert

I think the Lexus LC500 is the BEST sounding naturally aspirated production V8 car on the market today. Have a listen to the exhaust note in the video and let me know if you agree in the comments below. Paul Maric does a detailed review of the 2021 Lexus LC500. Saddle up!  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:01 Interior: 03:51 Infotainment: 05:26 Safety Tech: 08:31 Practicality: 09:05 On the road: 12:42 Verdict: 19:08  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #lexus #LC500 #review @PaulMaric

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here and make two very bold claims.

00:04 One, I reckon that that is the best looking convertible on the market. And two, I think it

00:09 has the best sounding naturally aspirated V8 engine on the market. So we'll test that claim

00:14 out shortly. This is the Lexus LC convertible. It really looked great as a coupe, but now as a

00:20 convertible. So just have a look at it. There's just so much going on here and I think it looks

00:24 really cool. Now this looks super, super expensive, but it's not actually that expensive relatively

00:29 compared to its competitors. So priced at just under $215,000. This competes with things like

00:35 the Jaguar F-Type, the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class and the BMW M850i as well. Now today we're going to do

00:43 a detailed review of the Lexus LC convertible. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this

00:48 review, you can use the time codes up on the screen there. Or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down

00:52 and use the chapters below. If you haven't done so already, make sure you hit subscribe, press the

00:56 bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive a design icon. Okay, so you've got 10

01:02 exterior colors to choose from and they're all free of charge, which is good, but I need to talk

01:07 about the design here. So this car is actually much lower than I thought it was going to be. So

01:10 I'm about 185 centimeters tall and you can see there that it comes up to about here, but this

01:15 section is like at knee height. And then when you come down and have a look at this, there is a lot

01:20 going on here. The angles are incredible. It's kind of like a, what were those things that, you

01:24 know, the Etcher sketch. There was like a version of that where you put your hand in it and it would

01:28 leave an imprint. It's almost like they've just done this with the front of this car. It's just

01:32 left this imprint from someone's wall as a designer. It looks really cool. It all just comes

01:37 down nicely. You've got this 3D element up the top. Lexus symbol here. This car is available with

01:42 a hybrid, but don't go for that. Just go for the naturally aspirated V8. So very good looking,

01:47 I think, but some people aren't so convinced. Some people think it's a little bit too much and

01:51 there's a little bit too much going on because you can see here with these LED running lights,

01:55 that there's just angles everywhere, full LED headlights. And let me know in the comments

01:59 section below, do you think the design looks good or do you think there's just a little bit

02:03 too much going on here? Okay, let's have a look at these wheels. So 21 inch alloy wheels. They

02:08 are absolute whoppers. You get Pilot Super Sport tires as standard and have a look at this wheel

02:13 design. It is something else, isn't it? So you've got this brushed chrome on the inserts and then

02:18 black on the other side. I would just love to see a few more wheel options instead of just having

02:22 a sort of fairly narrow selection. I don't know that this chrome look will be for everyone, but

02:27 I think it looks pretty good. Now in terms of the brakes, they're fairly big as well. 338 mm

02:32 rotors up the front with six piston calipers. 308 mm rotors at the rear with four piston calipers.

02:38 Have a look at this wing mirror as well. So you've got the black section on the top and then

02:41 it has chrome there with a really thin aspect for the indicator. But I want to show you a couple of

02:47 other things and we'll start down here with the door handle. So to keep all of this flush, the

02:51 door handle tucks away when the car's locked or after a certain timeout period. Then when you do

02:56 want to use the door handle, you just push on the outside there and it pops out. You can see the

02:59 little Lexus logo up the top. You've got some air vents tucked away down there and then have a look

03:04 at this. This is what the interior looks like with someone walking past on the outside. I think it

03:10 looks really nice. It looks high-end. It looks very futuristic. I would love to see some more

03:14 colours in there and we'll go into a bit more detail when we go inside the car. But you can

03:18 get different colours if you want to. Lexus symbol on the back there and then the world's tiniest

03:23 rear window. Looks a little bit funny. Let's have a look at the rear of the car. Now while the front's

03:27 quite busy, it's a little simplistic around here. So you've got these chrome edges on the top,

03:33 LED lights and they're multi-tiered so they have a bit of depth to them. Indicator falls away down

03:38 the side there. Real exhaust outlets and then just very basic LC500 lettering on the back and then a

03:44 brake light as well. I think it looks really nice both as a convertible and also as a coupe when the

03:50 roof's closed. So we're inside the LC. Let's start with the key. I'll show you what that looks like.

03:55 It's a pretty heavy key. It's got a bit of weight to it. Lock, unlock, boot, panic and then you've

04:01 got a little bit of Lexus there. Plastic on that side, brushed aluminium around the side and then

04:06 on the back, Lexus with what feels like leather on the side there. So really nice looking key.

04:11 We haven't seen a key that I've really enjoyed this much in a while. So now what about styling?

04:16 Okay, so I mentioned earlier that this looks a little bit bland with the one colour because it's

04:20 just black, black, black, black, black. You get a little bit of this brushed aluminium here but

04:25 for the most part I think it is worth having a look at the different colour options you can get

04:28 for the interior because it'll really just add a bit of character to it. But if we put that to one

04:32 side, there's a lot going on here and it kind of suits the design. You've got a lot going on at the

04:35 front, a lot going on at the back but you can see here all the different lines and the tiers. You've

04:39 got the infotainment system there. There's this glass element that hides a textured layer behind

04:44 it. You've got an analogue clock as well and then all of these brushed aluminium surfaces and then

04:49 a grab handle as well just in case you decide to take up drifting or something in your LC. Now in

04:55 terms of all the surfaces though, this is all very, very nice and plush and you'd expect that from a

05:00 Lexus. And in terms of your touch points as well, all of that's nice and soft but how soft is it?

05:04 Well we've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces on this car and if you want to see

05:08 how it compares to other cars that we've tested, check out the description below and follow the

05:12 link. What about build quality? It is built like a tank. This is the other thing that Lexus is good

05:19 at. They take the Toyota build quality and then just take it up another 50 levels. This feels

05:23 like it's still going to be working in 20-30 years time. Let's talk infotainment. So what I'll do

05:28 today is just give you a brief overview of the infotainment system plus the screen ahead of the

05:33 driver. Now this is where it kind of falls apart for the Lexus LC and Lexus in general, their

05:40 infotainment system just isn't very good. So you get a 10.1 inch display that sits here behind this

05:45 per-specs panel and it's all driven by this unit here. So you have shortcut buttons,

05:50 a power and volume and then also the ability to tune and also seek. I do love the texture of it,

05:56 it's knurled, it's beautifully finished, cold to the touch but the problem is it's kind of

06:00 like a computer but not a very good one. So you have to use this touchpad to move a mouse around

06:05 the screen and then it kind of sticks to points on the outside. It's actually quite difficult to

06:10 use while you're driving so not very good for that. But anyway you have inbuilt satellite navigation.

06:15 If we jump back to the main menu your audio comes in the form of AM/FM/DAB plus digital radio.

06:21 You've got a CD player as well and then if we jump over to integrated smartphones you have both

06:28 Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This is one of the redeeming features because have a look at that,

06:32 that is a full screen integration. It is really nice and sharp, nice and quick as well but again

06:36 the problem is it's all driven by this thing so you've got to then you know move around and faff

06:41 around with that before it actually does what you need it to do. I'll show you what Android Auto

06:45 looks like. There it is there, unfortunately not a full screen integration. Well it is full screen

06:50 but you're not able to get the components of it across to the other side of the screen. It's sort

06:54 of got that that section off to the side that you can't really move around. So now by the way if you

06:59 want to see a comparison between Apple CarPlay and Android Auto we've actually shot a video on it

07:03 before. You can click up here to watch that. Now in terms of the rest of the infotainment system

07:08 there's also where you use your climate controls. So you have your climate controls down here but

07:12 the problem is if you want to activate your heated or cooled seats, the heated steering wheel and

07:16 that kind of thing you have to come into this menu and then again go through the controls to

07:20 actually find what you need. So it is just a little bit clumsy and I just wish they could

07:24 really just redo this whole thing and just start from scratch. Now let's move over to the screen

07:29 ahead of the driver. So you get this display that gives you all of your driving information. You have

07:33 a digital speedo in the center there, the gear that you're in, warnings, the drive mode and then

07:38 you have engine temperature, fuel and then also oil temperature as well. But check this out. So you

07:44 can move between things that are displayed on the screen here. So you get a little G bubble,

07:48 you've got your average fuel economy, range, tyre pressures, gear position etc. But one push of this

07:54 mechanically moves that center display all the way across. Well it doesn't actually move the

08:00 display, it moves that circle and then the display updates accordingly. And then on the

08:04 left hand side you have the ability to see further things such as compass, vehicle settings,

08:09 all the safety systems etc. So I think this is a really cool setup. I haven't seen any other cars

08:14 use this type of system before and I think I could play with this all day. Moving on from the screen

08:19 and on to audio, you've got a 13 speaker Mark Levinson branded sound system, 918 watts and then

08:26 in terms of connectivity you just have in here two USB ports and a 12 volt outlet. Okay and what

08:32 about safety? You have autonomous emergency braking, you have radar cruise control which is

08:37 activated here on the steering wheel, lane keeping assistant, blind spot monitoring and front and

08:42 rear parking sensors. And let's have a look at the reverse view camera. Now I've got to switch the car

08:46 on for that. Okay, flip this into reverse. Yeah okay so it is literally just a reverse view camera

08:58 with guidelines and the quality is pretty average. It's actually quite hard to see but you know I

09:04 think it'll do the job. Moving on to practicality and we'll start with storage. Your trusty coffee

09:08 cup easily lives there and it's not impinged by anything. You've also got a little cup holder up

09:14 the front there that easily seats your coffee cup too. And then in terms of water bottle storage,

09:19 that easily fits there. It does move around a bit though so it really is only that spot up the front

09:25 there for your bottle. Then the bottle can also fit inside the door sideways as well. In terms of

09:31 storage in this center console, this both moves forwards and - whoops, get the key out of it - moves

09:37 forwards and backwards. See how it's nicely padded on the return as well? I like that. And then it

09:42 opens sideways to reveal a storage space in here. This is also where you'll find the connectivity

09:47 stuff I showed you before. Then finally you have what is possibly the world's smallest glove box.

09:53 It fits the manual and not a whole lot more. Finally you have some netting all the way down

09:58 here. Okay so what about comfort? Well you have dual zone automatic climate control. You have a

10:02 heated steering wheel, heated seats, cooled seats. You also have these heater vents that warm your

10:08 neck up so you can drive this through the dead of night if you want to. Steering wheel sits

10:12 beautifully in the hands. You've got these paddle shifters too, they're quite metallic. All of these

10:16 controls are easy to reach and I think it is worth pointing out these seats. Have a look at them.

10:21 They're really comfy to sit in but they just have this really cool texture with the perforations.

10:26 You can see a lot of effort has gone into designing these seats and giving them that

10:30 feel good factor. The seats are also electrically adjustable and you've also got memory on the

10:34 driver's side as well. Now before I show you the back seat, have a look at this. I love this

10:39 exposed carbon. You can see this throughout the car because there is a lot of carbon fibre used.

10:44 I think this is a really cool look and it just gives you an idea of the amount of engineering

10:47 they've put into this thing. Okay so you would have noticed this is a four-seater but there is

10:52 a slight issue. Igor can you give that seat a little pull for me so I can get it out of the way?

10:57 Okay so this has a fancy mechanism that pulls the seat out of the way but you'll notice there

11:02 isn't a great deal of room there and let me show you behind me. I'm in my regular driving position

11:09 now and I can fit basically two or three fingers behind me so I don't think you'll be fitting

11:14 adults or even kids back there. I don't know why they put two extra seats in. Okay let's talk cargo

11:20 space. So you don't open the boot by pressing around down here. You've got this tiny little

11:24 button off to the side. One push of that and then it opens. Yes I know it's not the world's

11:28 biggest boot. There's just under 150 litres of cargo space here. Under here you have your battery

11:34 and also some relays and fuses. You have a couple of hooks off to the side plus a first aid kit

11:39 and a warning triangle. Now I'll be keen to see if our bags actually fit in here so I'm going to

11:45 wedge that off in the corner. I'm more worried about this one. Let's see how this goes.

11:52 I know this will fit. Now I know what you're thinking. Is this going to close with that? Well

11:57 that bag compresses and it all closes fine. So not the world's biggest boot but you can actually fit

12:04 your bags in there if you need to. Now before we go for a drive I want to show you how the roof

12:07 works because I think the mechanism is actually pretty cool. It lives under here so that's how

12:11 you open and close the roof and this allows you to open and close all four windows at the same

12:15 time. So here we go. I'm going to push and hold this. It opens and closes within about 15 seconds

12:19 and you can use it up to around 50 kilometers an hour. So let's give it a shot.

12:23 So I love those little things that flip out there and then the rest is fairly traditional.

12:31 It's a soft top so it comes in, latches on and then the rear of the roof closes up and then

12:37 the window drops down and then it'll give me a beep when it's done. There we go. Bob's your uncle.

12:44 So we've just hit the road in the LC500 and you're about to check my theory about the noise.

12:50 I'll get to that in just a second but let's get through the boring bits and boring I mean just

12:54 all the specs and stuff. So it is powered by a naturally aspirated 5 litre V8 engine, produces

13:02 351 kilowatts of power and 540 newton meters of torque. That's all mated to a 10-speed automatic

13:09 transmission and Lexus claims a combined fuel economy of 12.7 litres per 100 k's and we're

13:14 pretty much bang on that. We're at 12.8 so lives up to its claim. It doesn't use all that much fuel

13:20 despite the fact it doesn't have turbos and all that sort of stuff. Now why is this engine so good?

13:25 It is smooth. You don't have any turbochargers interrupting that natural flow of torque.

13:30 It is just an incredibly smooth engine and it does exactly what Lexus is known for.

13:35 Now talk about the drive modes. There's literally a litany of them to choose from. You change the

13:39 them up here. You have Sport, Sport Plus, Normal, Custom, Comfort and Eco. I don't know why they

13:45 have so many drive modes. You're either going to be in Normal or Comfort or Sport Plus. I don't

13:49 really understand why there's so many other drive modes. Okay so we're in Normal mode and yeah it's

13:54 just super smooth. There's always torque delivery. Yeah it's a 10-speed auto which means it can hunt

13:59 but in this instance it really doesn't hunt. It leans on the engine's torque band. Even though

14:04 it isn't turbocharged there's still plenty of torque available in the mid-range. That means

14:08 that whenever you get settled into the throttle it just starts giving you what you need. The ride is

14:13 really nice as well. It's not like some of the other high-end Grand Tourers like your M8s that

14:17 just don't know what they are. And what I mean by that is the M8 is colossally quick but it then

14:23 doesn't do the Grand Touring thing right and then it doesn't really do the quick thing right. Like

14:28 it's not an agile Porsche 911 you know. So it doesn't really know what it is whereas this very

14:33 much knows what it is. It is a Grand Tourer and then a sports car second and it very much feels

14:38 that way behind the wheel in this normal mode. And then in normal mode as well everything else

14:42 is nice and soft so the steering is not overly communicative but it is very gentle and easy to

14:48 turn the car. The steering ratio is quite fast as well so it means that even in normal mode you

14:53 don't have to have much steering input to point the nose. It really just all happens nicely so

14:58 there's a lot of assistance there which is good but that all becomes a lot heavier once you start

15:01 moving through the drive modes. Let's talk turning circles. So 11.8 metres it's a pretty

15:07 decent sized turning circle simply because it is a big car. Well I say it's a big car but it

15:12 doesn't really feel like a big car. I can see clearly down the front there but the thing that

15:18 is a little deceiving about this is the length of the bonnet. When I go to park I'm always super

15:23 conscious of it because when you stop early which is what I always do, you're still right up against

15:28 the kerb so it is a really long front end that you need to be super mindful of. But you get front and

15:33 rear parking sensors so it's not that bad and it's not like an event at all which takes up the

15:37 entire lane. It looks big and wide from the outside but from the driver's seat actually it

15:41 doesn't take up that much road space and it means that you can be comfortable driving it. And then

15:46 that translates to the noise as well. The noise is interesting because just like every other Lexus

15:51 it is dead quiet in here. Normally with these soft tops you get a whole lot more road noise

15:55 coming into the cabin especially with these Michelin Pilot Supersport tyres but Lexus has

16:00 killed all of that and it is a really nice and quiet place to be driving and that engine stays

16:05 quiet as well until you start rifling through some of these drive modes. Now speaking of which,

16:09 let's get this roof off. I'm going to dial up Sport mode as well and have a bit of a listen to it.

16:14 Okay there it comes, it's actually nice and quick. Oh what a wind in the cabin as it comes down.

16:19 All right there it goes, tucks away. Windows come up but we'll leave those down.

16:26 Okay Sport mode, you activate that by turning this little switch up the top here. Okay so that's now

16:32 in Sport Plus mode. I'm going to do the gear shifts myself. I can feel the suspension has become a

16:37 little harder, the steering is a little heavier, these nice meaty paddles behind the steering wheel.

16:42 Oh that noise is stupid.

16:46 Wow it sounds so cool.

16:53 Oh it's like an old school V8.

17:04 Wow that is stupidly good. All right here we go again.

17:16 Oh my god it sounds seriously incredible. Wow I'm not going to get sick of that,

17:25 that is unbelievably good. So that naturally aspirated V8, it is just, it's a free zone.

17:33 Everything that comes out of that engine comes straight out of the pipes and it is such an

17:38 awesome exhaust note. Kind of reminds me of the LFA. Now it's not the same sound but it feels

17:43 genuine like the LFA does. Okay so while you have a bucket load of noise that you'll never get sick

17:50 of by the way, it's not the best handling car in the world. It's got a fair bit of scuttle shake

17:55 as we hit bumps mid-corner. When I say scuttle shake, that's the body moving around as you

18:00 collect a bump mid-corner. It's just the chassis not being entirely strong but I don't think anyone

18:07 that buys this car is really going to care. You can throw it around and still feel confident in

18:11 it. It stays flat enough through the corners and it's not overly firm either. They haven't gone

18:15 nuts with that sport mode and then it feels most at home on sweeping bends. Once you get it tucked

18:21 in it stays fairly flat. The tyres have stacks of traction as well. Those Super Sports are generally

18:26 a pretty good tyre. Yeah as you hit those mid-corner bumps you certainly do sort of feel it

18:32 moving around a bit. Okay so I'll pop this back into normal and let's just talk wind inside the

18:37 cabin. If I actually put all the side windows up it's actually really nice in here. That little

18:43 window in the back there just stops air circulating inside the cabin. It's also a little diffuser you

18:48 can fit to the second row as well that just prevents it from becoming too turbulent in here

18:54 but for the most part once you stick the windows up you can have a conversation with your passenger

18:58 or your cameraman very easily. So the Lexus LC500. I said at the start of the video I reckon this is

19:11 one of the best looking convertibles on the market and I think it's the best sounding

19:15 naturally aspirated V8 on the market. I know it's a bit hard to convey that stuff in video but

19:19 yeah let me know in the comments section below do you agree that this is a really good sounding V8?

19:24 I think you've got to hear it in person if you ever get the chance stand behind it while it flies

19:28 past it. It really is something special. Okay so what do I think about it? Look it's soft which is

19:34 good because you're buying this because you want a soft cruiser. It's kind of a little different to

19:38 the BMW M8 which is just too harsh and just too over the top and then doesn't do the cruiser thing.

19:44 I think this straddles the line beautifully between performance and also that luxury element.

19:49 It is ultimately let down by that infotainment system. It just honestly does my head in. It does

19:53 have smartphone mirroring now which helps a lot but I think that would prevent me from actually

19:57 buying one of these. So let me know in the comments section below did you like this? Do you like the

20:02 sound? Have you bought one? Have you ever seen one out on the road? Do you think we should see

20:05 more of them out on the road? Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section below.

20:09 If you did like this video make sure you hit like, don't forget to subscribe and press the bell icon

20:13 so you can find out every single time we drive something new but until next time take it easy.

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