2021 Lexus LC500 Review // A Ridiculously Underrated $100,000 Masterclass

that's crazy, that's from alexis, let me try it, listen, oh my god, it's so loud, yeah, we get it, you guys have to hear this, they're recording, yeah, okay, here we go, accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, house, There are a lot of Americans watching this. You sound too Canadian. Okay, yeah, they're laughing at you, they're laughing at you, and you guys aren't supposed to hear that you said you were going to delete what I thought I did. The lc 500 is not that new. It's not as fast, it doesn't have the gesture controls of an 8 Series or the augmented reality of an S-Class, in many ways it looks old, but change your perspective a little and we'll see a renewed appreciation for the LC 500.

It looks innovative, a breath of fresh air. naturally aspirated fresh air in a world of turbochargers, this is a car that happily sacrifices some performance for experience and yes, for

2021

it's had some tweaks including a revised suspension setup, a reworked transmission and it's a bit more lightweight. But with 471 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque it's not going to defeat any BMW M850i ​​anytime soon; In fact, it somehow gives the impression that you don't even know the car exists, it is alone and being the flagship of your Lexus, I want to know if it is worthy of that title If you are new to the accelerator house we do

review

s of cars, track tests and a lot of hassle, so subscribe, ring the bell, oh, immediately, getting into an LC500 feels different, it feels special. we have driven the m850i and m8 competition, the mercedes versions of the f types, all the rest and this just got a different sauce in the land of six figure ultra luxury gt cars, this one is priced near the bottom in canada , starts. at 103,000 and look what you get, I mean this one has the performance package which is what gives it the big wheels and the michelin tires and it also has the limited slip differential in the rear and the sport suspension in the rear and it has active four wheel steering and adjustable ratio steering and the alcantara headliner and the carbon fiber roof and the alcantara seats and the carbon fiber side panels yes you need that package and that package costs 13 000 Canadian dollars and in the US it is broken I think it is split into two packages and I wouldn't want to have the car without that because at this point I wouldn't want it to be any less sporty.

It sounds incredible, pulls hard and bounces off the rev limiter in the most dramatic way. Oh, there's a sharpness to the sound of the naturally aspirated v8 that simply can't be replicated in turbocharged cars like the s560 or m850i, however that sharpness doesn't carry over to the handling because, although everything feels precise, there's such a smoothness. in this car that doesn't exist in something like an F-Type, if you get an F-Type R, it feels much sportier, but here I am bathed in extreme comfort and this makes me very proud of Lexus because this car just develop. its own identity in the world of high performance GT cars that are just playing horsepower wars, this is actually surprisingly slow and that's where I get angry because those cars you feel like you need to honk at them or you're not experiencing If you're finding the next straight, push it to see what this twin-turbo V8 can do to this car, even if you drive it slowly or comfortably, no matter which way you choose to experience the LC 500, there is a feeling of satisfaction.

I have it right now in sport plus mode and I have it in manual mode and the shifts are super quick and unlike the fart you get from some turbocharged engines with dual clutch transmissions, this one has a crack on the upshift, it's incredibly satisfying . I lived with this car and it has improved my life every time I get in it. I love driving it. I love ripping it off. I love the sounds it makes. I love the handling. The seating position is perfect. The seats are incredibly comfortable. In fact, I called. James right after I picked up the car and he immediately said that if I was going to cross the country in a car, this is the one I would choose and if you live in Europe, I know that driving across the country requires, you know? maybe a couple of hours in Canada is five days.

I'd spend five days in this car, no problem, the ride is very smooth, but I guess the downside to this is that maybe, compared to some of the other GT sports cars we've driven, it's not at all. like buttoned up and that's objectively a disadvantage I just told you, but for me it's an advantage, cars these days are often too rigid and too serious about what they do, it's not like the LC 500 doesn't have problems remind you of that. It's a GT car It's not here to set lap times Yes it could go around a corner It has a limited sub differential It will drift It has all the sporty stuff but fundamentally it's mainly a grand tourer and OMG does it look good? inside and out I'm going to go talk to james about it right now beeping that actually sounds great even just you driving here it sounds great all the time at all revs every second I love it look at it it's absolutely beautiful.

A strange design although it is old and new at the same time it is like an eames chair it is ahead and behind its time it just doesn't belong now what is an eames chair? okay, you don't have culture, I don't, I dropped an interior. It's kind of like mid-century Scandinavian modern and all of this is an eagle's chair. You know everyone will know when you see it, you will know. It's okay and then you'll feel like an idiot. I'm not sure if I'm married. the color is a little too fancy for me with this color combination i think you're just trying to say it's too old manny it looks like a tree with the brown on the inside and the green on the outside well it's actually a green after from a seaweed because it has nori in the name, it's that good, I don't know, I like it anyway, the point is, first of all, this comes in some crazy colors, some really bold ones, I've seen it happen. like a really deep, beautiful red and I think a bold color suits that because it's a really bold design, like it's not new, obviously, true, but when you stand next to this car, you see pictures of it and things that you sit next to it.

You realize how ridiculous the styling is, like this one, it's like six feet long, it's just as huge as here, but that's it, but Toyota and Lexus have done it a lot recently, like the rav4 is a little bit out of place. Sorry, are you comparing? this with a rav4 this you're comparing to a rav4 what is that that's for no yeah anyway I think it's beautiful and I'll listen to it in 30 years when we're sitting in a rocking chair I'm sorry, what do you mean? wait, I will probably be the rock chair in third yes, yes, many years, my back hurts more every day.

I think we'll look back and say this was one of the great designs. I think it's so unique and they did it shamelessly. something different and not many manufacturers make all BMW cars look the same. I mean, they're trying to be bold right now by putting huge grills on the front. Yes, you compare this to the design of the eight series coupe, for example, the eight. This goes far beyond being special than looking like a stuffy mustang. He definitely has these huge haunches right here. I love that it looks a little like Ifá with the brake light and this shape going down.

Yes, yes, there is no speed of crime. Oh, no, ignore him. Execution, they made the experience false or the escape. It also has these 21-inch wheels that you said you don't like. Just yes, I actually said this about the Camry too. This is all Toyota stuff. high chrome against the ground comparing it to a camry now because these look like camry wheels those don't look like camry wheels james you've lost your mind this is very different ok there are some similarities i'll give it to you but the point is is that in the lexis toyota line this completely stands out in my opinion, I agree and fortunately the special specialty continues in the interior, it even smells good here, in fact my cooled seat is on, I'm going to turn it off, looks like a tree okay wait I'll get to that in a second just look at this watch and see how well so how to turn on my cooling there is no button to turn off the cooled seat no so we have to use the infotainment, so I go to the menu. and then I, no, I won't turn it up too much, where is it?

Are you serious? Yes, no, wait, so you select the seat and direction, how do you do that while driving? You crash, you crash, you're not being stupid, it's just that I'm not being insensitive, that's how you have to do that. Were you looking for some magic cooled seat button on the armrest? No, this is the trackpad. There is a dog in the shot. Oh, it's very nice. He is eating dandelion. He is eating dandelion. Okay, I think I would like this car yes, yes, yes, because it's like a tree, yes, well, explain your tree theory to me again, well, how many years has the rc500 been around?

Oh, four, yes, one, two, three, four, you can, that's the literal age of the car there it goes it's a tree yes it is too I mean and speaking of bold design I think that section that you now call the rings of a tree going up to that handle which is actually a stylized handle it's a very carefully sculpted style of handle this looks like a piece of native North American sculpture, like a soapstone sculpture, you know that, but you don't know the chair from an eem, that's a good point, I take half the culture. apparently i have the other one anyway this whole section is beautifully designed this is a little weird they look a bit like shrek's ears they look like i have things going like a wax candle with these spiders and this looks like shrek's hood those star wars things the little ones, what do you mean what are the little ones with the eyes, oh jawa, it seems like a joke, yeah, anyway, so I like a drink, the infotainment we have, I want to cover this, take it away out of the way so we can enjoy the rest of the interior this is obnoxious is the only word I can't believe that's the way to make something cool yeah so we have this trackpad that looks like a trackpad from a first generation laptop, TRUE?

Physically stupid, it hits your finger a little and it's not like that, you can get used to it. Fortunately, it has Apple Carplay and it's not the easiest to use with Apple Carplay, but once you get used to it, it's fine. Manzana. Carplay and Android Auto just solve everything for the most part, yes, for the most part, but Apple Carplay is best used with touchscreens and this certainly isn't that, but the rest of this interior is like a chocolate cinnamon, caramel, toast , yes, yes, it's great. I really like the steering wheel it's beautiful there's a crime inside besides the infotainment it's this I know this is going to bother you this is going to make you angry do you know why that doesn't bother me because that exact pattern is repeated in the headlights? and that's just why it makes it cool, it's also repeated right there in that little design, yeah, it's like Zed from Zorro, interesting, okay, so give it a pass, it should be aluminum, although it should be an alloy.

It's plastic, okay, yes, okay, and the gauge cluster is beautiful, not that it's exclusive to those, this is the same crime that BMW has committed and that, as well as the design of the steering wheel and the cluster of indicators, it is similar in the lower trim models, right? The BMW programming group is stupid, this isn't because I can press this button here and watch this, that's the bit of drama, it's an absolutely tidy six figure GT car and the seats are incredibly comfortable, they're beautiful, if I sit down. like I'm visiting my grandparent's house here, especially with the seats facing downwards, yes it's okay, it's a bit old, it comes in black but it's very comfortable, I think I'd go for this tan color, it's very happy here, It's so it's very visually relaxing but this is what it's going to do in 20 years this is going to make this a thing of the past this this color maybe maybe I don't think I was going to do it in a retro way in a way that it's like oh that's my guy this is going to be retro I don't know if it's ever going to be retro his name is chad he's so and he's as anachronistic as he is now there's a word to see, I have a degree in history and that's cx and hello, that That's the only thing I took from there is the word anachronistic oh, google those unusable back seats, that's not what anastomist means, james, but yeah, I agree, it was, oh, that wasn't sequential, oh, yes, Mark Levinson's stereo is beautiful, nice.

Okay, and uh, the rear seat rep is completely unusable, but that's par for the course for this uh, for this type of set, does this open as well? It just does it under here, it opens up, yeah, there's a little bit of room. there's all that velvety interior, yeah, other than that I love this car, I can say it hasn't really gone out, I haven't shut up about it, we should make a conclusion and wait, wait before we do it, yeah, one of the things . We found out that Thomas loves it so much that he ran to AutoTrader.

Sometimes this happens. We check out the cars and run to Trader or just to see how much they are used. They maintain their values. They maintain value in a disturbing way. It looks a lot like how it was. a 2017 cost about 85 85 thousand dollars still with some60,000 kilometers on it, so it's on Thomas's dream list, for now you can stick with the Camry, which is still quite available, as we've learned how good a Camry is. Hopefully by now it's pretty obvious that the LC 500 stole my heart and I dare say a little too comfortable James's sounds like a storm and looks like a work of art in co-op and now convertible, the infotainment sure is clunky and honestly, the adaptive equipment and lane keep assist feel a generation behind, but Lexus knows you won't care because you'll be too busy enjoying the ride and there's another thing, because this one doesn't have the sales figures of its rivals Germans, which means it's kind of rare, so if you have one. or when you see one it makes it even more special