2002 Lexus LS 430

From The Driver's Seat

You might say that the most important thing to the LS 430 driver is to live in an error-free world. We're talking about the ride and handling of the car, of course, but really we mean that the entire ethos of the LS is almost severely manicured. You look for lint on your clothing before you step inside, just so you don't do anything to sully the car's perfect mien.

And although we've driven more beautifully appointed sedans (the $126K Mercedes-Benz S600 Designo edition made us feel like we'd somehow been loaned a rock star's wheels for a weekend), we've never seen a better balanced mix of luxury appointments. By this we mean that, although the LS 430 has cords of California walnut accenting any place there are switches, and that leather and suede essentially cover every other surface inside the car, save the floor, somehow it all meshes just so; if there is a platonic form for luxury car interiors, the LS 430 cockpit may come closest to reaching it.

If there's an imperfection here, it's the same one that plagues all superlux sedans: too many choices. We didn't count the number of functions you can control from the driver's seat, but here are a few: You can electronically adjust the seat in 14 ways; adjust the height of the seatbelt harness; alter the position of the sideview mirrors but also pull them in for parking (or you can have this occur automatically every time you remove the key from the ignition); lower the headrests in the back seat; and, of course, change dozens of settings on the outstanding, 11-speaker Mark Levinson audio system. Mind you, we've left out dozens of other things you can tweak that have nothing whatever to do with driving.

But once you are finally and fully ensconced, you can actually drive this car--and this we found interesting, if not as vigorously engaging as being behind the wheel of a German luxury sedan.

The LS 430 is nearly as fast as the Infiniti Q45 sport edition (that car lets you shift manually from the steering wheel) and within tenths of a second of the aforementioned Benzes, Audis and BMWs. Still, that's not the point. Those cars, to a varying degree, are all much more about the sport of driving. The joy of any of them is derived from sitting at the wheel and careering through sweeping turns, ideally somewhere in the hills of California--or Tuscany.

The LS 430 will carve corners quite smoothly, and with the suspension in sport mode it won't bog down and sway, especially with the active air suspension. But the steering is so light as to be disengaged from the road and, although the transmission shifts smoothly on the highway, on undulating, curvy roads downshifts seem to come late, so you have to work the brakes before the next bend more than you expect. It's not a matter of capability; we have no doubt you could drive this car through a road-racing test track and score as highly as any of its competition in a timed event. For everyday use, however, smooth, soft, stable and comfortable are the watchwords.

Did we say this was a bad thing? We don't mean that. It really all depends on what you want. If you want to be at peace with the road, not slicing and dicing it, we can't imagine a more refined vehicle.

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