Simply Outgunned: 2025 Lexus LS500 F Sport, Tested

Yahoo

28-03-2025

When your product is competing in a niche marketplace where alternatives are polished and unimpeachable, you absolutely must come correct. For the Lexus LS, that marketplace is flagship full-size luxury sedans, a segment that has contracted to include only the most excellent options as American drivers increasingly find their luxury behind the wheel of SUVs.
Last redesigned for the 2018 model year, the fifth-generation LS is an elder among its peers, most of which have been revamped within the past two or three years, all with more up-to-date technology and a better sense of modern luxury. Our LS500 F Sport test car, by comparison, seemed past its expiration date. And it's not the first time we've thought that, given the LS500's last-place finish in a 2022 comparison test.
The Lexus relies on its styling to turn heads, and both its exterior and its interior are an exercise in unfocused maximalism. Every surface is imbued with some sort of design flourish, and the result is an onslaught on the senses and a look that is out of sync with the LS500 F Sport's driving demeanor. By contrast, the original LS from 1990 was the definition of nondescript, but it let the driver and passengers focus on the luxury tenets that founded the Lexus brand. The current LS, despite its overwrought design, still excels at those tenets, with a quiet cabin, a comfortable ride, and a smooth-running powertrain.
But the Lexus's rivals consistently one-up this flagship model. The Genesis G90 nails the quiet-comfortable-smooth brief and impresses with a more elegant curb appeal at a similar price. The Mercedes-Benz S-class delivers more overt luxury in a more svelte package, and the BMW 7-series overwhelms the LS's tech offerings and delivers more athletic road manners.
The G90 is the Lexus's closest equal, but a comparison of features will make Genesis buyers feel like they're getting away with shoplifting. In this class, rear-seat comfort is often the focus, but the Lexus doesn't treat back-seat riders with expected features such as rear-seat climate controls, heated seats, or controls for the stereo unless you spec a near-$15,000 option package that isn't even offered on the F Sport trim. All of that is standard in the Genesis. The seats themselves are also not nearly as plushly cushioned in the LS, although legroom is generous in both of these land yachts.
Like the Genesis, the Lexus is not offered with a V-8 engine option; instead, you choose between the LS500h's hybrid powertrain or the LS500's twin-turbocharged 3.4-liter V-6 that makes 416 horsepower and is mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. Our LS500 F Sport test car also came with optional all-wheel drive; without it, this Lexus is a rear-wheel-drive sedan.
While we prefer the twin-turbo V-8 engines in the pricier BMW and Mercedes, the LS500's force-fed six is plenty powerful. At the test track, the LS500 hit 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and managed a 13.3-second quarter-mile run with a 107-mph trap speed. Highway passing maneuvers are dispatched handily, with the LS500 jumping from 50 to 70 mph in just 3.8 seconds.
Handling is fine, but hardly sporty, and while there's not one but two Sport (S and S+) drive modes, the alterations in the suspension are nearly imperceptible. The ride remains comfortable even in Sport S+, the most aggressive setting, and body roll is well controlled, but the LS500 F Sport never transforms into the sports sedan its aggressive exterior styling suggests.
Rolling on Bridgestone Turanza EL450 RFT all-season rubber, our test car managed a respectable–but not particularly impressive–0.85 g on the skidpad and required a lengthy 183 feet to stop from 70 mph and 372 feet from 100 mph.
The LS500 is happiest in its Comfort drive mode, and highway slogs are dispatched without a hint of fatigue. Other than some wind noise above 80 mph, the cabin remains placid. We recorded a hushed 67 dBA at a 70 mph cruise. In Sport S+, the LS is noticeably noisier, with an artificial growl permeating the cabin under wide-open throttle that contributed to an 83-decibel measurement, or eight more than in Comfort mode.
Highway fuel economy is good too, as the LS500 recorded 28 mpg in our 75-mph highway test. That's 1 mpg more than its EPA estimate, but the BMW, Genesis, and Mercedes-Benz all outperformed it here.One has to wonder if Lexus will try again with a sixth-generation LS. Will Lexus's flagship sedan, the car that launched the brand in 1989, fall victim to the shrinking market for conventional sedans? One thing's for sure, the current gang of full-size luxury cars is prepared for a gunfight. Unfortunately, Lexus currently only holds a knife.
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