The luxury car market has undergone something of an evolution this century. Whilst luxury saloons such as the Mercedes EQS, BMW 7 series and Audi A8 are still very much present, SUVs have become dominant. The Bentayga sits atop Bentley’s range, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan has been a strong seller and the once humble farmyard Range Rover now drips with luxury trimmings. Lexus, however, has gone its own way. Spotting a gap in the market where aftermarket fitters re-fit vans into luxury limos, they have launched the Lexus LM.
If understatement is your thing, the Lexus LM spectacularly delivers. It looks like, well, a van. The aesthetics were the first thing everyone commented on. The term ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ could hardly be more pertinent to a vehicle than it is to the Lexus LM. You may not be tempted by the outside, but let me slide door back and show you what’s inside. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!” was the almost universal response.
People look at you when you’re driving a Cullinan or a Bentayga. The Lexus LM drew no admiring glances and I strongly suspect this is entirely deliberate. You can drive – or rather be driven – around anonymously, whilst experiencing one of the most remarkable cabins a manufacturer will fit a car with.
So, how does it all come together? Join me on a week with a new direction in luxury motoring.
What’s the Lexus LM like to live with?
Mentions of the Bentayga and Cullinan are quite deliberate. The Lexus LM delivers similar levels of luxury and refinement, at least for the rear passengers. In fact, on some levels it exceeds them. If you want a fully reclining seat with leg rests and massage functionality, the LM is the place to be.
It’s modelled on a first-class airline. Laptop tables, a fridge, 48” TV, loads of storage, heated arm rests; it’s all here. To be driven in, there’s nothing else quite like it. You even get a tablet for each passenger in the rear so you can more easily access the functionality. The TV can be split into two screens, too, to save on arguments over what to watch.
This was particularly useful when I got stuck behind an accident on the A3 on the Sunday afternoon. With the road closed, I could slip into the back and settle into a bit of TV. The cold meats I’d purchased from the supermarket were placed in the fridge. You know what? I was a little peeved when the police came along telling everyone to turn around and head back up the carriageway. Five minutes from the end of an episode and the full body massage doing its thing, I was perfectly happy where I was.
With the plethora of functionality, however, the Lexus LM asks rather a lot of its battery. Upon collecting the kids from school, the battery ran flat in around four minutes and I had to call the AA. I thought I’d done something wrong, but the same thing happened to Lexus’s collection driver. I gave the car a once over, ensuring I had everything, signed for the return of the car and in that time the battery had gone flat again.
What’s the Lexus LM like to drive?
So long as you tell your driver to turn the ignition on as soon as he gets in, though, you’ll be absolutely fine (I left it running on the A3). It’s the only area to quibble over in a vehicle that has been thought out so thoroughly and so well.
Your driver might be a bit jealous of you, however, in the back. Up front the Lexus LM is a perfectly amenable place to be, but there’s no massage functionality for the driver or front passenger. Which seems a bit mean. If you don’t want to hear him moaning you can raise a partition between front and rear cabins, even making it opaque so you don’t have to look at him, either.
I covered just shy of 200 miles in the Lexus LM and achieved 33mpg. Given the vast majority of that was urban driving, I think that’s okay. On my commute to and from West Kensington in west London, it was a wonderful place to be. Given this is exactly the sort of journey which will be demanded of it, it passed the test.
The ride is squishy and comfortable, the cabin is near silent. This brings out the best in the absolutely outstanding 23-speaker Mark Levinson sound system. For my money, the Mark Levinson/Lexus combo is the best audio pairing in automotive land.
The driving experience, perhaps bizarrely, is almost entirely superfluous to this review. It’s just not why you’d buy a Lexus LM. If you must drive, then it’s equipped with a superb overhead view when parking and all the cameras you need to fit through width restrictors. I did panic at the Hogarth roundabout flyover, but really needn’t have bothered. There’s just no need for anyone to ever feel stressed in the Lexus LM.
Conclusion
It’s difficult not to fall for the charms for the Lexus LM. It’s unapologetically designed to be more about the passenger than the driver. And you know what? If my numbers came up on the Euromillions I’d have one of these and a driver.
It was our wedding anniversary during my time with the Lexus LM and my brother drove us to Hampton Court for our evening. An hour in the back, enjoying the comfort and stereo whilst sipping Bollinger seemed entirely appropriate. None got spilled and it was hard to think of a more refined passenger experience than this. That is the whole point, and it’s a point which the Lexus LM spectacularly delivers on.
I was concerned about travel sickness, but the rear comfort setup irons out everything on the road without making the experience nauseatingly synthetic. It leaves you to sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that no one will pay you any attention.
Some have suggested it’s a bit underpowered with a 2.5ltr four-cylinder engine and I can see why. But aggression is so far from the menu here that it gets away with it. Even the high revving E-CVT transmission, which basically always holds the revs high under heavy acceleration, doesn’t disturb the nature of the Lexus LM.
Remarkably, in Takumi spec as tested, the Lexus LM feels like decent value at £113,000. Whilst that’s a lot of money, what you get is an awful lot of luxury, grace and comfort. There’s no passenger experience quite like it. It may well be a niche vehicle, but it’s a niche which the Lexus LM is capable of filling all on its own.
