Lexus LC 500 Review (2017-2020)

Lexus could have spared itself the cost and inconvenience of producing a concept version of the LC by simply plonking the series production car on a show stand and pointing some bright lights at it. The Japanese marque pulled the covers off the LF-LC Concept at the North American International Auto Show in 2012. Like many concept cars it looked sensational with its impossible proportions, statement-piece front grille and enormous wheels. We all assumed that should it ever make production, it would be heavily watered-down and scarcely even recognisable.

Not so. The showroom model, badged LC and unveiled four years later, was almost unchanged from the concept. Even several years after the production car hit the road, it remains one of the most striking vehicles you'll find. Its interior is spectacular, too, both in terms of the architectural forms of the dashboard and the sheer quality of the build and materials.

It's not a small car, the LC, but even so, practicality is very limited. There's plenty of space up front, and a decent amount of stowage for your odds and ends, but those in the back aren't as lucky.

Regardless of whether those up front aren't too tall, legroom is very limited, while the car's aggressively sloping roofline means that headroom is in even shorter supply. Even a Porsche 911's rear seats are roomier than the LC's, and you wouldn't exactly call that car the last word in passenger-friendly practicality, would you? If adult passengers do fit, they certainly won't want to stay there for long: only small children will travel in relative comfort. It's probably best to view the rear seats as additional storage space, rather than for regular passenger-carrying duties.

And you might need that additional storage space, too, as the boot is rather small at 197 litres, dropping further to just 172 litres in the hybrid. That's smaller than the space you get in most city cars, and although it's roughly on a par with the 911, rivals such as the Jaguar F-Type and BMW 8 Series offer quite a bit more room. Both the opening and the boot space itself are awkwardly shaped, too, and the loadspace also has an uneven floor.

Aside from the way it looks, a good deal of the car’s appeal is that in LC 500 guise, it has beneath its bonnet a howling 5.0-litre V8 that’s naturally aspirated. While all its rivals favour more efficient (on paper at least…) turbocharged engines, the LC’s atmospheric V8 is a reminder of how tuneful and intoxicating high-performance motors once were. It sounds fantastic, delivers its power in an exciting way and though it lacks the sheer forcefulness of a heavily turbocharged engine, its 471bhp gives the LC 500 urgent and insistent straight-line performance. Meanwhile, the 10-speed automatic transmission is both smooth in normal driving and reasonably responsive in manual mode.

The other powertrain option in the LC is the 500h, which is a self-charging hybrid that marries a 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine to an electric motor to deliver a total of 354bhp. It's still quick, unsurprisingly, if not as quick as the V8, but it doesn't deliver the same aural delights, and feels a little clinical by comparison. It's not all that much more efficient in the scheme of things, either.

In 2019, Lexus expanded the LC model range with the Convertible variant. Paired only with the V8 powertrain, the droptop model features Lexus’ first fabric folding roof (until this model the company had favoured folding hardtops). The four-layer hood is unusually well-insulated from the elements and it can be raised or lowered at the press of a button in 15 seconds at speeds up to 31mph.

At around two tonnes, the LC is no lightweight sports coupe. In fact, that sizeable mass defines the car’s entire character. One immediate rival, the Porsche 911 Carrera S, is lighter by around 500kg and therefore better as a driver’s car in every regard. It feels nimble, agile and tautly controlled, where the LC can be lazy and unresponsive in corners. Instead, the Lexus is better aligned ideologically with the Mercedes S-Class Coupe, a more refined and elegant kind of coupe, or a grand tourer, in other words.

The LC is well-balanced in corners and its tyres generate plenty of grip. In the firmer modes of the adjustable suspension, there’s reasonable body control as well, but the steering is entirely devoid of feel and the car always feels its weight. The LC is therefore not the kind of car that you’d wake up early one Sunday morning just to go for a drive in.

A pity, then, that it doesn’t off-set those limitations as a driver’s car with the plush, stress-reducing ride quality of a great grand tourer. The LC always picks out imperfections in the road before transferring them directly to the cabin. It’s never uncomfortable, but by never being truly thrilling to drive either, the Lexus finds itself stuck between two poles, neither one thing nor the other.

The LC’s unusual infotainment system interface, typical of Lexus, uses a computer laptop style trackpad rather than a more conventional touchscreen or click-wheel. If we're being kind, it's not as easy to use as either. If we're not being so kind, it's a absolute ergonomic nightmare.

In time you adjust and grow accustomed to its idiosyncrasies, although certain annoyances remain exactly that, such as the six-stage process you must go through simply to adjust your seat heating.

That said, your interior is sumptuously trimmed with materials that look and feel positively gorgeous, and they're all assembled in such a way that makes the car feel like it'll withstand many, many years of use. Your interior also comes fitted with all the luxury kit you'd expect of the time, too, just as well given its lofty pricetag.

An £80,000- car when new, the Lexus LC will invariably ask a lot of your bank card during its time with you. Expect a full set of tyres for the 21-inch wheels to cost around £800, for instance. Even the less powerful LC 500h sits in insurance group 47, while the V8 model falls into group 50, the top one.

Lexus says the LC 500h will return around 35mpg in mixed driving, meaning a real-world mpg figure around the low 30s mark is realistic. Meanwhile, the V8 should return 24mpg, says Lexus, which probably equates to 21mpg in reality and as little as 18mpg when you really extend the 471bhp engine for extended periods of time.

Lexus offers fixed-price servicing for all its models. An initial service on an LC 500 after 10,000 miles costs £395. Owners should take their cars back in for routine maintenance every 10,000 miles after that. Every other service is labelled Intermediate and charged at the same rate at the first service. After 20-, 40-, 60-, 80- and 100 thousand miles, though, an LC 500 should receive a fuller service, charged at between £600 and £900.

This is where Lexus really excels itself. Toyota’s premium spin-off has a world-beating reputation for reliability and it regularly finishes first in owner satisfaction surveys. The LC may be a highly strung performance car, but very few problems have made themselves known over the years, and it's entirely reasonable to expect it to perform to the same very high standards as the marque’s other upmarket models.

Mechanical components will prove to be very durable over time. Moreover, the exceptional material and build quality within the cabin means the LC should look and feel as fresh from within in a decade’s time as it did when fresh off the forecourt. Faults requiring the attention of a main dealer should be very few and far between, too.

As it does with all its models, Lexus included in the asking price of an LC an industry-standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty. Since the LC went on sale, though, Toyota and Lexus have introduced a scheme whereby your warranty is extended for one year or 10,000 miles every time you have your car serviced according to schedule at a main dealer, up to a maximum of ten years or 100,000 miles. This can be applied to your LC retrospectively, even if it's had non-dealer services in the interim.