Lexus LS 460 (2007-) Review

Reliability and Quality

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Were this anything other than a Lexus, we might be worrying about the long-term reliability of a car that breaks new ground with the amount of new technological gizmos it carries: there's so much that could go wrong. But you know that it won't. There are few things other than birth, death and Chelsea winning the Premiership that you can count on in life, but Lexus turning up at the top of the next JD Power customer satisfaction survey is probably about as sure a bet as you can place.

Even in the staggeringly unlikely event that something does go wrong, so efficient, helpful and pleasant are the dealers you'll almost be glad it did.

So why not the full five stars? Given the standards now being achieved by rival manufacturers, the LS460 still lacks that sense of class that is so important to the ambience of a true luxury car.

There were a few issues with the quality of some of the plastics used on the first test cars we drove, but production models we drove later were far more impressive, although they still use wood so shiny that it actually looks like plastic. The various levers, switches and buttons operate with the precision you'd expect of a Lexus (or Toyota for that matter), but adding a bit more weight to some of these controls would help the car feel more substantial and more like a luxury machine in its own right, rather than the world's most grown-up Toyota.

It could also do with one or two small, thoughtful features to surprise and delight the driver as well, such as the knurled aluminium rotary buttons Audi does so well.