The New Sporty 2022 Lexus SL 500

Photo Credit: Lexus

Receiving a Cadmium Orange colored grand touring Lexus LC 500 for one week, I immediately noticed its slick design elements and eye-catching golden sparkles on it’s massive hood. Touted as the most luxurious Luxus coupe in their fleet, it’s built for comfort and speed. Pressing on the accelerator, the 471-horsepower, 5.0-litre V8 engine roars to life and zooms from 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds.

What’s new with the Lexus SL 500 is the 20-inch staggered-width split 10-spoke cast alloy wheels, and revised suspension for sharper handling. This rear-wheel-drive car is well balanced and takes turns like a dream. Its sharp handling is similar to the Porsche 911 or Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, two of its rivals. 

Jill Weinlein

Unlocking the car with the smart key fob, the door handles pop out for easy opening. The fob also can open the windows when you press and hold, plus open the trunk and sound the alarm.

The 10-speed direct-shift automatic transmission is smooth and can be switched to different driving modes. One can start in Comfort or Eco and then switch to Sport, Sport+ or Manual. There are two magnesium paddle shifters allowing the driver to shift gear while holding the steering wheel. Clicking on the paddle shifter upshifts or downshifts the transmission while driving safer and quicker, than moving your hand to a gear lever.

Jill Weinlein

The steering wheel is designed with just enough buttons to press for drive information, navigation system, the autosystem, driver-assist system and dynamic radar cruise control with full-speed range. 

On the center console is a remote touch navigation and multimedia system to operate various features on the screen. There is also a brake hold button to keep the brake applied when in the Drive, Manual or Neutral shift position.

Lexus has a sophisticated safety system that includes pre-collision and frontal collision warning. There is automatic emergency braking, and pedestrian and bicycle detection. At intersections, the system has the capability under certain conditions to recognize an oncoming vehicle when performing left and right-hand turns.

The Advance Drive design detects, plans and executes accurate driving conditions. The Blind Spot Monitor and Rear Cross Traffic Alert beeps a warning and produces a light in the side-view mirrors to help the driver maintain the vehicle within a lane. This is helpful while following other cars and navigating certain road conditions. Both features help to reduce fatigue over long periods of driving and empowers the driver to pay better attention to the surroundings for safety. 

There is also an Advanced Park assist for hands-free parking by automatically controlling steering, acceleration, braking and gear changes when parallel parking or backing into a parking space. Using 360-degree sensing, this integrates the functions of complete-circumference cameras and ultrasonic sensors, providing a bird’s-eye view display. This feature allows the driver to check the vehicle’s position relative to any obstacles during Advanced Park operation.

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For listening pleasure, the Mark Levinson 23-speaker offers a surround sound audio experience. The 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen provides control options for the drive and passenger. There is Apple CarPlay to access iPhones and Android Auto compatibility to interface the multimedia system. 

LS owners have Amazon Alexa compatibility to ask for information and navigation for on-the-go recommendations. Users can also control smart home devices such as thermostat, security systems and lighting while driving the car.

When in need of charging your smart phone, the USB/AUX charging ports are located by lifting the center armrest. 

Jill Weinlein

With an enlarged hood, the design offers a sense of power and presence. The spindle grill is dark metallic offering a bold appearance, and the new three-projector deep LED headlamps feature a striking vertical stacked layout.

My only gripe is an adult can’t fit into the two back seats. Even though this is a four seat coup, it really is a comfortable two passenger car. I do like that I can place shopping bags, a purse, a small pet and young child in the back of this car.

The 2022 Lexus LC 500 is also available in a convertible model and 6-cylinder hybrid model. The prices start at $94,225 for the LC 500, while the hybrid LC 500h retails for $100,225, and the gas-only LC 500 convertible starts at $102,275.