2024 Lexus LC Convertible Test Drive Review: The Almost-Perfect GT

We’re unabashed followers of the Lexus LC. With its clean and sonorous 471-horsepower V8 beneath the hood, idea automobile come-to-life styling, and opulent and detailed inside, there’s an argument to be made that it is the best grand touring automobile available on the market right here in 2024. Significantly as Lexus mounted it is largest niggle – the one factor we complained about.

We managed to snag the keys to a V8 Lexus LC Convertible for blue-sky cruising on the good time of the 12 months right here in California. The important thing factor to recollect earlier than studying on, is that the Lexus LC would not exist as an outright efficiency automobile, so a convertible model ought to take the LC near perfection as a cruiser. However did it stay as much as expectations?

Exterior: Wanting As Good As With the Roof Up

Some automobiles want the roof for its total design to make sense, however the LC has the correct proportions and parts to tug off the conversion. A lot has been manufactured from how the LC is, successfully, an idea automobile put into manufacturing that also seems to be contemporary seven years after it first went into manufacturing – with its lengthy hood and doorways, and low, vast stance.

It is attractive and timeless, in our books. The roof has a four-layer soft-top design, with the layers offering sound dampening whereas the comfortable materials is fairly compact to retailer. That is essential because the trunk is already small, and you will be utilizing the rear seats for cargo storage anyway. The drop-top LC shares dimensions with its coupe sibling, though it is a fraction taller due to the retractable roof. It weighs round 200 kilos greater than the coupe.

The LC Convertible is the kind of automobile that appears good in most paint colours, with Flare Yellow drawing the eye it deserves.Nevertheless, the Cloudburst Grey of our tester suited it completely, including to the elegant, elegant feeling the automaker constructed into the drop-top.

Inside: Trendy Craftsmanship

Technically, the Lexus LC is a four-seater – as a result of you’ll be able to put 4 individuals inside it. However, the entire lack of legroom makes the rear seats nearly pointless, besides in a pinch, and then you definitely’ll have to verify somebody brief is sitting in entrance of one other brief individual. The most effective use for these again seats is to make up for the shortage of trunk area by dropping your purse or laptop computer bag there.

The coupe model of the Lexus LC is already tight on rear headroom and legroom, and the convertible has even much less. Cargo room additionally drops fm 5.4 cubic toes to beneath 3.5 cubes within the convertible, to place the figures down on paper for you.

House points apart, the remainder of the LC’s inside is opulent and comfy. The seats aren’t overpadded or excessively bolstered, and the general design and supplies used are next-level implausible. The lengthy doorways make it simple to climb aboard regardless of being so low. The air flow from the seats is powerful, and the convertible model features a vent on the seat to blow heat air and preserve your neck heat.

On-Board Tech and Options

The automobile Lexus despatched us is a Bespoke Construct; this can be a $5,500 improve over the common mannequin, and permits the shopper to dig in and specify wheels, spoiler, roof, and exterior, then inside trim and colours. As such, our tester got here with a blue and white inside, which provides one other $1,900 to the worth. It is a matter of style, however we favor the LC’s inside to be refined when it comes to colours, with the type and supplies talking for themselves. We additionally would not want a certification of authenticity that we spent $5,500 to pay for different choices.

Nonetheless, the LC 500 Convertible comes with the next essential tech as normal, masking infotainment:

That is the place Lexus mounted the LC’s largest problem (discounting these ineffective again seats, that are a mandatory evil on this section). The awkward trackpad within the heart console to regulate the infotainment is gone and changed with a considerable metallic wheel and click on system. The 12.3-inch touchscreen can also be responsive and fast to make use of, and the menus aren’t the frustration they had been to dig into. If you wish to keep away from utilizing the wheel or touchscreen, Luxus’s voice management is competent sufficient to keep away from the distraction of taking palms from the wheel to do the fundamentals.

Apple Carplay and Android are, rightfully, normal, and our tester arrived with the Mark Levinson sound system, which we’re nonetheless on the fence about as a $1,220 improve. Should you’re a music lover, you will have to listen to it to make the decision.

Underneath The Hood: A Jewel In A Crown

Lexus’s 5.0-liter V8 is solely very good. Should you’re in search of one thing very fiery, this is not it – however for those who’re in search of a wealth of clean, constantly delivered energy and an exhaust word that would encourage poetry, that is it. There’s 471 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque accessible, and 0-60 mph is available in 4.6 seconds – two-tenths slower than its coupe siblings.

Let’s be clear right here: the LC won’t be fiery, however it’s quick, and the lively exhausts add an extremely satisfying throaty soundtrack to an overtaking maneuver. Dealing with the facility is a ten-speed automated transmission with the choice of utilizing paddle shifters to regulate it. It is a seamlessly clean transmission 99.9 % of the time, with agency, authoritative shifts when in Sport mode. After all, energy goes to rear wheels, and a prime velocity of 168 mph is feasible. Gas economic system is not nice – however what did you count on from a V8? The EPA charges the Japanese drop-top at 15/25/18 mpg on town/freeway/mixed cycles.

On The Highway: A Lot Of Wind In Your Hair

We could not discern a distinction in inside noise ranges between the comfortable prime and the metallic roof. There’s completely no draw back when the roof is up on the LC convertible. However folding down the roof introduced some disappointment. It grew to become arduous to have a dialog as a result of noise because the air pushed its means round inside – sufficient to override the nice and cozy air vents within the seats.

After all, all convertibles are going to have air swirling round, however you’ll be able to maintain a dialog utilizing inside voices and never freeze to loss of life from wind chill in the course of winter in a Mazda MX-5 with the highest down. We have been there and achieved that. But, within the LC Convertible, we discovered ourselves placing the roof up earlier than the solar dropped on a balmy day. In comparison with a way more direct rival, the older Mercedes-Benz SL directs air round higher on the subject of noise and buffeting – significantly noise.

We concluded that dropping the roof of the LC is for when cruising at decrease speeds, as in, round 45 mph and decrease. Or if you need to hear that exhaust sing. Like the inside, although, for those who can take care of it, as a result of the remainder of the expertise is excellent.

The journey consolation stage from the Adaptive Variable Suspension, regardless of being on 21-inch wheels summer season tires the thickness of two rubber bands, defies the physics. Sports activities automobile aficionados will proceed to complain a couple of lack of steering really feel, however in actuality, the steering is fast, direct, and never too mild or too heavy, even in Sport mode, the place it is artificially weighted up. It is relentlessly quick in a straight line, then cruises at any velocity you want with a whole lack of effort.

Whereas it isn’t an outright sports activities automobile – and the LC has some weight on it earlier than including motors for the folding roof – it’s enjoyable to poke round on a again highway. Regardless of the suspension stiffening up in Sport mode, it isn’t as agile as a Porsche 911, and the brakes actually do not seize as arduous, however it’s enjoyable to push by way of a nook and holds its personal by way of corners.

Conclusion: Hmmmm…

We had been anticipating a greater expertise from the convertible with the roof down, however it would not fee fairly as excessive as some rivals we have pushed. It is a grand tourer, so you have to be comfy placing the roof down over an extended distance with out asking your passenger if it bothers them – which is not the case right here.

In case you have $105,950 to spare and need a tourer, not an outright sports activities automobile, the LC Convertible is a contender for one of the best your cash should purchase. And it’s nonetheless cheaper than a lot of its competitors until you begin burning cash on the Bespoke Construct Bundle. Nevertheless, you might need to drive the coupe model first – it is cheaper, gives barely extra cargo area, and would not have the top-down frustrations at greater speeds.

That does not cease us from wanting a LC drop-top, although.

Sources: Lexus, FuelEconomy.gov.