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2018 Lexus LS First Drive | Luxury, performance and the puzzling parts

When one imagines the enormous executive sedan that might be driven by a wealthy lawyer or banker (or their chauffeur), the mind naturally goes to the Mercedes S-Class or the BMW 7-Series. Venerable, enormous and expensive. But for those wanting to keep their driveway a little more understated, we also have the Lexus LS. Sure, it's not as ostentatious as the big saloons from Munich and Stuttgart, but it has a dignified elegance all its own. For nearly three decades, the LS has been a discrete and dependable Japanese luxury sedan. The new 2018 LS, perhaps thankfully, is a bit less discrete. We saw the new-look LS when it was introduced earlier this year in Detroit. Now we know how it drives. We put the 2018 LS through its paces on the traffic-clogged streets of San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge to the twisty B-roads around Marin County and the legendary Skywalker Ranch, where we stopped for lunch. Unfortunately, all in attendance were sworn to secrecy about the details of Skywalker Ranch, but we're free to tell you all about the LS. Here's our one-sentence summary, which can be used to describe many cars to bear the Lexus badge: It's excellent in many respects, odd in a few, and incredibly, massively frustrating in one very important area. Lexus has a brand new 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission, a first for a premium passenger car. It produces 416 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque, up from 386 hp and 367 lb-ft from the outgoing naturally aspirated 4.6-liter V8. Lexus engineers are extremely proud of the fuel efficiency of the new engine, which required some clever technical innovations (a longer bore stroke and increased valve angle) as well as tech borrowed from Formula One, including a "laser clad valve seat" that allows for a more direct flow of air into the combustion chamber and a high "tumble ratio." In other words, Lexus figured out how to get more bang out of each gasoline-powered buck. Fuel economy numbers are 19 city, 29 highway, and 23 combined for the RWD version and 18/27/21 for AWD, with the highway numbers particularly helped along by the 10-speed gearbox. It's a torque converter unit, but Lexus promises shift times that rival its dual-clutch-wielding competitors. The LS is no slouch, either. In RWD trim, the nearly 5,000-pound car hustles from 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds, according to Lexus' reckoning.

Luxury car brands scrambling to avoid a blue Christmas

DETROIT — When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the past decade, but the trend — which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury sedan segments of the auto market — was particularly pronounced in October. Sales of Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz S-Class, long a global benchmark for large, premium sedans, plunged 49 percent in October, and are down 24.8 percent for the year to date. General Motors' Cadillac brand said it sold just 779 of its CTS sedans in October. Demand for that car, designed to compete with German luxury sedans, is down nearly 33 percent for the year. "There's still a significant portion of the market that wants a car, but I'm sure there were people who preferred a horse to a car at one point." Cadillac's best-selling model this year is the XT5 compact SUV, which has more than doubled sales from a year ago. The shift within the luxury vehicle market away from sedans toward SUVs of all sizes is forcing some of the most prestigious brands to scramble to add SUV models to their lineups or boost SUV production to meet demand. "In the short term, there will be pressure to add (consumer) incentives, cut production or both," said Cox Automotive analyst Michelle Krebs. "And we just don't see an end in sight to this trend." The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at all-time highs, usually a good sign for luxury sedans, but as major automakers reported new U.S. vehicle sales for October on Wednesday, sales for passenger cars continued their slide while luxury SUV and crossover sales rose again. According to Kelley Blue Book data, in 2007 luxury sedans made up 7.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, while luxury SUVs made up 4.2 percent. Through September this year, luxury SUVs made up just over 7 percent of the market, compared with 4.9 percent for luxury sedans. In the short term, luxury brands could use holiday season sales promotions to clear slow-selling sedans off dealer lots, analysts said. Toyota's Lexus brand said on Wednesday it will launch its "December to Remember" year-end sales promotion for the 18th straight year.

Major Alexa deal will bring Amazon services into more cars

Amazon and its personal assistance service Alexa are partnering with HERE Technologies to create a new connected mobility service powerhouse. Alexa will integrate with HERE's navigation and location services to offer what the two companies are calling a "true voice-first-navigation experience." Alexa will come pre-integrated with HERE navigation on-demand, which the automakers can then enable, which should help cut down on development time. One of the biggest features from this partnership is how directions could be offered and delivered using HERE's Open Location Platform (OLP). Currently, the OLP uses data from several car manufacturers to provide insights into real-time location and traffic. But on Alexa, this could be used to provide directional context. For example, Alexa could say, "Turn right after [such-and-such a building]" rather than just, "Turn right." Amazon has been testing the automotive waters throughout the past decade. Its home-based Alexa-enabled devices are already offered with connections to several manufacturers. To various degrees of integration, it can already pair with Ford, Genesis, Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai and BMW vehicles. At the end of 2018, Amazon took things a step further when it introduced the Echo Auto, a Bluetooth-connected Alexa assistant device that can be physically kept in a car. Currently only available by invitation (its production and distribution have been delayed), the $25 device is essentially a voice service that works together with smartphones and connects to a car's speakers. Users can command it to do a variety of things, including playing music, setting navigation, opening the garage door, finding local stores, making calls, setting reminders, and thousands of other "skills." According to The Verge, nearly 1 million people have already ordered the device. Some (well, probably few) may know HERE Technologies from its maps on Windows Phones. We all know how that turned out, though. Today, HERE has expanded into a multi-function suite that is available in multiple mediums, including many automotive applications. HERE Automotive's connected vehicle services include real-time traffic, parking, weather, fuel prices, hazard warnings, traffic sign integration, and even EV charging stations. These all incorporate and extend the use of HERE's location and tracking programming. HERE is already partnered with BMW, Audi, Daimler, Intel, Mobileye, NVIDIA, and has investments from Bosch, Continental and Pioneer.