Lexus LM review

This section is usually the most important. But not here. In the Lexus LM all the entertainment happens in the rear compartment and has nothing to do with driving dynamics. The LM may be based on a passenger car platform but it feels tall, and its size and weight encourage a decidedly sedate approach. The sort, in fact, adopted by any decent professional driver keen to keep their job.

Actually, it’s not bad on the move. The body’s stiffness has been improved by using laser screw welding, special adhesives and bracing in key structural areas. The LM is close to class-leading in terms of NVH. The suspension uses double wishbones at the rear, with adaptive dampers fitted with frequency sensitive valves. All in the service of maintaining calm in the rear rather than ultimate handling acuity, obviously.

Any drive modes?

There are five, the most important being the Rear Comfort one: this reduces squat and dive under acceleration and braking, although one of TG’s fellow testers reckoned things got uncomfortably floaty as a result. The LM can be had in front- or all-wheel drive form; the brakes are nicely modulated and use Braking Posture Control software to control roll and pitch. There’s also Smooth Stop Control to stop the LM rocking back when it comes to a halt. An in-built chauffeur, in other words.

Does all of that, um, work?

Driven in the appropriate manner, this is a wonderfully serene experience. The powertrain is the 2.5-litre four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle petrol unit also used in the NX and RX. It’s paired with two electric motors for a total system output of 247bhp and 176lb ft. Performance is so leisurely it’s hardly worth noting (8.7 seconds to 62mph and 118mph top speed).

While the power unit is smooth enough, no-one’s going to write home about the CVT, whose propensity for linear, unruffled progress is rather undone by the noise it emits while accelerating or overtaking. Around town or at lower speeds, the LM switches in and out of EV mode smoothly, and there’s enough sound-deadening in the rear compartment to isolate the occupants from any unruliness when it does occur.

I’m guessing there are safety gadgets galore too…

Yup. The LM is also equipped with the latest gen safety and driver assistance systems, expanded here to include a Safe Exit Assist for the sliding doors. The warning bings and bongs aren’t obtrusive so for once this is a car whose ADAS doesn’t have you scrambling dementedly for the off button.