If you want some idea of how highly the LS 460 is rated, ask the international jurors who voted it as the World Car of the Year for 2007, and who described it as "classically luxurious, with modern execution, unquestioned quality and more than ample power". Praise doesn't come much higher than that.The term "modern execution" encompasses the fact that the LS 460 came on to the market bristling with world firsts, though you have to go considerably beyond the £57,000 of the base model (there must be a better way of describing it than that) if you want to experience them all.Most of these firsts are provided within the Advanced Safety Pack, namely the Advanced Obstacle Detection System, the Driver Monitoring System, the Rear Pre-Crash Safety System and Emergency Steering Assist. Front Pre-Crash Safety, Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane-Keep Assistance are also included in the Pack, and while they were not unheard of in the industry before the LS 460 came along they do contribute to the fact that this is a car in which you would need to work hard to get hurt.The Advanced Safety Pack is standard on the SE and the long-wheelbase SE-L, but it's a £3750 option on the entry-level car, and you can't get it unless you also specify the Rear Seat Upgrade Pack, which costs a further £3500.One other world first is fitted to all versions. It's the eight-speed automatic gearbox - so far the only one of its kind - which was announced at the 2006 Detroit Show amid the sound of gasps from journalists and clunks from the jaws of Mercedes-Benz personnel hitting the floor. To bring such technology to production is a demonstration of extreme cleverness, but it would not be unreasonable to ask what the point of it all is.The point is that if you have eight gear ratios, they are all going to be pretty close, so for a given rate of acceleration the LS 460 will stay very close to the optimum engine speed for the purpose. Fortunately, as with all the other clever bits, you don't have to think about any of this any more than you have to remember to breathe in and out, unless you decide to switch gears manually.Now and again this can be quite useful, but it can also be confusing. There are just so many damn gears to choose from. In one experiment, which lasted about 20 seconds, I find myself going third, fourth, fifth, sixth, fifth, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third to take into account the slightest change of angle or gradient before deciding that life is too precious a thing to devote to this kind of silliness and letting the gearbox make the decisions for itself.Regardless of who or what changes the gears, the process is fabulously smooth, and it would be easy to flirt with cliché by saying that you hear the shifts rather than feel them. In fact, you can hardly hear them either, because in common with every other big engine Lexus has produced the 4.6-litre unit in this car barely makes itself heard.Even as you approach the red line - and you have to get up to a surprisingly high 6400rpm before the full 375bhp is released - there is never more than a distant disturbance, almost as if what you hear is actually a recording of another engine played at very low volume.In this respect the LS 460 is absolutely up to the very high standards set in the early 1990s by the LS 400, the first Lexus to be sold in the UK. But there are also ways in which the LS 460 confirms that there are some things Toyota's luxury brand doesn't quite do right.This car is not, for example, at the top of its class in terms of ride quality. That's partly down to contrast; the major controls are so smooth, and the basic behaviour of the suspension so refined, that the slight chatter you get over bumps is all the more obvious. But the fact remains that other luxury cars provide a better all-round service.And I don't think Lexus knows how to design a truly beautiful car. The original LS 400, though it sets what seemed at the time to be almost impossibly high standards of refinement, looked like a potato. The LS 430 was an improvement, though to my mind not much of one (others disagree).The LS 460 takes its place slightly higher up the graph. It's the best in the series so far, but although the test car drew admiring comments for its looks, I think this was based on the fact that anything so large, and so obviously expensive and luxurious, is bound to seem impressive in comparison with most other cars on the road. But it does not stir the soul the way some of its closer rivals do.On the other hand, there's something appealing about a car which has so many virtues but remains almost bashful about expressing them. The LS 460 is far better than it looks - a very fine luxury saloon and a technological marvel. The World Car of the Year title was awarded wisely. Engine 4608 cc, 8 cylinders Power 381 bhp @6400 rpm Torque 364 ib/ft @4100 rpm Transmission 8 speed auto Fuel/CO2 25.4 mpg / 261 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 5.7sec Top speed 155 mph Price From £60420.00 approx Release date 01/01/2007
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