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Lexus LS 600h L to retail for $104,750 USD

Toyota first showcased its Lexus LS 600h L nearly a year ago at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). At the time, the vehicle was billed as one of the world's most advanced luxury cars with its hybrid powertrain and AWD system.

Now, the company has finally announced pricing and an on sale date for its luxury flagship. Early estimates had pegged the LS 600h L as coming in around the $125,000 USD mark, however, the vehicle will be priced at $104,750 USD when it arrives in June. This will also make it the first Lexus vehicle with an MSRP that crosses the $100k USD threshold.

The 5.0 V8 hybrid powertrain will have a combined horsepower rating of 438HP and will deliver performance on par with V12 luxury sedans from BMW and Mercedes. Thanks to the hybrid powertrain, however, the LS 600h L will sip gas like a V6-powered all-wheel-drive luxury sedan and is also rated as a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV).

So what does $104,750 USD get you these days? The LS 600h L will feature LED headlights, four-zone climate control (with a dedicated A/C unit for the rear passengers), voice-activated HDD-based navigation system with XM real-time traffic directing, 19-speaker Mark Levinson sound system, rear DVD entertainment system with 9" LCD screen, automated parallel parking system and an Advanced Pre-Collision System (APCS).

For those looking to get your hands on an LS 600h L in June, don't count on it. Over 1,850 pre-orders for the vehicle have already been taken and the first-year allocation for the vehicle is almost depleted.

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Feel Good
By TheTerl on 4/10/2007 11:10:31 AM , Rating: 3
The engine technology sounds impressive, but really, $104,750? For anyone even thinking about buying a car in that price range, fuel economy is no issue. I know we can go back and forth about whether hybrids are worth the investment in the long run, but I think everyone can agree that this targets those who want to go hybrid just to make a statement--as opposed to making a real difference.




RE: Feel Good
By lagomorpha on 4/10/2007 11:34:36 AM , Rating: 4
A lot of the people I see buying hybrids around $22k seem to be people who not only can afford much more expensive cars but also tend to have much more expensive cars parked beside it. It seems like they're more feel good status symbols than practical money savers. I imagine if this car can give them the feel-good "look at me I'm helping" of a hybrid without sacrificing much on luxury it will sell very well. It could probably get 15mpg and still make people feel good about themselves for buying a hybrid as much hype as they've gotten.


RE: Feel Good
By lagomorpha on 4/10/2007 11:36:49 AM , Rating: 4
Please tell me I'm not the only one that's seen plenty of garages with a Toyota Prius parked beside a Corvette/Pathfinder Armada/Porsche Cayenne.


RE: Feel Good
By KTLA on 4/10/2007 12:12:09 PM , Rating: 2
<eyes squinted>

*THAAAAAAANKS*!!!

<snifffffffffffffffff>


RE: Feel Good
By therealnickdanger on 4/10/2007 1:08:47 PM , Rating: 2
*eyes closed*

Good for youuuuuuuu!


RE: Feel Good
By jtyson on 4/10/2007 1:22:06 PM , Rating: 2
Dammit! You both beat me to the South Park reference!

Kudos.


RE: Feel Good
By FITCamaro on 4/10/07, Rating: 0
RE: Feel Good
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/10/2007 5:08:51 PM , Rating: 5
Speaking of Al-Gore, here is a very amusing fact I came across this "enviromentalist":

House #1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR.

The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. According to the Associated Press, the Gore's 10,000 square foot Belle Meade residence consumes electricity at a rate of about 12 times the average for a typical house in Nashville 191,000 kwh versus 15,600 kwh. While there are mitigating factors this is still a surprising number, given that the residence is approximately four times the size of the average new American home.

This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

House #2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide.

The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer.

The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

House #1 = Al-Gore
House #2 = G.W. Bush

-------
Chillin


RE: Feel Good
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/10/2007 5:09:51 PM , Rating: 2
Oops, forgot to throw in link:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

-------
Chillin


RE: Feel Good
By grenableu on 4/10/2007 7:29:24 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
House #1 = Al-Gore
House #2 = G.W. Bush
Bet you won't find that fact playing on CNN anytime soon. :)


RE: Feel Good
By TheGreek on 4/11/2007 1:37:37 PM , Rating: 1
Just as you won't find Cheney's deals of our well spent national energy plan for the rest of us. Its all cloaked by national security.

Actions speak louder than homes.

Bush speaks, yet Cheney's lips don't move. How is that possible?


RE: Feel Good
By fic2 on 4/10/2007 1:01:57 PM , Rating: 1
This is for the Al Gore's of the world that preach one thing, but practice another.

BTW, what is the mpg of this car - not even listed in the article.


RE: Feel Good
By fic2 on 4/10/2007 1:09:22 PM , Rating: 3
MPG - found my own answer: better than 25 mpg. That is pretty d*mn good. My Subaru gets a little better than that, but is a 4 cylinder with less than half the horsepower and probably less room.


RE: Feel Good
By FITCamaro on 4/10/2007 2:25:27 PM , Rating: 2
Better than 25-29(i found) mpg huh. Yeah thats good....Chevy's Corvette gets 29 mpg(many drivers report over 30) as well with a 6.0L V8, 400hp, and for nearly half the cost. And if you say it still puts out a lot of emissions, the LS2s high compression ratio helps cut down on that as well. Higher compression = a more complete burn = lower emissions, better mpg, and more power.

Maybe not better than a hybrid for emissions, but a hell of a lot more fun. And their LS7 with 505hp gets 26mpg at a still $25,000 difference. This will be nothing more than a toy for the rich to say "Look at me! I'm saving the planet". Then they'll mash the pedal, roast the tires off, drain the battery pack, and use gas like every other sports car. You don't buy a car with 440hp to drive it like a Prius.


RE: Feel Good
By boobot on 4/10/2007 4:11:50 PM , Rating: 4
Put the Vette's 6.0 engine and tranny in the Lexus's 5000lb chasis and it WILL NOT get 29mpg!


RE: Feel Good
By TheGreek on 4/11/2007 1:39:35 PM , Rating: 2
True, and the Lexus won't have nearly as many recalls or paint issues.


RE: Feel Good
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 4/10/2007 4:45:31 PM , Rating: 3
Why are you comparing a 3200 pound sports car to a 4300 pound LS 460 L luxury sedan (likely a few hundred pounds more for the LS 600h L)?

That same 6.0 liter engine in the CTS-V (weight 3,500 pounds) gets EPA ratings of 16/25 with a six-speed manual (14/22 with the revised 2008 EPA ratings).

The Pontiac G8 with the revised 6.0 liter engine (weight ~ 4,000 pounds) is likely to be the same or slightly worse.

GM can't work miracles with RWD large sedans with big engines. In fact, Maximum Bob announced today that it has suspended all of its future RWD platforms/vehicles with the exception of the Camaro (which is too far along to kill now).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotiv...

Lutz blames it on this:

http://www.dailytech.com/GM+Reacts+to+President+Bu...


RE: Feel Good
By theapparition on 4/10/2007 6:49:06 PM , Rating: 2
Brandon,
When a corvette engine is brought up, you know I have to chime in!

While there is no comparison on the weight, I can design any car to have max fuel economy. If I properly gear/tune either of my corvettes, I could easily acheive over 35mpg highway. Performace would be awful, but that is the trade off. There is a balance of power/emmissions/economy that must be made, all within a cost envelope. While FITcamaro's comparison is not dead on, he has a point in that what owner is going to be looking at this, other than the "look at me crowd". If they truely wanted to increase efficiency, they would have reduced weight as well. I agree that the CTS-V would be a more apt comparison, but I can buy a lot of gas with the price disparity between those two cars. That's 20 years of gas.

The G8 will use the Vortec variant of the Gen IV with displacement on demand. Fuel economy should be respectable.


RE: Feel Good
By Yeah Yeah on 4/12/07, Rating: 0