2024 Lexus LC Review and Test Drive
Stunningly attractive from any angle, this luxury car comfortably mixes style and performance.
Ron Sessions
The Lexus LC is an expensive car and a dramatic showcase for its design themes. This year, the 2024 LC gains an all-new infotainment system with a larger screen, a revised center console, an updated version of the Lexus Safety System with added features, new wheel choices, additional colors, and an expansion of the Bespoke Build trims.
Ron Sessions
Lexus LC Is Nearly Six Figures of Gorgeous
The 2024 Lexus LC is available in coupe and convertible body styles and with a V6-based hybrid powertrain or a V8 engine. Hybrid models wear an LC 500h designation and come only in coupe form. Buyers choose between Standard, Bespoke, and Inspiration Series trim levels, and base prices range from the high $90,000s to the low $120,000s, including the destination charge to ship the car from the Motomachi, Toyota City, Japan, factory that builds it to your local dealership.
For this LC review, I test-drove the LC 500h Bespoke coupe in southern Arizona. The manufacturer's suggested retail price of the test vehicle — with a handful of options including a speed-activated rear wing and new-for-2024 Ultrasonic Blue Mica premium paint — came to $113,850, including the $1,350 destination charge.
Ron Sessions
The LC Is a Concept Car for the Street
Aging gracefully since its 2018 introduction, the low-slung Lexus LC is one of the most beautiful luxury coupes offered today, in my opinion. From the expansive grille and wide stance to its jet afterburner-inspired taillamps, the swoopy coupe's alluring shape still entices.
Inside, the dashboard layout leaves no doubt that this is a driver's car. The switchgear is logically arrayed and has a high-quality tactile feel, and the materials are top-notch. This car's cabin represents Lexus luxury at its best.
The test car had the customizable Bespoke trim, which upgrades the LC's already stylish cabin with leather sport seats featuring Alcantara simulated suede inserts. More Alcantara graces the door trim, and exclusive to the Bespoke models, there's an optional Alcantara headliner, carbon-fiber door sill scuff plates, a carbon-fiber roof, and a speed-activated pop-up rear spoiler.
Ron Sessions
Luxury You Can See and Feel
The Lexus LC technically has seating for four, but don't attempt to climb into the rear chairs if you're old enough to have a driver's license. With the driver's seat adjusted to accommodate my 6-foot, 2-inch frame, the front seatback touched the rear seat's bottom cushion, eliminating the rear legroom.
The driver and front passenger sit in the lap of luxury, enjoying standard heating, ventilation, and an eight-way power adjustment. The front buckets resemble semi-recumbent seats that envelope and support you in all the right places, making the LC's driving position as good as it gets, even for long trips. Your spine will thank you.
With the Bespoke model, the front sport seats feature additional side bolstering in the shoulder area for more support when cornering the LC on a twisty road. The only comfort-related item missing from the car is a seat massage function.
Ron Sessions
2024 Lexus LC Proves It's Best to Travel Light
As with most grand touring coupes, the Lexus LC doesn't offer much utility. The center console has one cupholder tucked under the dashboard and another hiding under the center armrest, which slides rearward to also reveal a covered cubby. Aside from the glovebox and door pockets, that's it for front storage.
Suitable only for carrying children or pets, the rear seat offers plenty of space for anything else you want to keep close and under the roof, such as a purse, briefcase, computer, or camera bag — or the bags from your latest shopping haul.
Keeping in mind this car's sporty mission, the LC 500h has a small trunk with just 4.7 cubic-feet of cargo room due to the intrusion of the hybrid propulsion battery. That's enough room for two airport wheeled bags and not much else. Fortunately, all of that space is usable because the decklid hinges don't intrude into the trunk. Unlike in the Lexus RC coupe, the LC's rear seats don't fold down to accommodate longer or larger items.
Ron Sessions
The LC Finally Gets the Lexus Interface Infotainment System
For 2024, the Lexus LC upgrades to the Lexus Interface infotainment system. Now moved within easier reach of the driver and front passenger, a larger high-definition touchscreen eliminates the clumsy console-mounted remote-touch controller used previously. However, the new infotainment system wisely retains the rotary volume control knob and the console-mounted roller wheels for radio tuning and music seek and track-change functions.
The landscape-format 12.3-inch touchscreen offers bright colors and sharp detail. With the complementary three-year trial of Drive Connect, you get a continuously updated cloud-based navigation system, a Google-maintained point-of-interest search database, and a live destination-assist operator.
In addition, saying "Hey Lexus" wakes up a digital assistant that responds to naturally spoken requests to find a location, adjust the climate control, change the audio settings, and more. I successfully searched for and navigated to a crosstown coffee shop I knew by name only.
After the free trial period, Drive Connect remains available only through a paid subscription. However, the newly wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration platforms offer similar features, so don't worry about losing anything except for the live operator assistance. While wireless smartphone connectivity is excellent, the LC doesn't come with a wireless smartphone charger, so you'll still need a cable to attach to the USB-A and USB-C ports for charging.
The LC offers a standard 12-speaker premium sound system or an optional 13-speaker, 915-watt Mark Levinson Reference surround-sound audio system. The Mark Levinson system in the test car delivered a crisp, immersive listening experience.
Ron Sessions
Tech You Can Live With
The Lexus LC 500h offers a digital driver display, a head-up display (HUD), and Intuitive Parking Assist, among other in-cabin technologies.
The high-definition color driver display offers gauge layouts that vary with the selected driving mode. In addition, the LC 500h displays hybrid-power and battery-charge status. You can reference a g-force meter, too, which can reveal how smoothly or aggressively you are driving. However, the digital instrumentation can't display any portion of the navigation map.
Instead, the optional HUD can provide navigation route guidance (in addition to the Lexus Interface screen). The HUD projects route instructions plus other critical driving information onto the lower part of the windshield ahead of the driver.
Intuitive Parking Assist is not an automated parking-assist system. Instead, the name refers to the front and rear parking sensors now standard on the 2024 LC. They work with the newly standard surround-view camera, which provides a top-down view of the car and its surroundings on the infotainment screen.
Ron Sessions
2024 Lexus LC Upgrades to Lexus Safety System+ 2.5
For 2024, the LC 500 upgrades to the Lexus Safety System+ 2.5 (LSS+ 2.5) suite of advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) features. While it's not the latest and greatest safety tech available in a Lexus vehicle, LSS+ 2.5 is more comprehensive than the basic LSS+ collection of ADAS installed in last year's LC.
The 2024 LC adds cyclist detection, emergency steering assist, left-turn oncoming vehicle detection, curve slowing for the adaptive cruise control, lane-centering assist, and traffic-sign recognition. All previous LSS+ features continue, as do blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.
All of the ADAS worked as intended. A pleasant surprise was the automatic curve-speed reduction when using the adaptive cruise control, which helped prevent the LC 500h test vehicle from entering an unexpectedly sharp curve carrying too much speed.
Ron Sessions
Hardware That Blends Exceptional Luxury and Ample Performance
The 2024 Lexus LC 500h features a 3.5-liter gasoline V6 and two electric motors built into the electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT). One motor acts primarily as a generator to recharge the lithium-ion propulsion battery, and the other helps propel the car's rear wheels. All-wheel drive is not available.
The CVT pairs with a four-speed planetary transmission to create what Lexus calls a multistage hybrid system. The combination mimics the feel of a 10-speed automatic transmission, giving the LC 500h a more natural sound and feel when accelerating.
Together, the LC 500h's hybrid drivetrain components produce 354 horsepower. While that's less than the stirring 471 horsepower supplied by the rambunctious 5.0-liter V8 in the non-hybrid LC 500, the LC 500h is no performance wallflower.
Standard LC fare includes an adaptive variable damping suspension that uses sensors to read the road and understand vehicle dynamics in real time. Based on that data, it automatically adjusts shock-absorber stiffness, firming them up to enhance stability and handle sharp turns while increasing compliance to take the sting out of road impacts.
Vented four-wheel disc brakes with monoblock six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers provide stopping power. Lexus fits the LC 500h 15.7-inch rotors up front and 14.1-inch vented rotors at the rear. The hybrid also adds an exclusive regenerative feature that charges the hybrid battery during braking. The electric power steering offers a relatively quick 2.6 turns lock to lock.
An optional Dynamic Handling Package includes a Torsen limited-slip differential, variable-ratio steering, and active rear-wheel steering.
Ron Sessions
2024 Lexus LC Is a Cruiser, Not a Bruiser
At lower speeds and under light throttle in EV mode, the Lexus LC 500h can run solely on electricity, providing smooth, quiet running at speeds up to 87 mph. A heavier foot on the accelerator rouses the V6 engine, and Lexus says the LC 500h can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. Transmission shifting is mostly imperceptible, and paddle shifters offer added engagement when driving the car with enthusiasm.
Since the LC 500h is a hybrid, you rightly expect it to be fuel efficient. The Environmental Protection Agency rates the LC 500h at 26/33/29 mpg in city/highway/combined driving. I saw an average of 28 mpg in a week of driving on residential streets, interstates, and rural two-lane highways, which is exceptional in a near-exotic grand touring coupe.
Ron Sessions
Also exceptional is how quiet the LC 500h is inside. There's no undue road sizzle on brushed concrete or aggregate-over-asphalt roads and no perceptible air rush sounds at speed around the windshield or side mirrors.
In addition, the ride quality was silky and composed despite the super-wide 21-inch wheels and tires. While not sports car sharp, the LC 500h's standard electric steering had a more than adequate turn-in response for a luxury cruiser. Furthermore, the LC's big regenerative brakes delivered confident stopping power from highway speeds and overall good top-of-pedal response with linear feedback and control.
Ron Sessions
The Lexus LC Is a Sculpture on Wheels
No one needs a 2024 Lexus LC 500, but one look might make you want one. It's nothing short of a curvaceous sculpture on wheels, straight from the auto-show stage to your driveway.
However, this caliber of car seems to be fading fast from the market. The LC's dwindling list of competitors includes the BMW 8 Series, Chevrolet Corvette, Jaguar F-Type, Mercedes-Benz SL, and Porsche 911, with the Jaguar being discontinued after the 2024 model year.
Compared with the Lexus, several of these rivals are commonplace in certain parts of the country, which makes the LC a rarity. So, you've got to ask yourself: Do you want the same super-luxury car other people buy, or do you want to take the metaphorical road less traveled?
Lexus provided the vehicle for this 2024 LC review.
Written by humans.
Edited by humans.
Ron SessionsRon Sessions is a seasoned vehicle evaluator with more than three decades of experience. He has penned hundreds of road tests for automotive and consumer websites, enthusiast magazines, newsletters, technical journals, and newspapers.
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