Lexus LC 500 Convertible review: Fashionably late, but at least you’ll arrive in style

Striking: but is it good-looking? You decide...

Have you noticed that people have started to drive incredibly slowly? Sure, there have always been people who emerged on a Sunday to potter about as though they had all the time in the world, and more recently this disease spread to Saturday. But now everyone’s at it, all the time.

Maybe it’s down to the government’s war on speeding; or maybe it’s because lockdown has taught us that, actually, we don’t have places to go or people to see, so we can afford to womble about like dandelion seeds on a lazy summer’s afternoon.

It wouldn’t be so bad if overtaking hadn’t become a lost art, like glassblowing. But it has. Now, when someone drives up behind someone else doing 40km/h, they just sit there, making absolutely no effort to get past. Such was the case with the young lady I saw driving a horse box the other night. All the drivers of the 11 cars in her wake were seemingly quite happy to just sit there doing 20km/h. But I was not happy to sit there, because I was running late, owing to the fact that I was driving the new Lexus LC 500 convertible, which has the most stupid satellite navigation system ever fitted to any car. Ever.

In every single review of a Lexus in recent years the satnav has been singled out for criticism, and yet still Toyota continues to fit it. It doesn’t work, because the movement of your finger over the touchpad has very little to do with what the arrow on the screen is doing. And after you’ve driven over a bump and pressed the pad by mistake, you’ll engage a feature you didn’t want, or select a destination you are not going to. And there is no way back.

It’s actually bloody dangerous to try to work the system while you’re on the move, so I pulled over to try to explain that I wanted the map to face north, and that I wanted to go to the railway station. This process took 25 minutes. And that’s why I was running late when I encountered the glacially slow horse enthusiast.

Happily the Lexus is able to make up some of the time you lose trying to tell it where you want to go, because under the bonnet is just the most brilliant 5-litre V8 engine.The only slight problem is that it doesn’t deliver quite as much torque as you might imagine, so, to get round that, Lexus has fitted a 10-speed gearbox. Which means that when you put your foot down to overtake, let’s say, 11 cars and a massive, slow-moving horse lorry, there’s a pause while the engine brain decides which gear would be best. And it’s just long enough for you to think, “Hmm. I wonder if I can make this overtaking move after all.”

You can. Because when it finds the right gear, the Lexus sets off on a creamy, seamless wave of horsepower, which fills your head with serotonin and dopamine and all the other lovely brain chemicals.

There are other good things about this car, too. The two-seat interior, with seats in the back for shopping, is beautifully finished and nicely equipped and tastefully trimmed, and you never tire of pushing the button that changes the whole look of the dash. Plus, the seat is as supportive as a celebrity shrink, which is handy because, ooh, the LC 500 doesn’t half handle. And grip. Some testers have criticised the ride comfort, saying the run-flat tyres make everything too jiggly, but I thought it was fine. Certainly it’s preferable to the other option, which was to fill the quite small boot with a spare wheel. I also liked the way I could lower the roof while driving behind a horse lorry, so that, when I could finally overtake, its driver would be better able to see the nature and nuance of my hand gestures.

There are some problems, however. First, there’s the styling. It’s striking, for sure, and adventurous and interesting, and I commend Lexus for its bravery in taking this route. But is it good-looking? Hmm. I’m not sure.

I’m sure about the price, though, which puts it up against some very serious competitors, such as the Porsche 911, and the less serious but extremely good-looking Jaguar F-type R. But the car I can’t get out of my head is the Ford Mustang. It’s a big, brawny American nitwit, yes, but it can do everything the Lexus can do for almost exactly half the price. And thanks to the Mustang’s shouty V8, it makes the act of driving slowly fun – which is something that matters these days.

ENGINE: 5.0-litre V8, petrol (351kW/540Nm). Average fuel 12.7 litres per 100km

TRANSMISSION: 10-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive

PRICE: From $214,000