We’ve been having a look and a play this weekend with the Lexus LS600h - the new hybrid top-end Lexus - which is now available on a forecourt near you (or - much easier - by getting in touch with us!).
I’ve long admired Lexus. They make a fine car; in many ways they’ve inherited the quality mantle that used to belong to Mercedes. They make beautifully engineered cars, but they’re not really drivers cars. They seem detached from what’s going on; they seem to lack a soul. But they have to be admired and, if you live in Central London, bought by the bucket full! Why? Well, if you drive anything of any size or performance that loveable chap Ken Livingstone (the drivers best friend) is planning to take £25 a time off you to drive in town. And there’s talk of the residents discount being sacrificed for cars that fit in to his ‘4×4′ band (be warned - it’s not just 4×4s, it’s just they are the favourite headline target). Which means if you live in the congestion zone you could be giving Ken and his cronies the wrong end of £7,000 a year just for driving every day. How did we let that happen? But buy this £85,000 Lexus and you’re exempt from the congestion charge.
Driving in London, or any big city for that matter, is not exactly fun. It’s a chore. But despite my frustration at peoples blind acceptance of the global warming fanatics, I am all for our cities, and our air, and our planet, being cleaner and safer. So I looked at the Lexus from a different point of view than normal. If I lived in town and used my car every day, would this be a good choice? From a size point of view, no, not really. It is actually quite a big bugger. Manouverable, but big. But it’s very comfortable; very quiet; very well specced and actually quite nice to drive (or be driven in) round town. It’s less impressive round the country roads once we got out of town, but it’s really not bad. It’s got a reasonable turn of speed (0-62mph around 6 seconds), and, unless you do drive it hard it’s pretty economical (we got over 27mpg). In the back it’s a really nice place to be. The one we had had the ‘Relaxation Package’, which gives you reclining seats with foot rests and massage function, ideal for enjoying the DVDs whilst being wafted along in near silence. Not exactly inspiring, but a really nice place to be. And it got me thinking. Why give Ken £7k a year. If you factor that £7k in to a lease deal, you could end up driving around in this £85k car for the price(ish) of a top end Mondeo!
So, a new Innovation Cars Top Tip: Get Ken to pay for the Car!
