Behind this big and bold front grille is the most luxurious people mover my family and I have ever experienced. This is the Lexus LM 350h Sports Luxury 2WD in Graphite Black, and it’s actually the base model in the LM range and we had the pleasure of driving it over the Christmas holiday break.
Powered by a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine teamed with an all-new high-output, low-resistance nickel-metal hydride battery and a high-output electric motor, the LM 350h has a combined output of 184kW. The Parallel Hybrid System is paired with a CVT Transmission and drives the front wheels only on this version. The official combined fuel efficiency is 5.5L/100km, but for my time over the Christmas holidays I averaged 14.5L/100km and this included a reasonable amount of highway driving.
There are five drive modes available, Normal, Eco, Sport, Rear Comfort, and Custom, but I could not work out where to customise this one from? In Normal drive mode the LM’s ride is very soft and almost boat like, so if you have passengers prone to motion sickness maybe avoid this mode. There’s modest power delivery, enough to make the front tyres lose traction under hard off the mark acceleration, and the CVT drones, but the big van rides the bumps nicely. Sport mode offers better throttle response and if you are keen you can use the wheel-mounted metal paddle shifters to “manually” change gear, but you do feel the bumps more.
Rear Comfort Mode is the sweet spot and its sophisticated program orchestrates Adaptive Variable Suspension, Electric Power Steering, and braking to vastly improves rear passenger comfort by maintaining level seating positions, thereby mitigating overall head and body movement, think how a hen’s head remains stable when its body is moved. My expert rear passengers told me that it felt like the LM rode over the bumps nicer with a better feeling in the cabin in this mode.
Even though you have to step up to get into the LM, the front doors are actually quite low so you have to be careful not to catch them on kerbs. The front doors have keyless entry and soft close and combined with keyless start this means that the key fob can stay in your handbag at all times.
Up front in the driver’s seat I could appreciate the Tazuna (horse’s reins) concept of the LM. Behind the heated steering wheel is a 12.3-inch multi-information driver’s dash and a colour head-up display. Buttons to control almost everything are within easy to reach for the driver, such as returning the second-row seats to their original positions or locking the sliding rear doors so they can’t be opened. There are buttons to open/close sliding doors on the dash and above on the roof with a button to open/close all of the electrically operated sunshades and rear roof shades located here as well.
The Takumi-inspired ‘Yabane’ woodgrain ornamentation across the dash and centre console offers a lux look and feel in the cabin as do the semi-aniline leather accented and Ultrasuede covered seats. Both front seats have powered adjustment for recline, forward/back, and lumbar support with the driver’s seat also having seat height front and rear, additional lumbar support and three memory positions and the passenger seat can be adjusted by the driver with controls on the side of that seat. The front seats are heated and cooled, but no massage function and considering that the parents are in saddle doing all the work, this is a bit sad. The LM also has the annoying push to open door handles that Lexus currently favour and people not familiar with them struggle to open the doors until you explain to them that you have to push, not pull the handle. Confusing you can open by pulling the handle as well, but you have to pull them twice to open.
Sitting at the centre of the dash is a 14-inch multimedia system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but I had to use wired Android Auto to get my phone to display on the screen. Lexus have retained physical dials on the screen’s lower corners to control cabin temperature and audio volume levels, but there’s only touch control for the air speed and I think this should be a physical control also. Under the more detailed climate menu on the screen you can also control the rear climate settings.
The 21-speaker Mark Levinson Audio surround sound audio system is meant to minimise front-to-rear localisation variability in the audio, but I did notice some echoing when a radio presenter spoke during the broadcast. Also, annoyingly the rear passenger can turn the front audio off but the front passenger/driver can’t turn the rear audio off, from what I could tell?
Under the flip up cover at front of centre console there are two USB-C ports, a wireless charging pad for compatible devices and a cubby for your phone. The arm rest can be flipped up from either side and inside the deep felt-lined cubby there’s one 12V socket, one HDMI port, and one USB-C port. The drink bottle storage in front door only just fits my large drink bottle, but it easily fitted in the centre console cup holders.
To enter the money-end of the Lexus LM a powered step deploys and stows in coordination with the sliding door’s opening and closing. This reduces the step height to around 220mm, allowing for easier ingress and egress when passengers are formally dressed or if you have small children who can’t quite step all of the way up.
Here you will find two large Captain’s chairs, each with an ISOfix/rear tether child seat restraint point. Located on their inner armrests is an independent remote touchscreen controller that commands the rear seat functions, audio, and media settings, the downside of this is they do get a lot of finger marks on the screens. Lexus Climate Concierge allows these passengers to select one of five pre-set modes, Dream, Relax, Focus, Energise, or My Original that best reflect their desired environment. The system automatically adjusts the comfort equipment’s settings based on temperature readings taken from an infrared matrix sensor and estimates the warmth of four body areas (face, chest, upper leg, lower leg) during its adjustment and application of air conditioning and seat heaters/ventilation.
The Relaxation function uses air bladders within the seat’s back and cushions to inflate and deflate to apply pressure on a passenger’s body, from thighs to shoulders. One program (lasting 15 minutes) and two pressure levels (‘weakly’ and ‘hardly’) enable a relaxing experience that suits any given mood. When I tried out these seats the massage was my favourite function and I also liked the custom fit mats that fit snuggly between all of the tracks for the seats for easier vacuuming and that the carpet is thick and plush.
You can extend the ottoman, adjust recline, forward/back, and front seat tilt height from buttons next to the seat and from the touch pad you can also adjust the lumbar support and there are two memory positions here and adjust the headrests manually. The seat heating extends to the ottoman and arm rests and my daughter said this was the best feature of the LM. The seat cooling works as well as most vehicles that have this feature, that is not very well, but at least it’s not as noisy to operate as some vehicles I have driven and it’s the same for the front seats. One issue with the controllers is each passenger can change the other passengers’ settings. And siblings love to annoy each other so there were many times that I heard “Mum, they put my heated seats on.” The tablet needs a feature at the front that can lock them, so siblings can’t do this.
The centre armrest houses a stowable table wrapped in an upholstery that enhances tactile feel, slip/scratch prevention, and practical functionality when writing or reading. There is a storage cubby between the two seats for a magazine, tablet or small laptop and at the front of each seat there is one rigid cup holder and a USB-C port. On the outer arm rest is a slim cup holder that can hold a champagne flute (but not secure it and there’s no fridge for your champagne), for adults only of course, and there is drink bottle storage in each door suitable for slim water bottles.
Other functions controlled by the touchpad include the climate controls, opening and closing the windows and sunshades, and the media operations. The 14-inch ceiling-mounted high-definition screen can display identical content as the front seats, or different content with the independent viewing mode enabled. Media sources include AM/FM radio, DAB+, Bluetooth, USB, Miracast, Rear HDMI (port located between the two front seats), and rear Miracast. My tech savvy son said that with the three-pronged plug in back you could potentially connect a gaming console to the screen or use a miniature PLC and hot spot internet from your phone to stream from the internet as long as you were in an area with mobile phone reception.
In the overhead console above the rear seats is another control panel that integrates small item storage, air conditioning vents, area lamps, and controls for lighting, sunshades, open/close for the doors and windows, and roof blind for the fixed sunroofs. There’s individual temp adjustment for each second-row passenger and joint air speed and mode operation. There are roof vents and central vents all with individual direction control and central vents have one central on/off switch. Below the central air vents there’s a flip out storage/garbage bin.
To access the third row, you press the buttons on the side of the second-row seats, they power forward to create a gap large enough for an adult to step in. Even with the second-row seats fully back there is still plenty of leg room for adults to sit in the third row. Head room is also excellent and my knees only felt a small amount like they were sitting up high. The third-row seats have manual recline adjustment and no child seat restraints on third row seats. There are three seats in the third row, but the middle seat would be squishy and uncomfortable as it straddles the split in the seats.
Even the third-row passengers get powered sunshades on the very back windows, roof mounted lights, and air vents that can be individually moved or closed off. There’s one USB-C port on each wheel arch and one drink holder on the passenger side of the vehicle, with two on the driver’s side and another cubby below the rigid drink holders. Third row passengers can also tilt the second-row seats from the button on the back of those seats and slide them forward using the button on the side of those seats. These I’m sure are useful, but for my children it was an opportunity to annoy whoever was sitting in the second-row seat and most annoying for me as the driver was this made annoying beeping sound when the seats were moved.
The large tailgate can be opened/closed using the buttons on either side of the vehicle, on the key fob or in the cabin and being it’s so big it does take some time to do this. With third row seats in place there is very little space in the boot and you may fit two schools there if you are lucky and there’s definitely no room for luggage for a family road trip away.
The third-row seats have a 50:50 split and are manually folded up and buckled to secure them out of the way. With the seats folded up there is a large amount space, so much so that we were able to get changed in the back of the LM after a morning at the beach thanks to the ability to use the buttons in the boot to move or recline the second-row seats forward as well. The boot space has two hooks and two tie down points located on the frame of the tailgate only and one 220V 100W three-pronged plug. Under the boot floor is a small amount of extra storage, a first aid kit and tyre change tools for the temporary use spare tyre.
The Lexus LM is unrated by ANCAP, but does have six airbags, one each for the driver and front passenger, two front side airbags and two curtain shield airbags. Active safety features include the Lexus Safety Sense+ Pre-Collision System, Intersection Collision Avoidance Support, Emergency Steering Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Trace Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring and Rear Cross Traffic. The LM also has a distractive driver warning, but the bong for this is not as intrusive as other vehicles that have this feature.
A Digital Rear-view Mirror displays images from the backup camera at the rear of the vehicle on the in-mirror display, providing a wide field of view and images adjusted for clarity, enhancing excellent visibility even when it is difficult to check behind the vehicle. It also comes with a standard rear view with guidelines and rear camera washer combined with a 360-degree camera with front and rear parking sensors and front and rear parking support brake. For convenience you also get auto lights and auto high beam and auto wipers.
When you purchase your Lexus LM it comes with a three years subscription to Encore Platinum. Standard Encore benefits include a complimentary Service Loan Car with the option to pick it up when you drop your car off, or Lexus can pick up your vehicle and drop off a loan vehicle, for your convenience. DriveCare, the 24-hour roadside assistance service, and an Ampol Fuel Offer for a 5c/litre fuel discount (condition apply).
Platinum Benefits include On Demand (Up to 8 days × 4), your opportunity to drive selected Lexus vehicles. Whether you need a bigger car for a family getaway or a sportier car for the day, you can borrow one from Lexus. Valet Parking (× 8) at select shopping centres around Australia and you don’t need to book ahead, just check the Lexus Encore App for all participating locations. Airport Lounge access (× 4) whether you’re travelling for business or leisure, you can take advantage of more than 800 airport lounges globally. You can explore all of the lounges at DragonPass Airports and redeem your passes by using the Lexus Encore App.
All new Lexus vehicles come with a 5 Year/Unlimited Kilometre plus an additional 5 years (up to a total of 10 years / Unlimited kms) subject to annual Traction Battery Health Check after 5th year in accordance with Lexus specifications. The service interval for the LM petrol hybrid is every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first, and under Lexus Capped Price Servicing the first five services will cost $695 each.
The Lexus LM 350h Sports Luxury 2WD is priced from $160,272 plus on-road costs and that’s also the price as tested as there were no optional extras fitted to our LM. You can Build & Price your Lexus LM online or visit your preferred Lexus dealer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| The cabin space and ambience | High fuel consumption for a hybrid vehicle |
| The second-row Captain’s chairs | Multiple opportunities for sibling niggling |
| The Rear Comfort Drive Mode | Limited boot space with third row seats in use |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.