The 2021 Lexus LC500 Convertible Is the Coolest Car Nobody Will Buy

this is a 2021 lexus lc 500 convertible and it's just cool it looks good outside it looks good inside and it has a naturally aspirated v8 with 470 horsepower this car has just one fatal flaw nobody is going to buy it today i'm going to review the lc convertible and explain what i mean before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my new online enthusiast car auction site aimed at modern enthusiast cars if you're looking to sell a cool car from the 80s 90s and up list it on cars and bids we have great action and you will get the most money for your car if you're looking to buy something cool from that era check out cars and bids we have live auctions of cool cars happening every day all the time and it's very enjoyable check out cars and bids at carsonbids.com first a little overview now lexus has dabbled in two-door cars pretty much since it first existed there was the sc 300 and 400 which found some success then there was the sc 430 which found some success among the elderly then there were a few others and then there was the lc which came out for the 2018 model year intended to be the new flagship lexus with a focus on sharp design and excitement this was to be the car that showed the world that lexus wasn't just for old people anymore the problem is the lc coupe has a starting price of around 94 000 and i gotta tell you a big two-door luxury coupe with a hundred grand sticker price isn't exactly going to be the first choice of young families or early career 20-somethings so the lc has also been a car for old people and frankly not even too many of them because old people are also choosing suvs more and more just like everybody else for easier entry and exit and perceived better safety and capability all of today's big two-door luxury cars are sales failures the mercedes s-class coupe the bmw 8 series frankly that segment is just dead so dead in fact that lexus has reportedly cancelled a high performance f version of the lc there just isn't demand but before this segment dies completely lexus is taking one last shot a convertible pricing hasn't yet been announced but i expect it'll start around a hundred thousand dollars it has the same naturally aspirated v8 as the coupe with 470 horsepower and it looks absolutely awesome inside and out and today i'm going to review it first i'm going to take you on a tour of the lc 500 convertible and i'm going to show you all of its interesting quirks and features then i'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a dug score all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the lc 500 convertible with getting in and that means we must start with the key which is this kind of oddly shaped we're really trying to make it look different and interesting sort of thing but it does look different and interesting and i actually kind of like it so i guess they've succeeded now as for getting in when you approach the car you might be a little confused because the door handle is flush up against the body so what exactly do you do well if the key is in your pocket you press the front part of the door handle and then you can see it unlocks the door the door handle pops out and then you can just pull on it and open it right up and get inside the car pretty simple or you can walk up to the car press the unlock button on the key itself and the door handle will automatically pop out so same thing you can just grab it and open the door either way i really like the fact that when the door handle pops out it exposes this top part which has a little hidden lexus logo on it you don't see until the door is unlocked that is a pretty cool quirk a nice little hidden easter egg and by the way when you get out of the car to lock the doors just press the back of the door handle it locks the doors and then the door handle goes back into the door and you can walk away or of course you can just press the lock button on the key fob like basically every other car and next up you climb inside to the lc and the first thing you notice when you get in here is this is a beautiful interior you look around and well there's a lot of beige in here this isn't necessarily the color that i would choose for my lc but the materials are fantastic the design is fantastic no stupid cheap looking plastic in the wrong places this is a truly beautiful gorgeous automotive interior one of the best i have ever been in at this price point it is a fantastic place to be some highlights worth pointing out one i absolutely love these design lines on the door panel instead of your typical rectangles or perfectly crafted flowing lines these look like they're almost randomly placed there but beautiful it makes the door panel kind of look like art it's really cool and i love the door handle on the inside too beautiful material and it just looks like it's floating there in place again a gorgeous look that complements this interior i also just love the lines basically everywhere in this interior this aluminum one on the door panel there are all sorts of sculpted eye-catching character lines all throughout this interior and they just look beautiful another thing i like in here is the aluminum trim everywhere you can especially see it over on the dashboard and in the center control stack this isn't cheap plastic and it looks even classier than regular aluminum somehow maybe because of the tint or the finish they've chosen but it really is a gorgeous look again complements everything else in this interior i even love the design of the dashboard in this car this kind of strange look over on the passenger side with the stair step pattern and the clock next to it again it kind of brings a little art into this interior everything just looks wonderful and a little daring in here and i really like it but beyond the interior quality and design there are quite a few interesting quirks in here i'm going to start with the drive mode selector it's not a little dial in the middle like basically every other car instead it's on the side of the gauge cluster you can see you push it up for sport mode you push it down for comfort and eco mode an odd positioning for it but that's what they've done in this car now a cool thing happens when you cycle through the drive modes in this car pay attention to the gauge cluster you go into normal and the cluster looks normal but you push it up for sport and you can see it gets redder and sportier you push it up a second time for sport plus and it gets even sportier still with this white face looking like a true performance car and i like that configurability now speaking of that drive mode dial on the other side of the gauge cluster area you have another dial you pull this one down to go into snow mode or you push it in to turn traction control off so there are some driving controls in that rather unorthodox place but undoubtedly the coolest thing in this gauge cluster area is the gauge cluster itself all right you're looking at it the tachometer is right in the middle pretty standard but you press this little button on the steering wheel and look the tachometer moves over to the side to allow room for a new screen to appear you press the button again and the tachometer moves back over and this isn't some digital gauge that's just moving this is a physical tachometer moving in place which is just about the coolest look i can imagine i love it and it's a really cool party trick imagine trying to impress your passenger check out what my gauge cluster can do and next up another interesting control on this car is in the center console that would be the volume dial this big silver button in the middle you press it to turn on the radio or off but the volume control is the dial around it and it feels tremendously weighty this is probably the heaviest volume dial i've ever felt but it gives it this high quality feeling like you're adjusting the volume on a tremendously expensive home theater system which i guess is kind of the point that is a cool volume dial which is something i never really thought i would say and speaking of the center console area another interesting quirk in here is the center console storage lid to open it you push this little latch in the front and then pull it back and it reveals a little storage area nothing unusual about that the cool part is when you close it you push the latch and then it automatically and softly closes right up for you which is a nice luxurious look that i find to be rather quirky and speaking of storage lids in here even the glove box opener is beautiful it's this little unlabeled aluminum button on the passenger side you push it and it opens right up no ugly plastic glove box latch in the lexus lc and next up another quirky item in this car is the gear lever which is rather perplexing the first time you use it obviously it's in the middle in order to put this car in gear you move it to the left and then down and then you're in drive for reverse it's to the left and up and neutral is just to the left and hold it there and that's the gear lever if you want to go into manual mode pull it down when you're in drive and then you can shift yourself using the paddles and to go into park you just press the big p in the center and then you're in park it's actually pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it but it's different from most other car gear levers and next up we have to show off an important party trick of this car and that would be the convertible top now to put the top up you open up this little panel in the center console and you can see two switches in here the top is over on the left you push it up and then the top goes up as you can see it is a very nice and easy and relatively simple process and when it finishes well quite simply the top is in place like you'd expect from a convertible if you want to put the top down same deal open up this panel press the top switch down and then you can see the convertible top goes down again exactly like you'd expect it is a very nice and quick and easy process with obviously no manual latching or anything like that in here you wouldn't expect that at this price point now also notable is the other switch in this little convertible top control area which looks like a power window switch and it is except it controls all the windows at once you want to put them all down you just push this switch down and all the windows drop you want to put the windows back up obviously it's the opposite process just pull the switch the other way and all of the windows go back up so you can be in an enclosed cabin i love cars that have a all windows up or down button and this car does and by the way one other notable feature about the top while it's going up or down a little progress bar appears in the gauge cluster to let you know how far along the top is in its top process i guess so you don't accidentally stop part way through you can monitor the progress and see how it's going now next up all of the buttons and switches and controls i've shown you so far have been quirky but ultimately good that is until you want to turn on your heated seat because the process is absolutely mind-numbing okay in your car you just press a little button and your heated seat is on pretty simple in this car it's in the screen so you have to go into menu and then navigate to climate and then go to seat slash steering and then highlight the seat you want to turn on and then raise or lower the seat temperature it's like a six step process that takes up the whole screen so if you're navigating somewhere and you want to turn on your heated seat well you might miss your turn in the three minutes it takes you to get your heated seat on absolutely ridiculous a button is always better please lexus with that said i will forgive a small portion of the great inconvenience of turning on the heated seats because this car has a cool seat climate feature and that would be a head rest heating system go into head rest in the screen you can turn it on and then warm air blows out from this hole onto your neck so you can drive around with the top down on a cool night and not get too cold because warm air is blowing directly onto the back of your neck which is a fantastic feeling all convertibles should have this i'm thrilled to see that the lc does by the way lexus would answer my criticism about the difficulty in turning on the heated seats by reminding you that this car has a feature called climate concierge go into the concierge button in the climate controls and you can just set a temperature and then the car will use all available measures to maintain that temperature so it will automatically turn on your heated or cooled seats it will automatically turn on the climate control and it will even automatically turn on your headrest warm air blowy thing so you don't have to do any of that yourself lexus would say who needs a heated seat button the car will handle all of that for you but anyway speaking of the center screen situation i am disappointed to report that this car uses lexus's remote touch interface system which is a disaster and a half i have reviewed this system negatively in other lexus models the gist is you use this little pad in the center to scroll around on the screen but it's very inexact you're constantly overshooting what you're going to and a touch screen would be about 78 times better than this frankly a dial in the middle would be better than this frankly 4 000 cryptically labeled buttons throughout the interior like the cockpit of a boeing 747 would be better than this it is by far the worst infotainment system in the car industry today and i think it is the low point of the lc 500 a shame that such a beautiful car is saddled with such a disappointing infotainment system with that said i'm happy to report aside from the seat heating and cooling and the headrest heating the rest of the climate controls are separate from the infotainment system these little buttons in the center control stack which feel wonderful to push these are some of the most beautiful climate controls you'll see and adjusting them requires no infotainment screen intervention whatsoever which is a good thing and next up speaking of screens in this car let's go back to the movable gauge cluster screen and move it over to the side so we can check out that screen over on the left now this is a vehicle information screen it shows g-forces various other vehicle things it also has a feature called sway warning this monitors your drowsiness level when you're driving if you start to sway within your lane it will pop up a warning message there telling you hey maybe it's time to think about taking a break and next up speaking of that gauge cluster screen there's a very cool graphic that plays when you start the car take a look a lot of cars now have little movies that play when you turn them on and i think this is one of my very favorite ones very fitting of the pomp and circumstance of the lc 500 and next up we must climb into the back seat of the lc 500 now accessing the back seat is pretty easy there's a little latch on the side of the front seat you just pull it push the front seat forward and it automatically goes forward and lets you in and by the way check out this cool lexus logo on the backs of the front seats i guess this is a nice little feature to make sure everybody knows this car is a lexus when you park it with the top down in palm beach anyway like i said accessing the backseat is pretty easy but actually getting back here is a bit of a different conversation with the roof down it's not so hard to climb in but fitting in place is a whole different thing you can see the seat won't even latch let alone go back to where it belongs and if you look in you can tell there is no rear seat room in this car these are some of the very smallest back seats i have ever seen in any new car they really aren't even useful for children unless you have two adults willing to scoot their front seats way up and so everybody is scrunched in here this is effectively a two seater with some storage in back now that point is especially driven home when you look around back here and see the utter lack of anything no climate vents back here no heated seats back here no power windows back here nothing you just have some seats some seat belts for those very few times when you're actually going to use the back seats in this car with that said there are a few notable items back here one is a speaker in between the back seats an odd place to see it but that's where it is rather large for an enhanced sound experience another unusual thing back here the seat belts come out of the middle of the back seat not over on the side like basically every other car which is a little bit of an odd experience if you're trying to buckle up in back not that you will be and finally in the backseat area you do have a wind blocker behind the back seats usually these are larger and removable but this one is fixed in place and pretty small but apparently it's functional enough to keep wind flowing over the car and make sure it doesn't mess up the hair too much of the people who are sitting inside and next up i want to move outside the lc and start by discussing its styling which i absolutely love i really really love how this car looks i have since it first came out as a coupe a few years ago i think it's fantastic these sharp lines and creases on the outside a lot of automakers screw that up and they over style but in this case i think lexus has done a fantastic job making this look distinctive and modern and sharp and cool and i love the look of this car and i think it looks better as a convertible than it did as a coupe i think this is the more beautiful lc especially with the top down like it is now i think this is a beautiful beautiful car one of the best looking japanese cars in years and by the way i also think it looks good with the top up i think the contrasting color of the top looks nice and i think it just generally looks fantastic it's such a shame that nobody is buying this car because it's gorgeous and frankly i love to see them on the street but i almost never do and next up i want to highlight a couple of pieces of particularly interesting exterior designs specifically lighting up front i really like the look of the running lights very distinctive very lexus but i especially like how the running light housing starts in the regular headlight housing and then kind of goes outside of it and towards the grill it's a very unusual look and pretty cool i also like the front turn signal up here which is vertical that's not something you see very often or pretty much ever again a very distinctive look for this car but while the front turn signals are cool the rear turn signals are especially cool check them out they are also vertical but they are even more like aggressive and bold and distinctive and i love how they look what a neat design back here i also love the look of the brake lights they're just clear when they're off you can see you'd hardly be able to even tell that they're brake lights but then they go on and they're red very different look from basically every other car again adds distinction to the lc the other cool thing about the rear lighting is how the lights look when you just have the headlights on so the tail lights come on like at night you can see there's this like 3d hall of mirrors kind of effect when you look into the tail lights a very very cool look very special not too many cars have this and i'd love to see it here the only thing i don't like in terms of lighting is this material on top of the brake lights this little chrome plastic looking material it's so cheap and so tacky i can't believe that someone decided to stick this material on this otherwise so beautifully materialed car it's really a low point of the exterior when you notice it and next up since i'm a round back let's talk trunk in the lc pop it open by pressing a little button on the key fob to get it to there and then you open it the rest of the way and you can see it is unbelievably tiny it's a very very very small trunk you can have trouble getting even one set of golf clubs in here but such is the price you pay for top-down luxury style in the lc convertible and finally we move under the hood where you have the engine a naturally aspirated 5-liter v8 one of the last nav8s powering a sports car anywhere and i suspect this engine won't last too much longer in the days of turbocharging and fuel economy regulations and a lack of demand for the vehicles that this engine has been in frankly now like i mentioned this engine makes 470 horsepower which is a pretty healthy number and around 400 pound-feet of torque which is also pretty good sends the car from zero to 60 in the high four second range which is decent but the very best thing this engine makes is a tremendous exhaust note take a listen now and so those are the quirks and features of the 2021 lexus lc 500 convertible now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the lc 500. my very first impression of this car when i get in is that it is a beautiful car it is beautiful when you approach it it attracts an enormous amount of attention especially for a lexus it is beautiful when you're sitting inside it this interior is gorgeous fantastic materials great design styling your next impression when you drive it is that it doesn't quite drive as well as it looks now that's not to say it doesn't drive well because it's fast and it's fun and it's exciting but it's not that fast 470 horsepower is not that impressive um 0 to 60 in about five seconds it's good but for a hundred thousand dollars i mean that's kind of par for the course and it doesn't handle incredibly well ultimately it handles reasonably well but not crazily so so in terms of performance you're not getting a 911 you're not getting an f-type well then you think about you know how does it cruise isn't that what it's for it's a lexus well yeah but it's a lexus that sounds you know it's obviously not intended to be a cruiser necessarily and you can tell that when you drive it it drives well it's comfortable but it's not as comfortable as an s-class coupe or even a mercedes sl in my opinion i think that this car kind of plays this weird in between thing between 911 and sl and it doesn't do either of them all that great with that said i think there's actually a space in there for a car to exist someone who wants a cool fast fun car like a 911 but they don't want it to be as rough or they want something that's relaxing and comfortable like an sl but they want it to be more exciting which the sl isn't and this is that and i think this would do a great job of filling that hole if the market was demanding cars in this segment anymore but they just nobody cares ultimately i really love sitting in this car i love how it looks in here i love how it sounds i love the feel of everything the look i mean it's just this is a really nice car i think this car's failure is due to no fault of its own it's a great product and lexus clearly took time to make it stand out from from everything else um the issue is just that the segment is kind of dead so who's buying this car the answer is just not all that many people but i do kind of wonder about how this car is gonna feel in five six ten years is this gonna be a really good used car bargain i suspect the answer is yes demand is not strong in the new market there are pretty big discounts on these it's going to be even less strong used as these start to come down in value i suspect they're really going to be scooped up i just wish the infotainment system was the regular toyota entune system with a touch screen it's easy instead of stupid lexus remote touch because remote touch seems bad now but in 10 15 years when this is really a used car it's going to seem laughably bad and that's going to be a real demerit for this car going forward and so that's the 2021 lexus lc convertible i really like this car i love how it looks on the outside i love how it looks on the inside i enjoy the driving experience and the v8 is fantastic in fact everything about this car is great unless you're trying to turn on the heated seats or sit in the back but the problem is it just isn't going to sell the big luxury two-door car is dead but at least we have a beautiful swan song in the lexus lc and lc convertible and these cars are probably going to be used car bargains in a few years anyway now it's time to give the lc convertible a doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the lc is gorgeous really gorgeous not quite the most beautiful car the slightly fussy design but it's fantastic and it gets an 8 out of 10. acceleration does 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds and it gets a 7 out of 10. handling is good not great but good for a car like this and it gets a 6 out of 10. fun factor is high this car has a great sound great acceleration and the top-down enjoyment only improves things it gets a 6 out of 10. cool factor is also high as these turn heads mainly because sales have been so slow that they're really rare and it gets a 6 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 33 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features this car is well equipped though not quite as feature filled as some of the newest luxury cars and it gets an 8 out of 10. comfort is good but the ride is a bit harsh and it gets a 6 out of 10. quality is tremendous this is one of the nicest interiors in the business and we all know lexus reliability it gets a 10 out of 10. practicality is only okay yes it has four seats but only technically and it gets a three out of ten finally value and it's okay it's expensive for what it is but it's also going to be reliable and resale has been decent it gets a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 33 out of 50. added up and the doug score is 66 out of 100 which is identical to the lc 500 coupe and just a point behind the new porsche 911 the 911 has a higher weekend score of course but the lc has a higher daily score and the lc is just more balanced overall a great cruiser that's also beautiful inside and out and fun to drive it's just a shame that nobody's buying it

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,951,814

Rating: 4.8330841 out of 5

Keywords: lexus lc, lc500, lc500 convertible, lexus lc convertible, lc convertible, lexus convertible, lexus lc review, lc500 review, lexus lc500 convertible review, lc500 convertible review, lc convertible review, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: pTb_cOYQctc

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/SevenPlaySix]

Just an incredibly beautiful car. Amazing color, V8 and a convertible. Wouldn't be my first choice, but I'd love to be able to buy one someday.

[u/DeathByPiss]

Dat interior.

[u/gluten_heimer]

I personally think this is the best-looking Japanese car since the FD RX-7.

[u/Christopher_Cars]

Upvoted for "a button is always better."

The infotainment system is honestly the sole thing keeping me from recommending Lexus to family and friends. I'd rather my best friend get a RAV4 than an NX/RX just because of the convoluted infotainment in the Lexuses. Lexii. Lexus.

[u/Skywalker_9]

Maybe not the most ridiculous "Cars and Bids" yet, but certainly the most frantic hand movement.

I would like to see either:

"Caaaaaaaaaaarrsssssss ............. Andbids"

Or

"Carsandbids"

[u/Uptons_BJs]

The Achilles heel of this car, and most modern Lexuses is their horrific infotainment. Jason Cammisa in his review argued that this brilliant package is dragged down by a terrible infotainment system that makes it hard to change the radio station. While throttle house has this in their list of great cars with one fatal flaw.

[u/thesublimegnome]

Immediately scrubbed to the score to see if the cool factor was 1/10 after the previous K5 video...

[u/k_dubious]

It's the price. These things could steal a ton of buyers from the C63/E53/M4 convertibles if they were in the same price range, but as good as these look inside and out I can't imagine too many people are lining up to pay a premium to buy a Lexus instead of a German luxury car.

[u/pryan886]

This particular spec breaks the cardinal rule of convertibles. Pick 2 colors for the body, interior, and top. Top should be matched to the body or interior.

At least with the top down it’s hidden under a body panel...

Also, that beige interior is targeted directly at the Lexus core demographic.