Quantum Leaps: 1997 Lexus LS600h L
When Toyota first entered the high-end American luxury market with the Legendary Lexus LS400 and ES250 in 1989, it wasn’t a forgone conclusion that it would succeed. Automotive buff books of the era wrote articles questioning whether or not the yuppies would be willing to trade in their BMWs and Mercedes for a Japanese luxury car. Some even questioned whether the Japanese could be trusted to build a V8 at all, such was the xenophobic belief that a V8 luxury sedan was inherently a Teutonic thing.
A few decades on, it’s obvious that Lexus could compete successfully against BMW and Mercedes – but Toyota approached the market cautiously with its first cars, nibbling away at the S class and, later, the 190E and 3 series markets. What if it hadn’t? What if, instead of going down, Lexus had had the stones to go up? In today’s episode, our Automotive Sam Beckett travels back in time to convince Toyota that the V12 powered Century would make the perfect flagship for Lexus, and bring a vulnerable Mercedes-Benz to its knees.
MERCEDES WAS VULNERABLE
Before Mercedes-Benz decided that it had to have a vehicle occupying every conceivable automotive niche – including the high-riding, slant-back niche created, then abandoned, by the Pontiac Aztek (as shown above). It had a relatively small menu of offerings in the US in 1989, and the line-up that the first Lexuses (Lexii?) were put up against consisted of “just” the 190E, the mid-size E-Class, the S-Class, and the SL convertible. And, despite sitting at or near the top of every ‘80’s yuppie’s automotive wish list, Toyota figured out that MB’s US dealers were treating their customers – well, if not like outright garbage, let’s go with, “worse than they would today”.
That was especially true if you were in a Mercedes store buying a “baby” Benz, and only slightly less true if you were buying an SL (source: My stepdad, who still bitches about the shitty customer service he got from the local MB dealer after 20 years of buying Lexii exclusively).
Toyota rolled out the red carpet for Lexus customers, offering comfortable waiting areas, low-pressure salespeople, and free car washes that, in the context of the late 1980s and early 90s, made every Lexus buyer feel like a superstar. Sales followed, and Lexus expanded its offerings to include the ES300, SC300 and 430, and (eventually) the smash hit RX and other SUVs.
Instead of going after the smaller fish, Lexus could have – and should have! – gone after the grossest of grosser Benzes. The W140 S600.
WHY IT WOULD HAVE WORKED
Produced from MY 1992-1999, the W140 Mercedes-Benz is, to my eyes, one of the best-looking cars ever built – but, sadly, is also one of the most trouble-prone cars ever to wear the three-pointed star. It was plagued with electrical gremlins due in part to the fact that it had motors for just about everything (including adjusting the rear-view mirror), and also due to the fact that its wiring harness used a soy-based insulation material that would, when warm, summon rodents from far and wide to snack on it like those old Tom & Jerry cartoons where the smell of cheese would physically lift Jerry and carry him aloft from 20 feet across the room.
It was the 3.2-liter inline-six and 4.2-liter V8 powered versions of the S-Class that suffered most from the Lexus LS400’s success. But it seemed weird that Lexus never really went after the V12 cars, especially when they had the 1997 Toyota Century already in the pipeline.
For those of you not in the know, the Toyota Century is a big, heavy, ultra-luxury pseudo limo Toyota builds for politicians and corporate bigwigs in Japan. Think of that big Cadillac that POTUS rides around in, and you get the idea.
This is not a car for the poors, in other words. At 207” long, it’s about an inch longer than the long-wheelbase V12 W140. Its 5-liter, 60-degree 1GZ-FE V12 engine was good for a good deal more than the claimed 276 horsepower (the highest number then claimed by any Japanese manufacturer, by virtue of a bizarre “ gentlemen’s agreement” they all had at the time to not get into a horsepower war), and was, by all accounts, smooth as silk.
It also sounds like a million bucks.
In contrast, the Mercedes M120 V12 of that era delivered a claimed 402 hp that, from personal experience, almost never dyno’ed above 300 at the wheels. With all the additional mass of the Benz (approx. 4,900 lbs. to the Century’s 4,500), the two would have been neck-and-neck, performance-wise, and the Toyota had the virtue of, you know, not summoning rats and chipmunks from all corners of the globe to come feast upon its electricals.
THE AFTERMATH OF THE MERCEDES W140
The largely negative customer experience provided by MB dealers of the era combined with the troublesome W140 to create a wide-open door for competitors like Lexus, Infiniti, and Audi to start eating Mercedes’ lunch, but they also created an opening for companies like Bentley that had, for decades, barely clung to life as an engine and wheel upgrade for Rolls-Royce. And it could be argued that the brand only thrives today because Lexus didn’t go after that ultra-high-end V12 niche on its own when it had the chance in 1997.
Had they done so, it’s hard to imagine BMW and Volkswagen spending billions to acquire Rolls-Royce and Bentley specifically to compete in this arena just two years later. Heck, it’s hard to imagine Maybach making much of a comeback, either – and I, for one, would have loved to see Toyota respond to the bi-turbo W2220 Mercedes M275 V12s with its own “double Supra” engined Century.
That’s my take, anyway – what do you guys think? Would the Best and Brightest have been swayed by the big sedan from the East, or was the V12 market in the late 90s just too much for Toyota to realistically take on? Head on down to the comments and let us know.
[Images: Photoshop created by the author using Toyota/Lexus media photos, Mercedes-Benz USA]
I've been in and around the auto industry since 1997, and have written for a number of well-known outlets like Cleantechnica, the Truth About Cars, Popular Mechanics, and more. You can also find me talking EVs with Matt Teske and Chris DeMorro on the Electrify Expo Podcast, writing about Swedish cars on my Volvo fan site, or chasing my kids around Oak Park.
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- EBFlex Garbage but for less!
- FreedMike I actually had a deal in place for a PHEV - a Mazda CX-90 - but it turned out to be too big to fit comfortably in my garage, thus making too difficult to charge, so I passed. But from that, I learned the Truth About PHEVs - they're a VERY niche product, and probably always be, because their use case is rather nebulous. Yes, you can run on EV power for 25-30 miles, plug it in at home on a slow charger, and the next day, you're ready to go again. Great in theory, but in practice, a) you still need a home charger, b) you paid a LOT more for the car than you would have for a standard hybrid, and c) you discover the nasty secret of PHEVs, which is that when they're on battery power, they're absolute pigs to drive. Meanwhile, to maintain its' piglike battery-only performance, it still needs to be charged, so you're running into all the (overstated) challenges that BEV owners have, with none of the performance that BEV owners like. To quote King George in "Hamilton": " Awesome. Wow." In the Mazda's case, the PHEV tech was used as a performance enhancer - which worked VERY nicely - but it's the only performance-oriented PHEV out there that doesn't have a Mercedes-level pricetag. So who's the ideal owner here? Far as I can tell, it's someone who doesn't mind doing his 25 mile daily commute in a car that's slow as f*ck, but also wants to take the car on long road trips that would be inconvenient in a BEV. Meanwhile, the MPG Uber Alles buyers are VERY cost conscious - thus the MPG Uber Alles thing - and won't be enthusiastic about spending thousands more to get similar mileage to a standard hybrid. That's why the Volt failed. The tech is great for a narrow slice of buyers, but I think the real star of the PHEV revival show is the same tax credits that many BEVs get.
- RHD The speed limit was raised from 62.1 MPH to 68.3 MPH. It's a slight difference which will, more than anything, lower the fines for the guy caught going 140 KPH.
- Msquare The argument for unlimited autobahns has historically been that lane discipline is a life-or-death thing instead of a suggestion. That and marketing cars designed for autobahn speeds gives German automakers an advantage even in places where you can't hope to reach such speeds. Not just because of enforcement, but because of road conditions. An old Honda commercial voiced by Burgess Meredith had an Accord going 110 mph. Burgess said, "At 110 miles per hour, we have found the Accord to be quiet and comfortable. At half that speed, you may find it to be twice as quiet and comfortable." That has sold Mercedes, BMW's and even Volkswagens for decades. The Green Party has been pushing for decades for a 100 km/h blanket limit for environmental reasons, with zero success.
- Varezhka The upcoming mild-hybrid version (aka 500 Ibrida) can't come soon enough. Since the new 500e is based on the old Alfa Mito and Opel Adam platform (now renamed STLA City) you'd have thought they've developed the gas version together.
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I've had a few car-related revelations in my 51 years. 1) A ride in a friend's new 1986 Jetta. After a childhood life of GM it was a breath of fresh air; 2) Owning a 944. I'd never experienced real handling before that car; and 3) Driving my brother's mother-in-law's new SC400 on an errand for her. It was like nothing I'd driven before. This was before the 944, mind. I was gobsmacked, to put it lightly, as I owned a Parisienne wagon at the time. Distant 4) Trying to drive a Testarossa for an afternoon. My then-girlfriend and I brought it back in less than an hour. It was too wide and too low and other drivers were doing stupid things to get near enough for a flip-phone picture of it, I assume. It reeked of unburnt gas and the clutch would have been almost manageable had I been able to get both feet on it. It was horrible in the city.
I don't really think it would cut it back in those days, 'cos it looked like it came right out of the 1970's. Still does, and while that's a cool thing these days, it wasn't back then.