I reviewed the ‘Rolls-Royce’ mini van!

This is the Lexus LM. It's a little bit like a private jet. In fact, Lexus' own PR material says to help define what the LM should offer. Lexus conducted research with private jet manufacturers and hyper-affluent customers. To find out if the LM fits the brief, I'm going to talk you around the exterior. It is huge. Show you the interior. I'm just caressing this car in a very sinister way. Try out its technology. It's just freaking my brain out. Tell you what's good about it. Oh, that's so satisfying. What's not so good about it. It's all very graceful. Take it for a drive. What a beautiful day. Hey. And of course, launch it to see how quick it is from 0 to 60 miles an hour. I'm Matt Watson and you're watching Car Wow. I'm going to talk you around the design of the Lexus LM. So it's a minivan that's actually based on the RX. But I mean, there's not much to say. It's got a bad light back, but it looks kind of modern with this diffuse light bar. And you've got a spoiler up there as well and some Lexus badging, plus plenty of chrome. In fact, chrome is the order of the day. Look, we've got more down here. But Lexus manages to do chrome in quite a respectable way. Alloy wheels. They're all 19 inches. Tons of colors. There's this black, there's a white, there's a dark red and a sort of silvery gold. But really, this is the color to go for, isn't it? The black. It does work really well with the chrome. There's enough flair and accents on this to make it not look too boring. Speaking of which, when you come to the front, you get Lexus's massive trademark grille. Look at that. It is huge. Lots of chrome yet again. Big chrome strip here. And we've got matrix LED lights as well. Standard on all models. And that brings me on to the price. So the LM starts from a mere £90,000. This range-topping Takumi version, it's £113,000. Buying a new or used car? 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Alternatively, just Google Help Me CarWow and my team and I will help you choose your perfect car and get it for a price you'll love. Now on with the video. Now don't go thinking that Lexus has taken a van and just converted it to be a people carrier. This is a bespoke people carrier and it feels very luxurious. The leather used throughout is lovely, especially on the steering wheel. Though I'm a little bit disappointed they didn't trim the centre boss with leather. It's just plastic. Speaking of which, the only cheap bits of plastic I can find in here, right down there, which you might brush your hand against, and down here. I mean, it's just that straight. Everything else is really, really nice. Speaking of which, these seats are so comfortable and obviously they're fully electric with loads of adjustment. The steering wheel, you adjust that electrically as well. And everything that you touch just has a nice solid and damped feeling to it, including the switches. I love it. I also love this. While you've got this big infotainment screen and the climate is controlled through it using a slider such as that for the fan speed, the temperature is done very quickly just by swivelling that. And yet again, that just feels so good and expensive. And my finger brings you to this. The Mark Levinson stereo, which sounds absolutely amazing. As standard, it's got 21 speakers. This Takumi version actually has 23 speakers, regardless of which one you go for. Amazing sound quality. I like this wood panelling down here as well. I'm just caressing this car in a very sinister way, aren't I? And I'm going to continue doing it with this rather soft and lovely headliner and the biggest sunshades ever with just a modest vanity mirror. Speaking of mirrors, as standard, you get this. So you've got your normal rear view mirror. But if I do that, you get a camera feed out the back. Now, the reason why it's got that will be apparent a little bit later on. Now, let's check out the storage on this vehicle. Glovebox. It's not the biggest, is it really? But it's nicely damped, lined with felt. I like this, though. You've got a big bin under the centre armrest. Is that hard for you to see? Don't worry. You can open it this way as well. Have a look in there. Nice and deep. You've got HDMI input. More on that in a moment. And there's your USB-C plus old fashioned 12 volt. Underneath here, we have more USB-C, and that is a USB-C to plug your phone in for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And it's full screen for both of those apps, which is really good. Now, if you want to, you can use the standard FitSat nav, but it's just not as slick as Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. It's quite easy to jump through the different menus, though, using the side buttons here. But I'm definitely more of a fan of using either Apple or Android. You've got a digital driver's display here. It has enough information on it and you can scroll through different screens and it will change colour and the design of the dials depending on what driving mode you're in. OK, that's enough of those. Ah, I forgot to show you this. Door bins. They are large enough to fit average sized bottles, though the whole length of the door bin is actually quite thin. The reason that I do find a little bit confusing about this is the way you have buttons in multiple places that do the same thing. Look, so up here you have buttons to control the left and right doors in the rear, but you also have the same buttons here, just there. Hmm. Speaking of the doors, here in the front, you open them electrically, so you just press the button there and it opens and you have soft close. So shut that like that. There is an emergency release here. If you have a flat battery, which could be very, very important on this car. Very. And last thing to show you, there's the cup holders. They'll fit the big bottles as well. And I like the way they're just surrounded in this satin metallic effecti trim. Just kind of sends off the rest of the cabin. Look at it with the gold highlights here. There's something just calming about this vehicle. I quite like it. It gets even better in the back, though. You can get the LM as either a seven seater or this four seater, which just has these two individual chairs in the back. But oh, my gosh, this configuration is super luxurious and the one that I would want. Let's start off by looking at that. It's a huge screen and I'm actually casting my phone to it. Though you can actually connect by HDMI. What I'm going to do is control it by this little mobile device here, which I can eject if I want to, but I don't want to right now. And I can change it to a smaller screen. There we go. A little screen. I can go full size. It's a bit stretched and looks weird. Or I can go for twin so that either rear passenger can watch their own movie or whatever on it by their own headset. I'm not going to leave it on that because it's just freaking my brain out. And obviously, you've got these huge speakers here. There's a speaker there and there's another one up there so you can get the full cinematic experience back here. And if you want to, you can really relax. I'm going to just raise up this lower part of the seat. Oh, and then you got to do this. In fact, first, I'm going to strap myself in because you've got integrated seatbelts. And now I'm going to do this. Look how far this seat reclines. Way better than any limousine. I can go flat bed. This is proper first class style. This is and I've got my seatbelt on, so I'm legal to travel like this, though I wouldn't suggest it because if there's a massive accident, you're just going to slide out underneath the seatbelt. Oh, now, of course, these seats, they are heated. They are cold. The leather is so luxurious and soft. It's very, very comfortable, regardless of what position you are sat in. Incredible. And there's some other creature comforts as well. So I'll just take this off. Now, up here, if I press this button, I can shut the roof blind. To make it nice and dark so I can have a sleep. And down here, I can shut the side shades. Oh, yes. They might notice this. That is a speaker in the door as well for added bass. Absolutely incredible. Let me just open the roof shade. Where is it again? And of course, I can open the door from back here. So press the button there. The door opens. But we want it closed. And this button here says color on it, which I imagine changes the color of the ambient lighting, but I can't seem to get it to operate. There's lots of vents up here. You can actually direct the air where you want it. There's a little reading light there as well, which you can move around. Reading light. In here, you have your sunglasses holder. And when we're folding things down, that's the vanity mirror there. So you can just check your hair in there as well. Now, in terms of storage, a lot of storage under here, as you can see. Bottle there, but you have a cup holder here. Like that. Actually, you're supposed to open it by pressing that button, but you can do it that way as well. More on that in a moment. Underneath here, if you do absolutely have to do some work, you've got a work table there or maybe it's a picnic tray. Feels very expensive. Very posh. And then under here, look, I've got wireless charging for my mobile phone there. Plus there are USB connectors as well, if you want to use that instead. Then underneath here, you've got some storage. Probably keep your shoes in there. And then finally, this here. Oh, we have a fridge. And Lexus says in no way, shape or form, should you ever use this fridge for storing pork chops or fish? Finally, there's this little area there which you can put stuff in if you want to. And another tray for your jewellery. It's all very luxurious. I'm thinking of just moving in here. It's way nicer than my house. The way you open the LM's boot isn't quite what you think. So there is a release here, but it just unlocks the vehicle. Doesn't open the tailgate. Instead, you use these buttons, which on either side. Look there. I guess they've done that because with such a big tailgate in a tight space, you're not going to be able to open it while standing nearest. Anyhow, boot capacity on this four seater version is over 700 litres, which is quite a lot. And there's enough space there for your VIP's luggage. You probably notice these tether points there. And that's because you can fit child seats to these because you have ISOFIX. And it's actually very easy to fit a child seat to because there's lots of space. The problem is you can't really like rotate the seat around once you've got it in place because of that central divider there. Let's have a quick look see under here, see if there's anything interesting. Yeah, just tools and stuff. And I imagine under here, what's? Oh, look, a spare wheel. That's novel. This is also novel. Look, a three pin socket, 1500 watt and 220 volts. Little tie down points there and some more there. I don't really have anything else to tell you about this boot, which actually brings on to five annoying things about the Lexus Owl LM. Why did I do that? Due to the electrical kit on this car, it's quite easy to flatten the car's 12 volt battery. So when you're filming it and stuff, you need to keep the engine running. You see, we had a problem the other day when it went flat and for some reason the front doors were locked and it wouldn't respond to the key. We could actually open these doors. Unfortunately, I left this divider down. Now, if I hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to get into the front of the car to unlock the bonnet, to pop it and then charge up the battery. But with this open, I was able to just slide through this gap to open the doors manually from the inside. Now, if you don't believe that I can fit through there, let me just show you. If I'd been even fatter than I am already, then I wouldn't have been able to get through. But it's not easy. It's a bit like going caving. Look. Oh, I'm being born again. Oh, oh, oh. So I got in like this and then I opened the door. It's all very graceful. Try not to get the lovely light interior dirty. Yeah, no, I doubt that. Bizarrely, while the entry level version of the LM has a heads up display, the top spec version doesn't. Normally it works the other way around. The top spec version gets the kit and then lower down the range one doesn't. The heated seats aren't hot enough. So four, which is three bars on this is like one bar on every other car. And it's the same in the front as it is here in the back. Just not hot enough. While you can cast your phone screen onto this massive screen, it's only possible if you've got an Android device. There's no connectivity with an Apple. Oh, while you're there, look. Nine million subs. Yay. Also, head over to our channel to watch our latest video. It's about the new Renault 5. Whenever you get in or out of the car, this happens. Watch. Can you tell what it is? Look really closely. Can't spot it? I'll show you. This has opened. Can you see? The cup holder is open. Reason being, you often just like push off the armrest as you get in and out and then you just knock it like that and it opens. It's not all negative, though. Here's five good things about this car. The LM has a very sophisticated climate control system with something called climate concierge. It uses temperature sensors in the rear compartment to see exactly where it needs to blast air to keep the temperature just perfect. Also, there's something called S-Flow, which directs air only to occupied seats. And there is Nano X technology, which is a hyper filtration system. So the air is nice and clean here inside the cabin. Lexus has the quietest, smoothest and most luxurious feeling electric windows of any car manufacturer. Look. Oh, so satisfying. Oh, but it's not only in the front. Check this out in the rear. I'll just shut the door. Don't mind me. Oh, I've never seen such a big window open before in a van based people carrier. And I forgive it for not going all the way down just for how wide it is. Lexus has created an all new drive mode for this LM. It's called rear comfort. So what that does is uses the car's computer controlled suspension and it combines it with the drive system to actually make it even more comfortable for rear passengers. It reduces the amount of vibration they feel. And it can also reduce the amount of pitch under acceleration by 10 percent and dive under braking by 45 percent. So as you're driving down a road, the people in the back feel super comfortable. Lexus has mounted the camera for the rear view mirror just here, the bottom of the windscreen, and it's just inside the arc of the rear window wiper. So let's say it gets all kind of like dirty like that. Then you wash the rear window and you'll see it clean it there. Very, very clever. Also, with the actual parking camera, it has a wash function. So if I was to make it dirty or just covered in stuff like that, then if you put the rear wash on again, a little jet of water will come out and wash that camera. There we are. Look at that. Very, very clever. Here in the back, you have control over a soundproof divider, which is really handy if you've got a driver that likes to chat. Oh, hey, aren't you Matt Watson from CarWow? Yeah, I really see like you in your Carbuyer video days with Rebecca Jackson. It was really funny when she put a banana in the glove box of a Volkswagen Golf. Also, you have the facility to make it opaque so you can't see them anymore. Peace and quiet. In the UK, the Lexus LM is available with just one engine. So this, a 2.5 litre four cylinder mated to a CVT automatic gearbox and an electric motor driving the front wheels. But you can pay extra to upgrade to the four wheel drive version, which has another electric motor on the rear axle. So you then have four wheel drive. However, what's a bit odd is that whether you go for the front wheel drive with one motor or the four wheel drive with two motors, both versions have 250 horsepower. So that rear motor doesn't add any more power. It's Lexus logic. So really, with this car, all you've got to choose from is the paint schemes, the trim levels and whether you want the four seats or you want the seven seats and I guess the four wheel drive or two wheel drive. And to find out which version of the LM I would have, I've actually configured my perfect version. So if you click on the pop out banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen or follow the QR code on the screen now, you can go to the Carwow configurator where I have configured my ideal LM. I'm going to start off driving this Lexus in town. First thing to note, the suspension feels pretty soft but over bumps. You probably notice the car just, sorry, van. Sorry, people mover, just rocking slightly. But it does feel soft, squidgy and compliant. I'm quite surprised it doesn't have air suspension, but it does have adaptive dampers that can just react to the road and try to keep the car as comfy as possible. And the steering is nice and light. Being a hybrid, I can just mooch around on electric power alone at low speeds. The braking is smooth and progressive. It's not grabby at all. Ideal in a car like this. You want to be very, very relaxed, very, very smooth. Is it going to be relaxing when I try and do a U-turn in here? Because the turning circle is 13 metres, which is quite a lot. But I do have all the cameras. I'm going to press this button and it's going to help me out. And now I'm going to go round. Will I make that curve without curving my lovely wheels? Yes, look, I can use that. That's all good. I'm also going to switch to that view so I can see what's going on behind me better. This is all hunky dory and reasonably easy. The only problem is that literally that just so gets in the way. I have to peer like that to see that car. That is not good. Look at it. That's a massive blind spot. It's a shame because there's not much of a blind spot here because the design of the windows and the view out is actually very, very good. But we got away with that. Thankfully, the steering's nice and light as well. Haven't got away with this. Will they reverse up because I look like I'm in a more expensive car, like I'm carrying some important people? Yes, they did. It's very, very kind. Thank you very much. Now, this is really handy. I can just wipe the rear view camera using the rear windscreen. You know, one of the advantages of having a car like this is that you sit up quite high. So as the driver, you do get a good view out and you got a nice big low dash as well when you're sat up high. So it gives you good forward visibility. Now I can feel the engine kicking in and turning off again. And it's not too intrusive when you're just driving along at low speeds. But you do hear it just start up and you hear the whirring noise as you go from electric only power to a bit of petrol power. But the transition is smooth. There's no jolting or anything like that. Right, I'm coming up to a 70 mile an hour limited road here. So I've got 4-0 on the floor. Let's see what the performance is like. Here we go. Three, two, one. That noise is the engine just going rar, because this car has a CVT automatic gearbox, which means that when you floor the throttle, it just holds the engine revs pretty constant and then you get this droning noise. But again, for a slow speed, you'll see exactly what I mean. No, no changing, just hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. It's not great that in a luxury vehicle, that noise. You see, what you've got is a four cylinder engine working its absolute tits off to provide a modicum of performance. It's not at all nippy. It's just like rather lethargic, actually, and very noisy. And I'm not sure that's something that the VIPs in the back would really appreciate. But I'll be testing that out for sure in a moment. First thing I want to check, though, is the economy. So this Lexus is supposed to do about 42 miles to the gallon. This one is doing 33.5, a little way off. It's not terrible, though. But is it better than a diesel Mercedes S-Class? That's going to do similar economy and feel a lot more punchy and more refined when you accelerate. In fact, if you want to see my full in-depth video review of a Mercedes S-Class, you should just click on the pop up banner ping in the top right corner of the screen or use a smartphone to follow the QR code. The last thing I need to do with this car is just see how well it handles. So I'm going to put it into sports mode. Yes, it does have sports mode. I'm going to go into sports mode for the gearbox and try and change gears manually. So if I kick down a gear, look, it holds second gear. Oh, oh, oh, don't get too carried away, Watson. However, if I floor, watch this again, I'm going to do this. I'm going to accelerate, flooring it. I'm changing up third, fourth, fifth. I've never seen a rev counter in a car with gears just stay at the same revs when you're changing up the gears. What's the point? Once again, thrashing it then just brought it home of how this thing feels underpowered and what's really annoying is that in other markets you can get it with more powerful engines. Why not in the UK? Anyhow, handling. So it's fun with the suspension. There's a bit of body lean there. Does it matter for this kind of vehicle? You know, hold on to the road well enough. But being sort of band based, it feels top heavy and it does lean a bit in the bends. Something like a BMW 7 Series definitely feels more composed and more capable on a twisty road. So if your VIP needs to get across country really quickly, they're going to be better off in a BMW 7 Series. And if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car, then click on the pop up banner up there or use the QR code. It's not terrible the way it goes around corners. It's kind of what you expect. It's acceptable. It's just that there's other luxury limousines that do it better. I'm going to launch this vehicle. Seems a bit wrong considering what it's for, but still, sometimes as a chauffeur, you need to make a quick getaway with your VIP on board to get them away from the paparazzi. So 0-60mph of this particular version of the Lexus LM, 8.7 seconds. Let's find out what the reality is. Got it in sport, got it in sport with the gearbox, rev it up. 8.7 on the money really. Noisy though, eh? Not a nice noise, a kind of bleh, stop it, I don't like it, noise. It's enough of me like testing this car as the driver's the chauffeur. What really matters is what it's like if you're the person in the car. OK, here in the back, it's reasonably comfortable. You don't seem to get that kind of wafty feeling that you get in cars with air suspension. So a Lexus LS does seem to glide a little bit more at the road than this does. There's always a little bit of like shimmy and shake that you just feel through your bottom. Now I've got Lewis driving for me. Lewis, can you do something for me, please, mate? Could you like shake the wheel when I tell you to? OK, because I'm just going to try something. I've got a fairly full cup of coffee down here. Shake the wheel. Oh, yeah, OK, right. Yeah, it's shaking the coffee quite a bit. Now I want you to accelerate quite hard. Oh, don't. Oh, is it going to spill out? OK, and brake not too hard, but like you're stopping for something. That's it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's almost coming out. OK, now what I want you to do is put the car into its special rear comfort mode. I want to find out the effect of that. Out with the bumps, it doesn't really feel that much different. But can you do the thing with the wheel again when you shake the wheel? That doesn't seem to move the car from side to side so much. Can you accelerate and then brake again? I think you're braking a bit harder then, but it doesn't seem to have the initial kind of shock when you suddenly make a maneuver or something happens. I don't know if it's that rear comfort mode or it's just placebo, but it somehow just feels a little bit better. Turn it off again, go into normal mode. Shake the wheel again. Oh, yeah. Now put it into rear comfort mode. Do it again. Yeah, it's definitely more comfortable in rear comfort mode. I quite like it. It's really chilled. I do want to check one thing, though. Right, I've got Lewis to slow right down. I'm going to get him to accelerate now to see how noisy it is here in the back. The groaning sound doesn't come into the back quite as much. That is good news. Now I'm just going to try something else. Can you slow down again? Because I want you to repeat the same test. But I am going to put the divider up. Accelerate! Now you don't notice it. The only thing you notice is quite a bit of noise reverberating around this large space. You're seeing something like a slightly smaller saloon car. You don't have such a big area for the noise to echo around. But it's not bad. Just a bit of tire noise. I'm going to try one more thing. Let's see if it can handle these corners without spilling coffee everywhere. Fortunately, the cappuccino looks a similar color to the leather. Here comes a corner. What's going to happen? Rear comfort mode. Come on, do your job. Oh, it's going to be close. Oh, well, I think that's pretty conclusive. While this vehicle does not waft down the road quite like a luxury saloon, it's still comfortable enough. And when you go around some corners, you won't end up spilling your coffee all over yourself and then end up at your meeting looking like you've had a slightly nasty accident. So then what's my final verdict on the Lexus LM? Should you avoid it? Consider it, shortlist it or just go right ahead and buy it? Well, if you're going to be driving it, I'd shortlist it because the suspension isn't quite as wafty and it's not quite as quiet as something like a BMW 7 Series. But if you're only ever going to be chauffeured, do you know what? I'd take that trade off in quietness and outright comfort just for the amount of space you have in those back seats, which are so, so comfortable to sit in. I would rather have that to be chauffeured in than a BMW 7 Series or a Mercedes S Class. So in that respect, buy it. Hey, if you enjoyed the video, please give it a like. It really helps us out. And let me know what you think of my verdict on this car in the comments below. If you click on the video windows, you can watch some more videos. And if you click on the CarWow logo, you can go to CarWow to see how much money you can save on your next car. Thanks for watching.