Published:
20 October 2017Design a car with grand touring pretensions and you’d better get the cabin right. Fortunately, Lexus has done just that here.
The driving position is reassuringly low and the scuttle high. The nature of the wraparound dashboard, with its sheer face and substantial ledge, enhances the feeling that you’re sitting in a long-legged performance car.
We’d like a little more reach in the steering column adjustment and paddles that don’t feel so plastic (or so woolly in their action) but those are small misgivings about what is otherwise an excellent environment in which to get to work.
The sports seats that come with the Sport and Sport+ packs also feature additional bolstering – as much as you’ll ever need, given the chassis’ limited grip.
You don’t have to spend long in this cabin to get the feeling it’s over-engineered, from the thick contrast stitching to the electric motor that operates the glovebox release.
Factor in the car’s unusual character – the asymmetric door cards, for instance, are cloaked in furrowed Alcantara, out of which door handles sprout like talons – and you have a setting that will feel reassuringly familiar but perhaps enjoyably refreshing to anyone who is more au fait with the likes of the Porsche 911 or the BMW 6 Series.
