Put the key into the ignition and the steering wheel automatically slides down into position. As you look around, the car seems like something special. Unlike so many new cars, it feels instantly comfortable and familiar. The LS 400's controls and instruments are about as easy to see and use as any car on the road. The big tachometer and speedometer are flanked by two smaller, but still good-sized temperature and fuel gauges. In one of the LS 400's neatest effects, the lighted pure white needles seem to float over the background numbers. Very modern, and much imitated.
Most of the driving controls are on three stalks. The one on the left controls the lights, the long one on the right the wipers and the short one just below it the cruise control. Though not quite as convenient as cruise control buttons on the wheel, the button and lever on the LS 400 can be easily reached without taking your hand off the wheel, and are the next best thing.
The first thing you notice in the center console is its simplicity: just a clock, a digital thermometer, and the temperature controls. No buttons and displays to calculate instant gas mileage and date of the next oil change. We didn't miss them. Some luxury cars have perhaps made themselves seem complicated and imposing with all those high-tech toys.
The LS 400 does use buttons, instead of the usually easier dials, for the heating and cooling controls, but they're huge and obvious enough to not be a problem. Besides, the driver and front seat passenger each have an automatic climate control. Punch in the desired temperature and the car works the controls for you.
Below the climate controls is the seven-speaker, 195-watt AM/FM/cassette sound system. The various knobs for volume and sound tuning are bigger than you generally find, and easy to use. The six-disc CD changer (a $1050 option) is in front of the passenger seat, cleverly hidden behind a door that looks like the glove box. The actual glove box, and it's a big one, is just below that.
In the center armrest are two levels of storage bins. In front of them are two cupholders that pop up at the touch of the finger. Actually, they glide up at the touch of a finger, at the same elegant, controlled pace as all the LS 400's gadgets. Even the coat hooks over the back doors deploy with a calculated elegance that helps set the car's tone. So do the handsome wood inserts on dash and doors.
Along the same line, the car gives a little beep instead of honking when you use remote entry to lock and unlock the doors. One minor annoyance: we thought the beep was too quiet, in fact, and found ourselves straining to hear if the doors had locked.
All of the safety equipment you'd expect is here. Dual airbags, and antilock brakes are standard, and this year side airbags are too. A sophisticated traction control system is available ($2020) to help keep this powerful rear-wheel-drive sedan steady on ice and snow.
We had no problem getting comfortable in the front seats of this car. Two electronic levers will position the seats just about any way you want. The seats are a wonderful blend of the cushy, recliner-like seats found in American luxury cars and the firmer, heavily bolstered seats in European sport-luxury cars. An unusal square button on the steering column will tilt and telescope the wheel to any driving position you would like.
Riding in the back is a little iffier. Two adults will find the seats more than comfortable, and there's plenty of knee and hip room. But anyone over six feet tall will brush his head on the roof unless he slouches down. Three adults is not a real option, because of the hump down the middle of the floor for the driveshaft.
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