If you've never driven a hybrid, the first thing you'll notice is the Power button. With your foot on the brake, touch the Power button and the car boots up. The indicator needles illuminate, the speedometer and tachometer rings fade in, followed by the shift range indicator. Finally, the engine starts.
You'll notice that the LS 600h cabin is understated and relaxed, yet meticulously executed in very high quality materials. Use of fine-grain leather extends onto the instrument panel, upper front doors and armrests. Electro-luminescent Optitron gauges are standard. The center console is positioned at the same height as the door armrests. Seats are 12-way power except for the driver's seat, which is 16-way and has three-position memory.
The shifter is trimmed with wood and chrome, and it actuates a continuously variable transmission, or CVT, that has an eight-speed sequential sport-shift mode.
The navigation system has a 30 GB hard drive. While it is probably not the easiest navigation system to learn to use (there is a large separate manual), the screen is bright and the buttons easy to reach.
In the back seats, the LS 600h has almost five inches more legroom than the standard LS. This permits especially generous passenger seating options. In many ways, the rear compartment is designed to be the most comfortable section of the car.
Three different rear seating packages are available, each with varying degrees of comfort, which allow buyers to build out the available rear space to whatever degree they wish. The rear climate control system is engineered into the car, using infrared radar to scan rear seat passengers for body temperature. There are dual-zone controls for rear seat passengers, directing air through additional rear air ducts in the B-pillars, above the doors and above the rear passenger head area. The air conditioning unit also provides cooling for the hybrid battery, located under the rear seat.
We felt compelled to try the ultimate rear seat package, called Executive Class Seating. This makes for a back seat very similar in size to a business-class row in a jumbo jet, with two side-by-side seats that recline deeply, with a fixed console between the two and a fold-out table. One of the two seats has an ottoman leg rest. It reclines up to 45 degrees and tilts 17 degrees. There is a massage feature, seat heater and cooler, rear cool box, and a rear entertainment system with a power ceiling mounted 9-inch screen for DVD viewing.
The Mark Levinson surround sound audio system uses 14 speakers and a 450-watt amplifier to generate the perception of sound throughout the cabin. We listened to the system from the rear seat. The experience is like sitting in a recording studio. You can hear each musician playing, separately and together, as if they are sitting on different parts of the stage, with a singer at the center, bass at the left and backup vocals on the right. Percussion is particularly flavorful. You can hear the sound of a brush on a snare, or the clap of a drumstick on the side of the can. Once the Levinson electronics have divided the sound into numerous channels, it becomes possible to hear the texture of each sound. In a car this quiet, sound quality remains intact while the car is running, with the A/C on. You could play your favorite CD and hear sounds you never heard before. The downside is, once you become used to an audio system this clean and accurate, nothing else is going to sound right.
