Lexus flagship: A car or a haven?

It’s misleading to call the 2015 Lexus LS 460 a car, or even a luxury sedan.

The quiet interior, silky smooth ride and roomy, upscale environment of this flagship Lexus make it more of a haven from the stresses of the day than an automobile. Heck, the LS 460 doesn’t even have to be moving for a driver and passenger to begin to feel tension dissipating.

High-tech features such as navigation system, Bluetooth hands-free phone connectivity and a subscription-free suite of apps come standard. So does a center console-mounted, mouse-like device that moves a cursor on a big, high-resolution, 12.3-inch display screen to activate and control settings.

But the LS 460 is just as pleasant — perhaps more so — when the world of phone calls and finding a destination is muted and the Lexus Mark Levinson 19-speaker surround audio system plays.

Best of all, the LS 460 is a recommended buy of Consumer Reports, and predicted reliability is rated better than average. Indeed, Lexus remains atop the J.D. Power and Associates annual Dependability Study, where owners of 3-year-old cars reported nary any problems with their Lexus models.

Starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including destination charge, is $73,445 for a base, 2015 LS 460 with rear-wheel drive, 386-horsepower V-8 and eight-speed automatic transmission. The lowest starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including destination charge, for a 2015 LS 460 with all-weather drive, as Lexus calls its all-wheel drive, is $76,390.

There’s also a longer-length version of LS called the LS 460 L. Adding 5 inches bumper to bumper on the car — with much of it devoted to rear-seat legroom — the LS 460 L model has a starting retail price of $79,745. It uses the same V-8 and transmission as the regular LS 460.

Considering all that comes with the LS, the pricing vis-

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