Lexus LM - long-term review

So you’re off on a family road trip in your new Lexus LM. Congratulations! Only, before you get going, your mega-MPV may require a few pre-voyage modifications. At least if your family includes a pair of grubby yet demanding children.

First off, in-flight entertainment. Across the rear of the LM, behind the front seats, stretches a monstrous 48in screen. Much as you may wish for your children to pass a long drive tackling improving pursuits – reading Victorian novels, whittling, etc – they are going to want to watch stuff on this screen.

Facilitating this, it turns out, is tougher than might be expected. The screen mirrors devices via Miracast – no Chromecast or AirPlay here – but despite trying an Android phone, iPad and MacBook, I fail to achieve any successful mirroring. Lexus forums suggest I am not alone here.

The LM also has HDMI ports, which sounds promising until you discover that Netflix, Disney+, iPlayer and the like all block video over a mirrored connection.

The solution I’ve landed on? An Amazon Firestick, hiding in the storage bin, plugged into the HDMI port, controlled by Bluetooth remote. Works a treat. The only issue is, you can’t – to the best of my knowledge – download content to a Firestick, so on a long drive you must leave it connected to your phone’s hotspot and hope for a decent data signal. Which, on a road trip to the depths of Devon countryside, is far from guaranteed. If anyone has a better LM entertainment solution, I would love to hear it.

Other modifications? I have performed some DIY reupholstery on the rear of the LM, covering its gorgeous polar-bear-white rugs with a precision-cut span of old carpet. This might not be a necessary precaution if your rear-seat passengers are high-ranking Japanese civil servants. If they are two kids who can somehow generate mud from thin air, it is a very necessary precaution. I have also banned eating in the rear of the LM. This is a compartment too beautiful to be spoiled by chocolate.

Final upgrade: a big tarpaulin for the boot. The Lexus’s back-seat thrones are upholstered in fine creamy leather not only on their fronts, but rears also. This is very diligent of Lexus, but also renders the boot off-limits for grubby gear. We have a lot of grubby gear. I realise a massive blue tarp somewhat undermines the ‘road-going superyacht’ vibe for which Lexus was aiming here, but so will ruining that lovely leather with bike-tyre marks.

A small amount of groundwork, then, before you can get going in your LM. But the good news is, once you’re finally up and running, your downsized dignitaries in the rear will be beyond delighted. Even with a moth-eaten old carpet somewhat spoiling the VVIP ambience, this is quite simply the grandest rear cabin in modern motoring.

A Rolls Phantom might – might – just edge it for material opulence, but in a Phantom can you recline flat while watching Spongebob Squarepants in widescreen? No you cannot.