Lamborghini Aventador vs Lexus LC500H

What's the difference?

The Aventador isn't the best car you can buy for the money and truth be told, it isn't the best Lamborghini, which is a bit tough when you remember the only other car they make at the moment is the V10 Huracan. But it's all about the theatre as much as being a very capable supercar. 

I'm not a Lamborghini fanboy, but I completely get the Aventador. It's a because-we-can car, just like the Murcielago, Diablo and Countach before it. But unlike those cars, it's thoroughly modern and with the upgrades introduced to the S, it's faster, harder and enormously entertaining. 

As the last of a dying breed it delivers on everything a Lamborghini should - amazing looks, nutty price tag and an engine that excites not just driver and passenger but anyone with a heartbeat. It's by far the most charismatic car you can buy, no matter how many zeroes are on the cheque.

Photography by Rhys Vanderside

A truly fuel-efficient performance car, who’d have thought? There are some obvious trade-offs for trying to exist in two seperate worlds, but the Lexus LC 500h largely handles its dual roles with aplomb.

Asking if there's anything interesting about a Lamborghini design is kind of like asking if the sun is warm.

While there are some geese out there in the corners of the internet who think Audi has ruined Lamborghini styling, there is absolutely nothing shy about the Aventador. It's an incredible looking machine and, if I may say so, shouldn't be had in black because you miss a lot of the madder details.

This car is all about the experience.

It might look close to the deck in the photos, but however low you think it is, it's lower. The roofline barely makes it to the bottom of a Mazda CX-5's windows - you need your wits about you in this car because people just don't see you.

It is absolutely spectacular - people stop and point, one chap sprinted an easy 200 metres to take a photo of it in the Sydney CBD. Hello, if you're reading.

Inside is pretty tight indeed. It's amazing to think that a car 4.8 metres long (a Hyundai Santa Fe is 4.7 metres) struggles to contain two people over six feet tall. My six foot two photographer's head left an impression in the headlining. It's a tiny cabin. It's not a bad one though, it even has a cupholder on the rear bulkhead behind the seats.

The centre console is covered in Audi-based switchgear and is all the better for it, even if it is starting to look a bit old (those bits are from a pre-facelift B8 A4). The alloy gearshift paddles are fixed to the column and are brilliant to look at and touch, while the digital dashboard - which changes with the driving mode - is fantastic even if the reversing camera is awful.

It's a little curious, the LC 500h. For mine, it's stunning from a distance. All gleaming alloys and bulging rear arches and sharp snout angled downward like its caught the scent of its prey.

But weirdly, it can start to look a little less impressive the closer you get to it - a little swollen and vague in its lines. It's very likely it's eye-of-the-beholder stuff (fellow CarsGuide scribe Richard Berry adores it from every angle, for example).

Inside, the front of the cabin is a busy but stylish space, with multiple textures layered on top of each other to produce a premium-feeling, sporty space. The low-feeling dash juts out, giving the front passengers an ensconced, cockpit feel.

Everything is predictably leather-wrapped and lovely, and while it's not as streamlined as, say, an Audi interior, it's not without a genuine sense of Japanese charm in the cabin.

Yes, well. There's not a lot of space because a V12 is not just big all on its own, all the ancillaries to support it rob a lot of the remaining space. Having said that, there's room in the front for soft bags with a 180-litre front boot, space for two people inside, a cupholder and a glove box.

And the doors open up into the sky rather than out like a normal car's. Who cares if it's impractical, it's hardly something that's going to stop someone buying one.

It's not really. Especially in the backseats, which would make more sense if they were painted on. I'm no giant, but even my 175cm-tall head was pushed into the ceiling, and while there’s ample shoulder space for two adults, you’re unlikely to be able to convince two to get back there. 

Lexus has included something called the "Easy Access" function for 2020, which sees the front seats slide forward automatically to help with accessing the rear seats, and they do lower the Cirque du Soleil antics required to get back there, but this realistically not a car for carrying more than two adults, save an emergency. There are two ISOFIX attachment points in the rear, so child seats can be locked in there. 

That's not necessarily a drawback, though. This is a two-door sporty coupe, after all, and elsewhere, the sizeable dimensions (4770mm length x 1920mm width x 1345mm height) provide plenty of space for up-front riders.

You'll also find hidden cupholders, bottle holders in the doors, and all the power and connection points you need. 

A word on the tech, though. The LC 500h is crying out for a touch screen, though the brand's traditional mousepad system is improving.

Value is all about perspective, of course, and viewed the right way, the $195k sticker price of the Lexus LC 500h does provide a certain amount of value.

Yes, it's a lot of money. But Lexus' flagship coupe doesn't just get a performance-focused hybrid setup (pairing with a thumping V6 engine), but also just about every high-end feature the brand has in its deep bag of tricks.

It starts outside with giant 21-inch alloys, a glass roof with a sun blind,  LED headlights with cornering lights, hidden door handles, keyless entry, and rain-sensing wipers.

Inside, you'll find leather-accented seats, a colour head-up display, a 10.3-inch multimedia screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, another 8.0-inch screen in the driver's binnacle, a heated steering wheel, heated and cooled front seats, DAB+, satellite navigation system with live traffic, and a killer 13-speaker, 918-watt Mark Levinson stereo.

The Aventador S is powered by Automobili Lamborghini's 6.5-litre V12. You know it's a V12 because there's a plate on top of the engine (which you can see through the optional glass cover) that says so, and handily, tells you the cylinder firing order. That's a neat touch.

Buried deep in the middle of the car, this monster engine develops an astonishing 544kW (30kW up on the standard Aventador) and 690Nm. Its dry sump means the engine sits lower in the car. The gearbox is slung across the back between the rear wheels - the rear pushrod suspension actually sits on top of and across the gearbox - and is apparently brand new.

The transmission is known as an ISR (Independent Shift Rod) and has seven forward speeds and still just the one clutch. Power goes through all four wheels to the road, but it's clear the rears get the lion's share.

The 0-100km/h time is the same as the standard car, which kind of tells you that 2.9 seconds is about as quick as you can go on road tyres when you don't have four electric motors with torque from zero rpm.

The LC 500h is powered by a hybrid setup that combines a 3.5-litre V6 engine with a 650-volt "Lexus Hybrid Drive" system and a lithium-ion battery. That setup delivers 264kW of power, and somewhere north of 350Nm in torque when the engine and motor outputs combine.

That power is sent to the rear wheels via a CVT automatic, and will produce a sprint to 100km/h of around 5.0 seconds. 

According to Lexus, 10 clear improvements were made the way the 2020 LC 500h drives, including a new transmission tune, more structural bracing added for rigidity, new suspension components and spring rates, and altered stabiliser bars. 

Has it made a difference? Read on. 

Hilariously, the official figure is 16.9L/100km. I doubled it without trying. Simple as that. If you're buying this car thinking it will be easy on the juice, you're insane.

Cheeringly, Lambo has at least tried, the V12 going silent when you sit at the lights, the best thing being the way it bursts back into life when you lift off the brake.

If you have the time available, it takes 90 litres of premium unleaded to fill the tank.

Lexus says the LC 500h will sip 6.8 litres per hundred kilometres on the combined cycle - very impressive for what is ostensibly a performance coupe - and emit 152g/km. 

The LC 500h is equipped with an 82-litre fuel tank. 

In Strada or Street mode, awful. Everything is slow and doughy, particularly the gearshift which goes looking for a gear like dog looking for a stick you didn't throw, but instead hid behind your back. The low-speed ride is nothing less than terrible, fidgeting over every single lump and bump and is only slightly more appealing than being dragged along behind.

The gearbox is really the worst bit about it. Automotive history is littered with cars that laboured along with a single clutch semi-auto: Alfa Romeo 156, BMW's E60 M5 and today the Citroen Cactus is stuck with just such a dud transmission.

Like that old M5, however, there's a trick to making the gearbox work for you - show absolutely no mercy.

Switch the selector up to Sport, get off the highway or major arterial road and head for the hills. Or better still, a clear race track. Then the Aventador goes from a pain in the rear to a glorious, roaring, completely unhinged and unhinging battle cruiser. This car is all about the experience, from the second you lay eyes on it to the moment you put it to bed.

This isn't an everyday supercar and it's absurd to think Lamborghini thinks it is.

First up, there's the obvious entry point with those wacky doors. While it's tricky to get in, if you're under six feet and reasonably mobile, stick your backside in, keep your head down and you're in. If you've been clever, you've specified the glass engine cover so you can see out the back but the huge wing mirrors are surprisingly effective.

Has someone thoughtlessly parked the car in a tight spot? No trouble, the four wheel steer makes the car absurdly manoeuvrable given its extravagant length and width.

As we've already established, it's not much fun at low speeds, waiting until about 70km/h before things start to make a bit more sense. This isn't an everyday supercar and it's absurd to think Lamborghini thinks it is. It just isn't.

The old Aventador was not the most capable of machines but made up for it with its overall belligerence. The new S takes that aggro and dials it up. When you move the drive mode to Sport you are basically unleashing hell. You can pretend to be super-masculine and switch to Corsa (race) mode, but it's all about getting the car straight and getting you around the track in the most efficient way possible. Sport is where it's at if you want to have fun.

The Aventador is about being seen, but not before you've been heard - from two postcodes away. It really is utterly glorious when you have a stretch of road to yourself. The V12 revs furiously to its 8400rpm redline and the wallop of the upshift is accompanied with a fantastic bark and a burst of blue flame. And these aren't the best bits.

Approach a corner, stomp on the colossal carbon ceramic brakes and the exhaust erupts in a combination of bangs and pops and growls that puts a smile on even the most hardened car-hater's face. The fact it steers into corners with just a demure roll of the wrist, aided and abetted by that funky four-wheel steering system. It's just brilliant, addictive and truth be told, it gets under your skin.

There’s something very strange about hitting the start button in what is ostensibly a sports car, and being greeted not by the bark of an exhaust, but by the gentle whirring on the car’s electronics coming to life.

But then, the Lexus LC500h is not your average performance car.

It essentially trades the out-and-out grunt of its V8-powered sibling (which produces a monstrous 351kW and 540Nm) for a kind of best-of-both-worlds approach that pairs the punch of the V6 engine with the fuel efficiency of a hybrid powertrain. 

If that sounds like an compromised approach to pure performance, you're right. But reframe the way you look at the LC 500h and it all starts to make a bit more sense.

Remember, this isn't a track-attack weapon, but a potent on-road bruiser, and the flow of power on offer always feels ample, and you never want for too much more off-the-line pace on public roads. 

Among the biggest selling points of the LC 500h is the sheer distance between its various personalities. Engage Eco, or even Normal, drive modes, and it’s a quiet, mostly very comfortable (though it can be unsettled by bigger bumps) kilometre-eater, but engage Sport or Sport Plus and it rightly transforms into something significantly angrier.

It might not be the absolute sharpest tool in the performance car shed, but the LC 500h does bristle nicely when those modes are engaged, the hybrid factor seemingly replaced by a satisfyingly meaty exhaust note and an accelerator that’s suddenly far more sensitive to the touch.

The steering feel is nice and the inputs direct, but there is something about the car’s 1980kg weight that doesn’t inspire the deepest of confidence, at least not on the rain-slicked roads we were travelling along .

A pure performance coupe? Perhaps not. But a sporty, stylish and, when you want it to be, comfortable cruiser with the ability to turn the volume up when you come across a twisting road? Bingo.

The Lexus LC 500h is yet to be ANCAP tested (the price would likely prove a sticking point), but the Japanese brand has fine form in attracting top marks, and there's certainly no shortage of safety features on offer here. 

There's a total eight airbags and a reversing camera and parking sensors, as well as a host of high-tech kit like AEB, Lane Keep Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring, active cruiser control and a bonnet that will sense pedestrian and pop up before impact in an attempt to minimise injury. 

In an unexpected twist, you'll get a three-year/100,000km warranty and the option to increase to four years ($11,600!) or five years ($22,200!)(!). Having recovered from typing that, given the cost of something going wrong, that's probably money well-spent.

So, to ownership. Let's start with the basics first, before we move onto the new Encore Platinum benefits. 

The LC 500h is covered by a four-year/100,000km warranty, and servicing (capped for three years at $595 a pop) is required every 15,000km.

You will know already the Lexus's stellar Encore ownership program includes handy features like valet (pick-up and drop-off) servicing, but the new Encore Platinum level for owners of its more exclusive models unlocks some seriously cool stuff. 

One is a new On Demand service, which allows owners to book a different style of car when heading off on a holiday or business trip. So, say you own the LC 500h, but want to take the family to the snow and need a seven-seat 4WD like the RX L, then Lexus will lend you one at no charge, which you can keep for eight days.

The loans are available in your state or somewhere else in Australia if you're travelling, with your car waiting for you at Qantas Valet for you when you arrive. 

The One Demand service is available on four occasions over your first three years of ownership (which is also the length of the Encore Platinum membership). 

The Platinum level also provides eight examples of free valet parking at select shopping centres, as well as hotel and restaurant benefits, and invitations to Lexus' drive days around the country.