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26/06/2008 01:39. Summing up a car whose handbook contains nearly 700 pages isn't easy, but here goes: the LS600h L is the finest example of the kind of car Lexus does best. While other models seem to me to fall short of excellence in various ways, this one justifies the brand's existence all on its own.

Regular readers will know that I tested an LS460 a while ago and wasn't enormously impressed by it. That car's bigger brother is superior in almost every way. It's faster, it's more comfortable, and it even has significantly better fuel economy. It's also staggeringly more expensive, but I suppose you can't have everything.

Under the bonnet (and hidden under a plastic cover as if to suggest that Lexus clients ought not to be troubled by such things) lies a five-litre V8 petrol engine. That's one of the... // CARkeys