Value in a luxury sedan: Lexus LS
With a starting retail price of $68,505, the 2012 Lexus LS sedan is bargain-priced compared to European competitors.
The flagship sedan of the luxury Lexus line, the roomy, comfortable, V-8-powered LS also is a recommended buy of Consumer Reports magazine, where this four-door auto is rated above average in reliability.
And the luxury-swathed, five-passenger LS is notable for its many large, well-labeled and well-arranged buttons and controls that allow a driver to operate the sound system and heater/air conditioner directly, without having to go through a menu of selections on a display screen.
Yet, the LS isn't old school. It's just one of the best in the luxury sedan class at providing both old and new, easy-to-understand interfaces for drivers to adjust things they tune frequently.
There is no frustrating BMW-like i-Drive system here, nor a confusing Audi-like scrolling half circle of selections for car settings.
Still, while the LS is a fine highway cruiser, it lags V-8 competitors in engine power.
Crude Rises; Malaysia Palm Reserves Fall: Commodities at Close
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities rose 0.4 percent to 686.28 at 4:54 p.m. Singapore time. The UBS Bloomberg CMCI index of 26 raw materials climbed 0.2 percent to 1,596.589.
CRUDE OILOil rebounded from a seven-week low in New York before data that may signal an improving economic outlook in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer of crude.
Oil for May delivery gained as much as 87 cents to $102.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $102.26 at 2:35 p.m. Singapore time. The contract fell $2.54 yesterday to the lowest close since Feb. 14. Prices are down 0.7 percent since March 30, putting crude on track for its fourth weekly decline.
NATURAL GASNatural gas futures dropped for the first time in three days in New York amid speculation that a government report will show a larger-than-average increase in stockpiles of the heating and power-plant fuel.
Gas declined 2.1 percent as the median of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg showed an inventory increase of 34 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 30. The five-year average change is a gain of 8 billion. The Energy Department is scheduled to release its storage report tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.
