2023 Lexus LX on/off-road review (inc. 0-100): The ultra luxury LandCruiser!

CarExpert

The new Lexus LX feels like one of those cars you should take your shoes off before riding in. But, Paul Maric wanted to put it through its paces anyway! This is our detailed review including some off-road driving of the 2023 Lexus LX600 Ultra Luxury.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Lexus content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus More Lexus LX content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus/lx  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 01:01 Interior 03:43 Infotainment 05:18 Safety Tech 06:56 Practicality 07:55 On the Road 14:31 0 - 100 km/h 18:05 Off the Road 20:31 Verdict 26:51  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #lexus #lx #review #offroad

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.

00:00 I've always thought of the Toyota Land Cruiser

00:02 as the big, capable SUV you could rock up to a work meeting

00:05 in without worrying what people think about you.

00:08 This, on the other hand,

00:09 is more the fancy version of the Land Cruiser,

00:12 and it's the one that you wanna be driving

00:13 if you do want people to know

00:15 that you've actually spent some money

00:16 on your big, capable SUV.

00:18 It is the Lexus LX,

00:20 and it is virtually a Toyota Land Cruiser under the skin,

00:22 but it has a stack of features thrown at it.

00:25 This one here in particular, though,

00:26 is the LX 600 Ultra Luxury,

00:29 and I'll explain why it's Ultra Luxury later on.

00:31 This is priced at over $200,000 plus on-road costs.

00:36 This competes with things like the Range Rover,

00:38 the Toyota Land Cruiser,

00:40 and things like the Mercedes-Benz GLS.

00:42 Today, we're gonna do a detailed review of this car

00:44 plus a little bit of light off-roading,

00:45 so if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,

00:48 you can use the time codes on the screen,

00:50 or if you're on YouTube,

00:51 you can scroll down and use the chapters below,

00:53 and if you haven't done so already,

00:54 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon

00:56 so you can find out every single time

00:58 we review a big old beast like this.

01:00 Let's talk about design.

01:02 So you've got six external colors to pick from,

01:04 and the best part is they are all free of charge,

01:07 which is very cool.

01:08 Have a look at this grill.

01:09 It is enormous, so yeah,

01:11 there is a whole lot of grill there,

01:13 and look, to be honest, I think it actually suits this.

01:15 It kinda gives it a bit of character,

01:17 and this looks totally different than the Land Cruiser,

01:19 despite these sharing a platform.

01:21 You really can't tell that they are the same vehicle

01:23 beneath the skin, so big Lexus logo just there,

01:26 camera here for the 360 camera.

01:28 Over here, you've got a set of Matrix LED headlights

01:31 with LED daytime running light.

01:33 Headlight washer there as well,

01:34 if you do a bit of off-roading,

01:35 this is good to clear the muck off that headlight.

01:37 Little bit of cooling just in there as well.

01:39 Have a look at these wheels.

01:40 They are enormous.

01:41 So 22-inch alloy wheels.

01:44 It's got like a satin chrome finish on it as well.

01:46 Lexus logo in the center there.

01:48 You'll notice these are very much a highway tire.

01:51 They aren't really built for off-road driving,

01:53 so obviously if you do plan on taking this off-road,

01:56 you wanna go down the path of an all-terrain

01:58 or something just with a bit more meat on it,

01:59 because when it does get muddy,

02:01 and given the weight of this car,

02:02 it really isn't gonna get very far on these tires.

02:05 So when we do a bit of light off-roading later,

02:06 I suspect that's gonna be the limiting factor,

02:08 but we will see how we go.

02:10 Under there, you've got height adjustable suspension,

02:13 adaptive damping as well on this particular spec,

02:16 and depending on which variant of the LX you go for,

02:19 you can actually get a Torsen rear diff as well,

02:22 so there is kind of a sporty focus

02:24 to some of these variants too.

02:26 Down the side here,

02:27 you've got a camera built into that wing mirror,

02:30 a little bit of a chrome varnish there

02:31 with the indicator built into there.

02:33 Really not a fan of this.

02:35 Plastic side steps on your $200,000 Lexus SUV.

02:40 I think that looks pretty cheap and very unimpressive,

02:43 so it would be nice to see them have a little look at that

02:46 when this finally does get a facelift.

02:48 A little bit more chrome there on that grab handle.

02:51 Love this as well, so you've got privacy glass here too,

02:53 but it is super thick.

02:55 When you tap on that,

02:56 it actually feels like it has a couple of layers to it,

02:59 so that is pretty impressive there

03:00 in terms of how that looks and feels,

03:02 and more of that chrome as you come around the sides here too.

03:06 Roof rails up the top and then whip around to the back.

03:09 Look at the size of this.

03:10 It is absolutely enormous.

03:12 So you've got an LED strip that runs

03:14 all the way along the back there,

03:15 LED taillights as well, LX 600 badging,

03:18 and then individual letters here for Lexus as well.

03:20 It's quite an imposing rear end.

03:22 Camera hidden into here for your rear vision mirror,

03:26 shark fin aerial up the top there,

03:27 and then a brake light and spoiler built

03:29 into this rear tailgate assembly.

03:31 So let me know what you reckon about the design.

03:33 Do you think this looks better than the Land Cruiser,

03:36 or do you think that the Land Cruiser looks better than this,

03:38 and do you think they've done enough to differentiate this

03:40 from the Land Cruiser in terms of the appearance too?

03:43 Let me know down there.

03:44 So welcome to the interior of the Lexus LX.

03:47 We'll start off with the key.

03:48 You've got lock, unlock, boot, panic,

03:52 then on the back, another Lexus badge as well.

03:54 So this just stays in your pocket.

03:56 You have proximity entry for the door.

03:58 Then once you're inside,

03:59 you have a start/stop button up the top here.

04:00 This actually has a fingerprint reader in it as well,

04:03 and that's able to recall your settings.

04:05 Now, we actually did a massively detailed

04:08 sort of walkthrough of this car previously,

04:11 and if you do wanna watch that, you can click up here.

04:13 Today, I'm just gonna breeze through most of this,

04:15 but if you do want more detail, check that video out.

04:17 And then just on the design front, being the ultra luxury,

04:20 they really have thrown the book at this

04:21 in terms of the fit and finish,

04:23 and just the way that it looks

04:24 and is presented to the driver.

04:26 So this one here has a two-tone setup,

04:27 not brown and black,

04:28 and then it's kind of leather-topped up the top there.

04:31 Wood grain along these center sections,

04:33 and wood grain along the doors as well.

04:35 Really is quite a serene and a nice place to be seated.

04:38 I'm a big fan of that.

04:39 Big infotainment system up the top there,

04:41 a secondary screen here,

04:42 and then a screen ahead of the driver as well.

04:44 So you really do have everything

04:46 at your fingertips here ahead of you.

04:49 I'll get to all that stuff in a second.

04:51 What about your touch points?

04:52 It's nice and soft, soft on the door as well.

04:55 How soft are they?

04:56 Well, we've got our durometer.

04:58 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

05:01 If you wanna see how this car compares

05:02 to others that we've tested before,

05:04 have a look at the link in the description below.

05:05 Build quality, what is that like?

05:08 That all feels nice and sturdy.

05:11 And our door slam sounds good as well.

05:14 Plus it has suck in doors as well.

05:18 Now let's talk about infotainment.

05:20 So up the top here, big 12.3 inch infotainment system.

05:23 I've played with this before in the Lexus NX,

05:27 and I was really impressed with it.

05:28 Just a big step forward from the Toyota infotainment system,

05:31 which you find in the Land Cruiser.

05:32 So super high resolution screen,

05:34 inbuilt satellite navigation.

05:36 You have AM, FM, DAB, digital radio.

05:39 The other cool thing as well is this comes with

05:41 a 25 speaker Mark Levinson reference sound system.

05:45 It is unreal.

05:47 It is such a good sound system,

05:48 and really cool to see that that is standard.

05:50 There are kind of no options on this worth mentioning.

05:53 So that's a pretty good call out.

05:55 Now, smartphone connectivity.

05:57 It comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

05:59 We literally just got a software update

06:01 when filming this morning

06:02 that brought along wireless Apple CarPlay.

06:04 So it is currently connected.

06:06 So full screen integration, nice and fast as well.

06:09 And this is what Android Auto looks like.

06:11 So full screen integration,

06:13 but you'll notice here when you go back to that main menu,

06:15 the left-hand side is maps,

06:17 and it's also wired as well, not wireless,

06:19 but pretty fast and snappy, no dramas there.

06:22 So really impressed with that infotainment system

06:25 and the fact that you can do over the air updates.

06:27 Now, just below that, you have a seven inch display.

06:29 This is where you'll see your off-road controls,

06:31 and then some of your climate settings as well.

06:33 Have a little play with the off-road controls

06:35 when we go for a drive,

06:36 but I do like that that's all self-contained

06:38 down at the bottom there.

06:39 Then ahead of the driver, you have another small LCD display.

06:42 This is kind of similar to the new Ford Ranger,

06:44 but it's just, why not go with a full display

06:47 instead of just having analog stuff on the side

06:49 and then digital in the center?

06:51 I think it would have been cool to have the whole thing

06:53 as a digital display instead,

06:54 but I guess it is what it is.

06:56 Let's talk about safety tech.

06:57 So you have autonomous emergency braking

06:59 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.

07:02 You've got a digital rear view mirror

07:03 just in case you want some added visibility

07:06 out the back there.

07:07 You've also got blind spot monitoring

07:09 built into the wing mirror.

07:10 You have a lane departure warning, radar cruise control,

07:14 rear cross traffic alert on the parking front.

07:17 You have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera.

07:19 I'll show you what it looks like.

07:20 I'm gonna switch the car on quickly.

07:22 So you've got two different options.

07:23 You've got a button here that says view,

07:25 and what that does is it actually brings up a top-down view

07:29 that circles around the car there,

07:31 kind of just lets you see what's around there

07:33 before you actually set off in reverse.

07:35 And then when you do put it in reverse,

07:36 that's where you see your 360 camera.

07:38 Look, the quality's okay, but it's not amazing.

07:40 You can see there that you can kind of make out

07:42 what's on the suitcase,

07:43 but it's kind of distorted around the top edges.

07:45 360 camera isn't too bad.

07:47 Yeah, look, it's okay.

07:50 It's just, I think it could be slightly better

07:52 given the quality of cameras on the market today.

07:55 Now, moving on to practicality,

07:57 we'll start off with your connectivity.

07:59 Down here, you've got a USB-C port, a USB-A port.

08:02 There's a 12-volt outlet over here as well.

08:04 There is no wireless charging up the front here, though,

08:06 which is really bizarre.

08:08 So you do have it in the second row,

08:09 but there is no opportunity

08:10 to wirelessly charge your phone here.

08:12 So a little bit disappointing there.

08:13 In terms of storing your phone,

08:15 can't whack it here in the cup holders

08:17 or alternatively in the spot that would have been perfect

08:20 for a wireless phone charger.

08:22 On storage of other items, coffee cup.

08:25 Fits in beautifully there, no issues at all with size.

08:30 Bottle, same story, fits in without any dramas

08:32 with big teeth there as well.

08:34 Fits inside the door.

08:37 We'll try our big bottle as well.

08:39 Big bottle kind of, yeah, kind of fits inside the door.

08:45 Could be a little bit better there.

08:47 And then in terms of your other storage,

08:48 you've got a little slot down here

08:50 for coins and other bits and pieces.

08:53 This bit's interesting.

08:53 So it opens two ways.

08:54 You can go this way, or you can go this way,

08:57 or if you're in the back row, you can go that way as well.

09:01 But once you are inside,

09:02 you actually have a refrigerator there

09:05 with a little coin tray as well.

09:07 And then over here, you also have a glove box,

09:10 although it is pretty compromised on space.

09:12 Finally, up the top here, you do have a sunglasses holder.

09:15 Now comfort, you have dual zone automatic climate control

09:19 up the front here.

09:19 Heated and cooled seats.

09:21 You have a heated steering wheel.

09:23 It's got two settings as well.

09:24 I have noticed previously heated steering wheels

09:26 can sometimes get a little bit too hot.

09:28 So it's good to see there are two settings there.

09:30 The seats are super comfy as well.

09:32 They hug you in really nicely.

09:33 I love this design.

09:34 They're quite sort of intricate in terms

09:36 of how this all looks with Lexus logo up the top there.

09:39 Lots of adjustments too.

09:40 So you can go forwards, backwards,

09:42 backrest can go forwards, backwards.

09:44 You can lift the front, you can lift the back.

09:46 You can extend the base at the front here as well.

09:49 You've got three levels of memory,

09:50 but I do love as well that I can adjust the passenger seat

09:53 from my side as well.

09:56 So if I do want them to move for whatever reason,

09:58 I can do that from here too,

09:59 which I think is pretty impressive.

10:01 Steering offers both tilts and electric reach adjustment.

10:05 And then on our reach test,

10:07 all of this stuff's easy to reach,

10:08 but you do have to lean forward to catch the edges

10:10 of this screen here.

10:12 So second row of the LX, the ultra luxury means this.

10:16 You've got two seats here instead of a third.

10:18 You can't even fold this stuff away.

10:20 It is always just going to be a four seater.

10:22 In terms of room, there isn't actually as much room

10:25 as I thought there'd be back here

10:26 if you do have someone in the front there.

10:28 And I'll show you how that changes in a second,

10:30 but you know, knee room's reasonable,

10:31 toe room's not too bad.

10:33 Headroom is pretty good as well.

10:36 Storage, let's talk about that first.

10:37 So you've got storage down the front here

10:40 behind these panels.

10:41 That's where you'll find two USB-C ports,

10:43 the HDMI port, and then storage for odds and ends.

10:46 All piano black as well, don't love that.

10:49 Bottle storage is up the top here.

10:51 So this bottle fits into there without any dramas.

10:53 There's teeth as well.

10:55 Then you have additional storage here in this little slot.

10:58 Again, it opens from both sides as well.

11:00 In there, you're going to find headphone jack,

11:01 two USB-C ports, and a 12-volt outlet.

11:04 And that is a super deep storage slot as well.

11:07 So while you are sort of robbed

11:08 of a little bit of boot room,

11:09 you do get storage in there.

11:11 This is where that wireless phone charger is

11:12 that you would expect to see up the front.

11:14 At least there's one in the car.

11:15 You've also got manual blinds here

11:18 that you can pop up and down.

11:19 You've got air vents in the roof

11:21 and also down in that bottom section.

11:23 And then in terms of the seating,

11:24 you have ISOFIX points on these two outboard seats

11:26 with top tether points as well.

11:28 What about the screen ahead of you?

11:29 So you have your own entertainment display back here.

11:32 It's a touchscreen.

11:34 So here you can control audio.

11:35 You can play your own video through that rear HDMI port.

11:38 You can even mirror cast things to the screen as well,

11:42 which gives you a little bit more versatility.

11:44 You can also adjust all of your settings

11:45 under here as well.

11:46 So I like that setup,

11:48 but what if you want to get more comfortable?

11:51 Well, there's a screen here in the center.

11:52 This is where you can control everything from climate.

11:55 So the temperature back here,

11:56 it's a quad zone climate control system.

11:58 You also have heated and cooled seats

12:00 for the two outboard seats.

12:02 You can also enable relaxation here,

12:04 such as massage for left and right.

12:06 So depending on what you're in the mood for,

12:08 you can adjust the intensity of that stuff.

12:10 The lamp up the top here, click that,

12:13 and then you get this dome light,

12:14 which is also adjustable that can basically then move

12:17 through a number of different brightness settings as well

12:20 to give you that sort of very immersive experience.

12:23 But this is probably my favorite feature.

12:24 So what I'm going to do here is set myself to full recline.

12:29 What that does is it moves the passenger seat out of the way.

12:32 You can see it folding the headrest down.

12:35 It pulls my seat back so I can kick back and relax,

12:38 but we're not done yet.

12:39 It's going to move all the way out of the way.

12:42 Once we're done with it moving out of the way,

12:44 I can also then retract this.

12:46 So if I come over here,

12:48 I'm going to pull back the footrest.

12:50 That will then fold down.

12:52 While this is happening,

12:53 I can also set my seat up for massage.

12:57 I can really be nice and relaxed.

12:58 I'm going to pop my feet up on that.

12:59 I promise I've cleaned my shoes.

13:01 There we are there.

13:02 And then in addition to that,

13:03 if I do actually want to see out the window,

13:05 because at the moment I can't because of that screen,

13:07 I hit that button and I can actually then see

13:10 straight out the window too.

13:12 So pretty awesome setup.

13:13 And for someone my height,

13:14 I can kind of fit in here without any problems at all.

13:17 So love this and it is the ultimate way to relax.

13:21 So let's talk cargo space.

13:23 Crack this open.

13:24 So you've got a power tailgate and it's a big tailgate.

13:27 So you've got to step back when that thing opens.

13:29 So there is a little bit of a complication here.

13:31 While you can get the LX in seven seats

13:34 and also a bigger five seat configuration,

13:38 this here in the Ultra Luxury limits your cargo capacity

13:41 because you have to have enough room for these seats

13:43 to come back and recline.

13:45 And that means you only have a little under 800 litres

13:48 of cargo space available here.

13:49 But beneath the cargo floor,

13:51 you have a couple of odds and ends.

13:52 You've got some warning triangles,

13:53 couple of other bits and pieces.

13:54 Your spare tyre is actually located

13:56 under the rear over there.

13:57 Jack is over here.

14:00 What are you doing in there Jack?

14:02 And that will jack the car up

14:03 even though it is comically small.

14:05 Over here you have your relay and fuse box.

14:07 You also have a hundred watt power outlet just here.

14:09 Although a hundred watt,

14:11 I don't know what that's going to actually

14:13 allow you to power.

14:14 A hundred watts isn't all that much.

14:16 I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there.

14:18 So that's laptop bag.

14:20 And then this is our suitcase.

14:22 So it sort of fits all your luggage and stuff

14:24 in without too many dramas,

14:25 but it is worth noting.

14:26 If you do go for the super luxurious setup here,

14:29 you will be slightly limited in terms of cargo space.

14:32 So I've just hit the road in the LX.

14:36 Look, first impressions,

14:37 it feels really nice and smooth here,

14:39 just at low speeds.

14:40 It trucks along nicely.

14:41 And this turbo petrol is just silky smooth.

14:46 It actually reminds me of,

14:48 if you've ever driven the Orion,

14:49 it's like that, but with, you know,

14:51 turbo charged induction, it is, it's weird.

14:54 It's a very familiar engine.

14:55 And as a result of that,

14:56 I think they're fine tuned it enough here

14:58 to just give it all the smoothness that it needs.

15:00 So this 3.5 litre twin turbo V6

15:03 makes just over 300 kilowatts of power,

15:06 650 newton metres of torque.

15:08 So pretty healthy numbers there.

15:10 And given this car weighs so much,

15:12 it's well north of 2,400 kilos.

15:14 It really does need to have all of that torquiness

15:17 to keep it moving.

15:18 And that's all mated to a 10 speed automatic transmission.

15:21 The transmission's actually pretty good.

15:23 It's nice and smooth.

15:24 It sort of anticipates what you need it to do.

15:26 And you've got paddle shifters here

15:27 on the steering wheel as well,

15:28 in case you do need to take over.

15:30 And that means behind the wheel,

15:30 you can sort of just get stuck into it.

15:33 There isn't a great deal of lag

15:34 and it really pushes you back into the seat nicely.

15:37 Now the consequence of it sounding

15:39 and feeling like an Orion engine

15:40 is that it really doesn't sound very good.

15:41 And when you do get stuck into it,

15:43 just sounds a bit sort of ho-hum.

15:47 Look, ultimately, I don't expect this to sound incredible,

15:49 but I think it could sound a little bit nicer.

15:51 Now what about your fuel economy?

15:52 So the official average is just over 12 litres per 100 Ks.

15:57 We're currently sitting on just under 18.

15:59 I will caveat this by saying

16:01 we did a bit of a topsy-turvy day today.

16:02 So we did all of our driving earlier on in the day.

16:04 So this is sitting a little higher.

16:06 It was closer to the claim earlier in the day,

16:08 but don't expect it to get too close

16:10 because ultimately this is pretty thirsty

16:12 when you look at how much weight this needs to move around,

16:15 especially given the ultra luxury

16:16 and all the extra kit that it carries along with it.

16:19 It is worth keeping in mind as well

16:20 that it uses 95-ron premium unleaded,

16:23 but you do have 110 litres worth of fuel available

16:25 to split across two different tanks.

16:27 Let's talk about the ride.

16:28 So this car has adaptive damping.

16:31 And in addition to that,

16:32 you have a number of drive modes here

16:33 that you can select all the way from Eco

16:35 through to Comfort, Normal, Sport S,

16:38 Sport S Plus, and Custom.

16:40 There's just a ridiculous amount there.

16:41 So you can sort of pick whatever you want there.

16:44 And with each of those,

16:45 you will have a different feel to the ride.

16:47 So let's pop it into Sport Plus.

16:48 We'll go for a little fang here.

16:50 Let's see what this feels like around our track.

16:53 Oh my God, it feels big.

16:55 Oh, that is a lot of body roll.

16:58 Wow.

16:59 I was not expecting that.

17:02 Hoolidooly, okay.

17:04 This is a big bus and it's funny.

17:07 The GR Sport that we drove

17:08 that had that fancy sort of anti-roll system fitted to it,

17:12 it had a lot of body roll.

17:13 And this actually feels like it has more than that,

17:15 despite the fact that it has adaptive damping

17:18 and all that sort of gear.

17:19 But look, once it does pick up,

17:20 it's actually quite predictable

17:21 in terms of how it feels.

17:22 Like even as you get on the brakes at speed,

17:24 sort of tilts down and leans in.

17:27 And here at higher speeds on these corners,

17:29 it is all just floaty and quite predictable

17:32 in terms of the way that it feels.

17:33 So yeah, look, ultimately this isn't a sports car.

17:37 I don't expect it to handle all that well.

17:39 And you know, Lexus doesn't claim

17:41 it handles all that well either.

17:42 So that's perfectly fine with me.

17:44 But yeah, don't expect this to be tackling

17:46 the Nürburgring at any point soon,

17:48 'cause it's just not designed for that.

17:50 Okay, here come our sine waves.

17:51 We'll crank up the speed to 130.

17:54 We'll see what this feels like.

17:56 That is so weird.

17:58 I was expecting this to be absolutely all over the place,

18:01 but that is dead smooth there over the sine waves.

18:03 So yeah, good job, Lexus.

18:05 Okay, let's talk zero to 100.

18:08 Let's see how this goes.

18:10 On our dash, I'll slide this over to Sport Plus, I guess.

18:15 I've just left that in the auto driving mode.

18:17 When you move this over, it just goes to manual

18:18 and I'll just leave it on auto.

18:20 There is no official zero to 100 time,

18:22 so I guess we will see how it goes.

18:24 Go all the way up to 120,

18:25 so we can get our 80 to 120 as well.

18:26 So here it goes.

18:27 Gets up all right, quick gear shifts too.

18:33 Okay, here we go.

18:34 (car engine roaring)

18:37 Nice, all right, come to a stop.

18:42 Zero to 100 in 6.6 seconds.

18:47 I was not expecting that.

18:48 It's quicker than my Tesla Model Y.

18:50 And then 80 to 120 in 4.3 seconds.

18:53 So even your 80 to 120 is pretty good,

18:55 and that's where you're gonna be encountering things

18:58 like overtaking on a freeway.

18:59 And if you are towing and stuff like that,

19:01 it is important to have a pretty meaty

19:03 80 to 120 time, so yeah, not a bad job there,

19:07 Lexus LX, such a big hearse.

19:08 Now our reverse acceleration test.

19:11 Being a Lexus, I suspect this will be pretty conservative

19:14 and will speed limit us, but you never know.

19:16 So slide that into reverse, mash the throttle,

19:20 and we'll see what happens.

19:20 Here we go.

19:21 (car engine roaring)

19:24 Oh, that is very gentle, look at that.

19:28 Softly got us up to 30, 31 kph, so there you go.

19:33 (car engine roaring)

19:36 Let's chat visibility.

19:37 So this is a big, big SUV.

19:40 So I can see clearly down the front there,

19:41 those ridges in the bonnet make it sort of pretty easy

19:44 to identify the edges of the car.

19:45 Big wing mirrors, you've got blind spot monitoring

19:48 built into those as well.

19:49 Visibility out the back is actually pretty good,

19:50 but you can always just flick this on

19:52 to get your digital rear view as well if you do need to.

19:55 And given all the parking features you have here,

19:57 it is actually pretty easy to park.

19:59 It is big, but it is easy to park

20:01 once you have identified a spot

20:02 that it's actually gonna fit in.

20:03 Now, if you are gonna be doing any towing,

20:05 you have a 3,500 kilogram brake towing capacity,

20:09 and turning circle comes in at over 12 meters.

20:12 And in terms of road noise, look,

20:13 it's actually not too bad.

20:14 It's well insulated, it feels like a Lexus.

20:16 It could be a little quieter at highway speeds,

20:18 but ultimately, you know, this shares a platform

20:21 with the Toyota, so they are doing what they can.

20:23 But for the most part, you're not going to feel

20:25 all that bad if you are driving this

20:27 on a long distance drive,

20:28 even on a course-chip country road.

20:30 (car engine roaring)

20:31 Okay, it's time to do a little bit of light off-roading.

20:34 Now, I say light because someone complained the other day

20:36 that this off-road course wasn't hard,

20:38 but there's not much I can do about it.

20:40 If you want a hard off-road thing,

20:41 go watch 4x4 24/7 or something.

20:44 This is just light off-roading.

20:46 So, I'll run you through the key specs first.

20:48 So, this kind of just mimics the LandCruiser,

20:50 but it does have worse approach and departure angles

20:52 'cause you've got those body kits and stuff like that.

20:55 And that means you have an approach angle of 22 degrees.

20:57 That is the face you can approach

20:58 before you hit anything at the front of the car.

21:00 The departure angle is 22.8 degrees,

21:03 which is the same, but in reverse.

21:04 Weighting depth of 700 millimetres

21:07 and a ground clearance of just over 200 mil

21:09 when the suspension is just in its standard setting.

21:11 Remember, this has height adjustable suspension.

21:13 Then in addition to that, you have a centre diff lock.

21:16 You have four-wheel drive high range,

21:17 which is what this is in full-time.

21:19 You have four-wheel drive low range, hill descent control,

21:22 and you have a number of other little settings here

21:24 that I'll run you through shortly,

21:25 but that is about the crux of it.

21:27 So, let's start off in four-wheel drive high range.

21:30 And what I'll do is go to the multi-terrain select

21:32 and the mode select now allows you to run

21:34 between different off-road modes.

21:37 I'm gonna set it to mud

21:39 'cause there's a little muddy on the edge there.

21:41 It's lifting the suspension now.

21:42 You can see the thing lining up there.

21:45 I've left the diff open in the centre there.

21:48 We'll see how it goes here in terms of clearance

21:51 and traction, especially at this section

21:53 where we get a wheel off the ground just there.

21:57 I'll just roll onto the throttle.

22:00 I can see that wheel spinning,

22:02 leaning into the throttle.

22:04 That is doing a remarkably good job with diff open.

22:08 That's impressive.

22:10 Set this off the edge.

22:12 We've got another lift on that side now.

22:16 That is really good.

22:18 That is just effortless through there.

22:20 Look at our muddy bog section here.

22:23 Yeah, even on these highway terrains,

22:24 it's not muddy enough for that to cause us any dramas.

22:27 Let's go back over that.

22:28 This time around, when we go in the other direction,

22:31 it is a little more challenging for it to get over.

22:33 So I'm going to lock the centre diff.

22:35 You can do that in high range.

22:37 Do that just by hitting this button here.

22:39 All right, it's flashing away.

22:41 Wait for that to confirm that it's locked.

22:44 Okay, there we go, finally.

22:45 Okay, let's give this another shot.

22:47 This time we will approach from this angle.

22:50 We'll see how it goes there.

22:51 Hopefully we won't touch anything down at the front

22:53 because it is a pretty sort of steep face

22:56 on the face of it.

22:57 Okay, so with the centre diff locked,

22:59 we're sending 50% of torque to the front

23:02 and 50% of torque to the rear axle.

23:04 Here it's having to basically bring itself

23:07 up onto this ledge.

23:09 And as a result of that,

23:09 we have one tyre almost off the ground there.

23:12 So it's having to use the traction control system

23:15 and also that locked differential to send it over.

23:18 That is so effortless.

23:20 That is really impressive there.

23:21 So even at that moment there, right now we're seesawing.

23:23 We have two wheels off the ground.

23:25 It is effortlessly just pulling itself over that

23:28 with just the centre differential locked.

23:30 So that is a pretty awesome setup.

23:32 And this is very not challenging for this car,

23:35 if I'm honest.

23:36 So it's great to see that pass that straightforward

23:38 with flying colours.

23:39 Okay, next up is our hill.

23:41 It's pretty dry at the moment,

23:42 but I thought this would be a good chance

23:43 to try out crawl control.

23:45 So that only works in low range.

23:47 So I'll put that into neutral,

23:49 flick this over to low range.

23:51 So that is now activated, pop it back into drive,

23:54 hit crawl control.

23:55 So ahead of us on the screen there,

23:56 you can see it's asking us what speed we wanna run at.

23:59 I'm gonna set it to sort of here somewhere.

24:01 Then all I do is let go of the brake

24:04 and then it will climb this hill all on its own.

24:07 So let's see how it goes.

24:10 This doesn't have a rear diff lock,

24:11 which now in theory should be a limiting factor for it,

24:15 but we'll see how it climbs up here.

24:16 It is a tiny bit muddy up the top there,

24:18 but I'll just let it do its own thing.

24:23 Here we go, grab a couple of those trees on the way through.

24:26 Yeah, this is really damn impressive.

24:30 Love that camera as well.

24:31 So it's allowing me to see what's going on

24:33 over the top there as I crest

24:35 and we've got our mud bog there.

24:37 So it shows me exactly what I need to see.

24:39 So I'm gonna just, let's prove that.

24:42 It's nice and big at the moment.

24:45 Okay, let's test out our hill descent control.

24:48 So I'll put this on downhill assist

24:52 and we'll set our speed there as well.

24:54 All you need to do is just basically

24:56 turn that around on crawl control

24:57 and that will set your descent speed.

25:00 Got our camera there so I can plot my path as well.

25:04 Gee, it really is just effortless.

25:06 Just cruising down there without any dramas in the world.

25:10 Damn, this is really good.

25:14 Like I said, this is a lot off-road course,

25:16 but the way it is sailing through this

25:17 is pretty awesome, I reckon.

25:19 Okay, rocks.

25:20 I'm gonna leave this in low range,

25:21 but I'll move this multi-terrain thing over to rock mode.

25:25 We'll see what it feels like through here.

25:28 So we're in pretty much the highest suspension setting too.

25:31 So again, remembering we're on highway terrain tyres.

25:34 It actually feels nice.

25:36 So I've said this before in other videos,

25:37 but yeah, I tend to ride the brake and the throttle

25:41 at the same time just to manage my momentum over this stuff.

25:45 And yeah, it is doing a remarkably good job.

25:48 It's really nice and comfortable inside the car.

25:51 And so far we haven't hit anything

25:53 with that pretty generous ground clearance too.

25:55 So there really isn't much this thing can't do.

25:58 Okay, time for our water crossing.

26:02 Let's drop it into here.

26:03 It's about 650 deep at the moment.

26:05 So it should be right where it needs to be for the car.

26:08 The parking sensors are quite annoying in this.

26:12 'Cause it keeps sort of beeping.

26:13 It doesn't seem to be an easy way to switch it off.

26:15 So you just gotta hit okay on it.

26:17 That feels good.

26:19 I can hear water lapping through there,

26:20 but it's coming through here nicely,

26:22 especially in low range.

26:23 It really just cruises through this without any problems.

26:26 Let's see what the...

26:27 Oh yeah, that's not too bad.

26:31 Crest this as well.

26:34 Fantastic.

26:36 Very impressive there.

26:37 So Lexus LX, you can drive it on road

26:40 and you literally can drive it off road as well.

26:43 I would love to see this being driven extreme off road

26:45 because yeah, I'm just wondering

26:47 where the limits are on this thing.

26:49 Pretty damn impressed with it on this light off road course.

26:51 (upbeat music)

26:54 So the Lexus LX.

26:57 Is it more than just a Land Cruiser with a price tag?

27:00 Yeah, look, I actually think it is.

27:02 There are plenty of material differences

27:04 between this and the Land Cruiser as we see it in Australia.

27:07 For example, we only get diesel in Australia

27:09 for Land Cruiser.

27:10 This is available in a petrol.

27:11 And the petrol is such a nice engine,

27:13 but you would probably still go for the diesel anyway.

27:15 The diesel is just quite refined

27:16 and it doesn't use anywhere near as much fuel as this does.

27:19 If that doesn't bother you too much though,

27:21 interior is nicely appointed.

27:22 Love that infotainment system.

27:23 It is light years ahead of the Land Cruiser setup.

27:25 And if you are into your ultra luxury,

27:27 that is pretty much the way to go.

27:28 But I reckon I'd be going a little further down the range.

27:31 The ultra luxury stuff is only good

27:32 if you run a limo company or something like that.

27:35 Performed really well off road,

27:36 better than I thought it would.

27:38 And everything is very user-friendly and idiot proof.

27:40 Especially if you don't know what you're doing,

27:42 you just press a few buttons and away it goes.

27:43 So yeah, really impressed with this.

27:45 So 200 grand, probably a little bit too much money.

27:48 Dynamically, it's very, very not good.

27:50 And you would go for something like the Range Rover

27:52 if you wanted something dynamic.

27:54 If dynamics don't really bother you too much though,

27:56 rides beautifully in and around the city.

27:57 It's capable off-road, 3,500 kilo towing capacity.

28:01 Really is quite the all rounder there

28:02 with a luxury appearance as well.

28:04 So let me know what you reckon down there.

28:06 Did you have a Land Cruiser on order

28:07 and did you switch it to this?

28:09 Came to see where everyone has gone

28:10 with their buying choices.

28:11 Let me know what you think about the Lexus LX

28:13 down in the comment section.

28:15 If you did enjoy this video,

28:16 please make sure you like it and share it with your mates.

28:18 And if you haven't done so already,

28:19 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

28:21 But until next time, take it easy.

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