[Auto] The 2024 Lexus GX550 Is in the Right Place at the Right Time

[Wolf.17]

 

Sometimes an automaker defines a trend, as Toyota once did with the Prius hybrid. Other times they stumble into greatness by accident. The latter describes the life story of what has now become the 2024 Lexus GX550, which started as a less capable and more luxurious version of the 4Runner back when body-on-frame family SUVs were all the rage. For the most part, those early GX470s spent their days as pampered mall wagons, maintained within an inch of their lives at Lexus dealers, eventually finding new purpose as dirt-road warriors with subsequent owners.

 

Today, unibody SUVs have made great strides in improving off-road capability, so the case for a third-generation body-on-frame GX may at first seem shaky. But Lexus recently released the TX SUV, a three-row family crossover for those who avoid dirt. Meanwhile, overlanding has become mainstream enough that first owners are risking their rigs off-road—or kitting them out so it looks like they do. Also, unibody-based crossovers can only manage towing to a middling degree. The ladder-framed GX550, on the other hand, is a legit tow vehicle, and this latest iteration of GX feels like a welcome change from the ordinary at just the right time.The new GX550 lineup includes three tiers, each with an upgraded "+" variant. At one end there's the $64,250 Premium: a three-row, seven-passenger base configuration (a six-seater setup is optional on the Premium+) that rides on 20-inch wheels and 265/55 Yokohama tires. The Luxury starts at $77,250 and rolls on 22-inch wheels and 265/50 Dunlops, and it's available in the optional six- or standard seven-passenger configurations. In between there's the Overtrail, an off-road-focused five-seater that wears 18-inch wheels and 265/70 Toyo Open Country A/T III all-terrain tires standing at a lofty 33 inches.

The Overtrail's lack of a third row could trouble some, but the result is a lower load floor (2.0 inches, by our reckoning) that creates a significantly larger cargo volume (46 instead of 40 cubic feet) behind the second row. This and other minor equipment deletions trim enough cost that a lockable rear differential, adaptive dampers, multi-terrain select, multi-terrain monitor system, crawl control, downhill assist control, a roof rack, the Cold Area package, and the new E-KDSS (Electronic Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System) with independently detachable front and rear anti-roll bars can be had for the same $69,250 they charge for a Premium+ that lacks such equipment.

Less 4Runner, More Land Cruiser

In the Lexus lineup, the big-boy LX600 is essentially a 300-series Land Cruiser dressed for a night on the town. But that's not the one we get. Toyota infamously decided against the 300-series for the USA, opting instead to go with 250-series Land Cruiser Prado roots for the soon-to-be-(re)released edition of their marquee model. The GX550 is the Lexus version of that 250, and not getting the 300-series may seem like a raw deal, but the Toyota platform that underpins them makes the chassis differences between the 250-series GX and the 300-series LX so small as to be insignificant.

Example: The GX550's 112.2-inch wheelbase matches the LX600, while the GX's width range of 78.0 to 78.7 (depending on wheel/tire combo) brackets the LX's 78.4 inches. Suspension track widths follow the same pattern, as their front and rear suspension layouts match. Both have full-time four-wheel drive with a lockable Torsen center differential inside their low-range transfer cases. Both receive motivation from a twin-turbo 3.4-liter V-6 backed by a 10-speed automatic. They even share the same impressive torque peak of 479 pound-feet at just 2000 rpm.

For the GX550, this represents a humongous 150-lb-ft gain over the outgoing GX460, and that wallop arrives a full 1500 rpm earlier. Sure, the LX600 makes 409 horses while the GX550 is detuned to 349 horsepower, but that's still a 48-pony windfall compared to its predecessor. The extra punch is palpable, and the significant uptick in grunt does away with the 460's notorious initial hesitation that made it feel even heavier than it was. Lexus says the GX550 is in fact some 400 pounds heavier, but you'd swear it was lighter. Lexus also claims the new GX will accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, which destroys their 7.8-second GX460 claim. For reference, the last GX460 we tested achieved 60 mph in 7.2 seconds.

A maximum tow rating of 9096 pounds goes along with the uprated chassis and fortified engine, a huge increase from the 460's comparatively pedestrian 6500-pound effort. Surprisingly, the gains carry over to the pump, where the 460's 16-mpg combined (15 city/19 highway) improves to a Lexus-estimated 17 mpg. The GX550's 21-mpg highway claim comes from copious low-rpm torque and 10 forward gears instead of six.

The GX's Premium+ trim is fitted with conventional passive dampers to go with its 20-inch rolling stock, but it delivers a smooth ride and crisp steering. Road cracks and seams can penetrate the suspension's defenses, but to a more subdued degree than the old GX. It's by no means a rough ride, but the TX is on standby for those who seek crossover cushiness.

Ironically, the Overtrail is smoother over rougher pavement than the Premium+, perhaps because those 33-inch tires and 18-inch wheels equate to 1.5 inches of extra sidewall. Standard adaptive dampers smooth those edges even further. The Overtrail's setup also rewards on washboard dirt roads, but the killer app that makes this new trim practically glide off-road is the new E-KDSS.

Lexus's old KDSS tech disabled the front and rear anti-roll bars simultaneously because of how its passive hydraulics were plumbed, but E-KDSS uses an ECU to disable the bars independently, so each end responds in turn as an obstacle is encountered. The result is far less head toss through angled ditches and a sense that the dampers are more sophisticated than they are. Actually, it's E-KDSS that's doing the work. We have not yet measured an RTI (Ramp Travel Index) score, But Lexus's claimed 24.5 inches of articulation suggests a healthy score of some 630 points.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a46595003/2024-lexus-gx550-drive/