2015 Lexus LX570: A Luxury Heavyweight

Weighing almost as significantly as 2 Toyota Priuses and packed with enough luxuries to fill a tiny vacation property, the Lexus LX570 SUV is the antithesis to the modern day crop of compact crossovers sprouting up like fungi. Despite the fact that it and its Toyota Land Cruiser mechanical twin have been final overhauled for 2008, the LX is nevertheless as excessive and opulent as ever.

New Stuff

The LX570 wades into 2015 facing a range of drastically revised, highbrow competitors, including the Cadillac Escalade, the Mercedes-Benz GL-class, and the Land Rover Range Rover. The LX has received its personal host of upgrades considering that our last test, the most obvious becoming the fitment of Lexus’s largest spindle grille to date, along with fancier LED lighting elements at each ends.

The interior has also gained a multifunction TFT color show in the gauge cluster with a digital speedometer, as well as an updated infotainment system that features the Lexus Enform suite of navigation and multimedia apps. Even though that app-based method is rather clumsy in operation and lacks the integration we count on in a $ 90,000 rig, Apple aficionados will at least be happy that Siri Eyes Free connectivity is newly along for the ride. The new technologies is accessed from inside the LX’s cavernous 8-passenger cabin, which boasts 83 cubic feet of cargo space with the second and third rows stowed. The expansive windows afford exceptional visibility, and an elevated seating position overlooks the broad hood. Comfort is high and, in common Lexus style, intrusive noises are low. The neat split liftgate/tailgate setup in back maximizes the versatility of the cargo compartment, which also includes energy controls for stowing the third row of seats.

The Lexus’s myriad buttons, switches, and toggles scattered about the dash and console, nevertheless, can be daunting at first and take some time obtaining utilized to. (A centralized program making use of a control knob of some sort would be valuable here.) The LX’s hearty physique-on-frame construction also limits the flexibility of the rearmost seats: though they energy-fold to the side of the cargo area, they actually do not stow away. Those jump seats also call for a vault to attain and they sit flat on the floor, severely limiting legroom. As in the Cadillac Escalade, they’re best left to modest children and adults you’re only grudgingly bringing along.

Familiar Stuff

The guts of the LX are largely the identical as when it adopted the most recent Toyota Tundra’s running gear in 2008, which includes the pickup’s 5.7-liter V-8 and 6-speed automatic transmission. And although it was a bit also glitzy for us to take muddin’, the LX570 remains plenty capable in the rough: The complete-time 4-wheel-drive technique involves a low-range ratio, a Torsen center differential, and an off-road speed-manage setting, amongst other gizmos. The 4-wheel independent suspension (manage arms in front, a 4-link setup in the rear) gives almost 9 inches of ground clearance as well as impressive articulation. Lexus’s Adaptive Variable Suspension and Active Height Control with 3 damper settings (Comfort, Common, Sport) preserve the body’s motions in check and the ride all-about pleasant.

Regardless of its pavement-crushing girth, the big LX is a strong performer and on par with similar luxury SUVs. When prodded, our 6155-pound test truck reached 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 15.1 seconds at 93 mph. Both braking functionality from 70 mph (176 feet) and lateral grip around the skidpad (.76 g) are wholly respectable for some thing this size, regardless of the vague, muted steering and cushy suspension. But the LX is nevertheless enormous and simply not as manageable as some of its smaller and lighter rivals—not that a 5887-pound Cadillac Escalade, for instance, is in any way lightw7

One more sacrifice for all that mass is efficiency, with our test truck averaging a paltry 13 mpg more than almost 900 miles of mixed driving—1 mpg fewer than the EPA’s 14-mpg combined rating. We can only envision how thirsty the LX would be even though maxing out its 7000-pound towing capacity or on extended high-speed runs. Yes, the LX570 is surprisingly quickly for a tank, with its V-rated Dunlop Grandtrek PT2A tires (size 285/50R-20) permitting a claimed top speed of 137 mph. We could only handle 133 at our test track but that was plenty, the LX wandering down the straight in crosswinds like it just came from a bar crawl.

Funds Speak

With a completely loaded Chevrolet Suburban barely cracking 75 grand, the LX570’s $ 84,105 base value is eye-watering, but it should be noted that the Land Cruiser’s MSRP is a scant $ 3025 significantly less. However even at our test example’s as-tested $ 90,970—including a 19-speaker Mark Levinson audio method ($ 2350) a rear-seat entertainment program with dual screens ($ 2005) the Luxury package’s upscale leather trim, ventilated seats, and far more ($ 1510) and an sophisticated parking-assist system with a number of cameras ($ 1000)—the LX is reasonably priced inside its luxurious business. It nonetheless lacks the snob appeal and overall theater of a Variety Rover, but the aging LX570 remains ultracapable and a worthy alternative for these looking for luxury on the grandest of scales.

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2015 Lexus LX570: A Luxury Heavyweight