Video: 2024 Lexus GX 550 Review: All-New, But Still True to Its Roots

Y'all just need to bear with me on that, but, oh about this is a long time coming. Friends, family members, coworkers, friends of coworkers, friends of family, they've all been asking about the new GX and here it is, what a looker. Can't believe that it's here in the flesh finally. We have a lot to cover when we're discussing this. (soft music) Naturally one of the first things you're gonna notice about the new GX, is just how different it looks from the old SUV. It really does seem like Toyota start to listen to its really passionate fan base. While there is a decent amount of Land Rover Defender in the new GX shape, there's a whole heck of a lot of Land Cruiser DNA underneath the skin of the GX. And take this specific GX for example, this is the all new overtrail trim that at launch, is the most off-road oriented and adventure oriented version of the GX available. Honestly, it looks like no other Lexus we've ever seen before. It's slightly angular upright design and heavily revised design language is future forward and absolutely on trend. Beyond the extra capability, I do think the overtrail is also the best looking of the bunch. I mean park it next to a standard GX and you'll quickly notice that most of the exterior trim is darkened. It's a welcome bit of contrast against this tan paint. Speaking of this color is fittingly called Earth and it's exclusive to the overtrail. Alongside the gorgeous Nori Green Pearl, I think it's the best color available. You know, it's not hard to imagine this toughest GX trim decked out with an array of rotor packs and max tracks boards and that's far more than we can say of the last gen. The capability was always there, but even with a lift and some all terrain rubber, the older GX has never quite shed that shiny suburbia skin. Just like with the exterior, you're probably not gonna recognize much on the interior of the new GX and that's not a bad thing. They really went to town redesigning, revamping, updating, refreshing everything on the inside for the owner generation. It looks great. There is a ton of toys and features and fan favorite stuff in here to look at, specifically because this is the overtrail trim, which is at launch, like I said, the most aggressive off-road active lifestyle camping overland type GX that you can get at launch. It comes with a whole lot of off-road controls. And that is what I want us talk about first because it's arguably the coolest part of the car. So here, just like all GXs, we've got full-time, four wheel drive. So that is, you've got high four, low four. Again, there is no two wheel drive option. It is full-time, four wheel drive. All GXs have a locking center differential, but specific to overtrail is a locking rear differential. We asked them why no locking front differential and Lexus engineers said that they didn't think they needed it. That's fine by me. So another cool thing is we have a lot of revamp drive modes for the new GX and in addition to standard on-road stuff like eco comfort, sports mode plus, we have multi terrain select for the overtrail, which includes stuff, you know, selectable terrain for rocky, muddy, snowy, that kind of stuff. The bottom DAC crawl button here, this is, so the DAC is hill descent control and the crawl function is, you know, like trail crawl. So think of it as kind of a very low speed cruise control on a trail. So it's up to seven miles an hour. You don't have to worry about throttle input, you don't have to worry about throttle surging. It's all good. It's all handled by the crawl control. So here's another handy button here. It's just hit this for camera view and I know there's really not much to look at here on the grass, but imagine this was on a dirty, rocky trail and you can keep an eye out 360 view for big rocks, debris in the road, keep those tires, you know, safe and undamaged. Yeah, it's just kind of handy view to have. Also for the off-road stuff, as you see this large screen, which we've already seen in the new Lexus TX, it's great. It's high resolution, it's high refresh, it's very reactive, it looks great. But as you can tell here, there's also a separate page for off-road functions or rather off-road diagnostic kind of stuff. So we've got a tilt angle, it's, you know, you didn't already know you're in high four and then normal drive mode and then or normal terrain mode. And then you have different readouts for throttle balance and break balance that you are applying at the moment. Also handled here, of course standard infotainment functions. You've got nav, you've got Bluetooth, you've got all the good stuff there and of course this is Apple CarPlay ready along with Android Auto and yeah, you've got really handy here if you want to air up, air down, you can have the huge large display here. It even has integrated PSI for the spare. You've got all sorts of good stuff in here. Alexis does elegant details really, really well. A lot of the trim is sculpted if it looks like metal, it probably is. It's a really nice finishing in here. The buttons are all soft touch. The plastics are all soft touch. The leather is really nice. There's some nice little suede micro fiber inserts. The stitching is really nice on this overtrail. It's got a nice kind of green contrast. If you look at the door cards, there's a hexagonal kind of pattern. It's kind of hard to see. It might not come through in video, but there's some hexagonal design in there with some green accents. It's just a really nice, I would say, you know, elegant, refined and well rugged place to be. I like it. For those interested in the overtrail trim, something to keep in mind is that the overtrail is only available in two row configuration, whereas other GXs are standard with three rows. Now those passengers that do sit in the back of your overtrail will be quite comfy because in addition to their own climate controls, you also have heated seats for both sides and their individual USB C charging port. Now another fun toy. Almost forgot, cool box in the center console. How neat is that? So I can't say that this air conditioned compartment will keep your ice cream frozen but it'll sure keep your soda cool. The previous generation of Lexus GX is best described in two words, truck like. Now that doesn't mean we didn't like the previous generation. Part of the charm of the last GX is that it was a refreshing counterpart to the modern unibody crossover, because the last GX, like the new one, I'm happy to say, was and is a body on frame SUV. And although the all new 2024 Lexus GX550 does share the same rugged body on frame construction as the old truck, I cannot stress just how much of a holistic improvement in usability, comfort and road manners that the new GX550 is over the old SUV. Despite a boost in power and torque across the board, Lexus's new twin turbo 3.4 liter V6 is proving to be the most controversial change about the new generation. People really like that naturally aspirated prior generation V8. People like the robustness, they like the reliability, they like the simplicity. Now it's true, a twin double V6 is never gonna be able to match a naturally aspirated V8 for simplicity and robustness. But gotta tell you, this thing feels like a stump puller. I mean the torque is tremendous. We were doing a lot of low speed stuff today on the trails and it just pulls like a freight train. It feels great. Other than a sport and an optional sport plus driving mode, I tell you the 2024 GX550 has zero sporting pretensions. But with this torque engine, I'll tell you, it gets onto the highway a lot quicker than you might think it would. Now you have a choice of suspensions when you're outfitting your new GX550. You can have an adaptive suspension or a non-adaptive suspension. I was quite partial to the off-road overtrails version of that adaptive suspension and I think blended with the off-road tyres, it really made for a very soft, supple ride. Excellent body control, excellent bump absorption, really impressive across the board. At the moment we are driving in a base model with the standard fixed non-adaptive suspension and it is perfectly comfortable. There is no reason anybody would regret not getting the adaptive over the standard. It's just what your necessities require. Refinement is a common theme in the GX550. I mean the driver inputs are just so wonderfully balanced. The transmission mapping is smooth, it's intelligent. The throttle mapping is beautifully progressive and oh the brakes seriously impressed. The modulation of the pedal is nigh on perfect for this size SUV. As you can probably tell we got rained out for the day. The GX is tough but we are not. But we wanted to make sure to tell you that for the full review breakdown and information on the all new 2024 Lexus GX550, check out cars.com. (soft music)