Video: 2024 Lexus TX Review: Everything’s Bigger in TX … But Not Necessarily Better

Lexus is running outta letters. Look, so eventually you're gonna get something that happened like this. TX is gonna be their new big three row seven passenger crossover, the biggest Lexus that they've ever made and they've brought us here to Austin, Texas to drive the new Lexus TX and to see exactly how good a new Lexus built out of the Toyota Grand Highlander can be. (upbeat music) It certainly looks a lot more Lexus than the Toyota Grand Highlander does, and that's due in large part to this front end styling. No more Lexus spindle grill. You've now got the Lexus spindle body. The entire vehicle takes its cues from this angular front end and this really is I think the best iteration yet of the Lexus spindle grill. It certainly looks a lot cleaner. It's no longer crazy imposing. It integrates a lot better into the rest of the vehicle. Now the TX is gonna come in three different grades. The TX 350, the TX 500 H hybrid and the top TX 550 H plus. That Lexus styling carries over into the back of the TX as well where you've got the traditional Lexus bar style taillights that you'll see on a number of other Lexus vehicles in the showroom. But a couple of different interesting tidbits here as well. You've got this blacked out body panel right here that all the TXs are going to have. You've also got some blacked out trim on the doors and on the roof rails as well. Now that's specifically for the F SPORT performance models, gives it a more murdered out sporty look. The wheels will either be 20 or 22 inches. 20 is standard, 22s are optional but 22s come with this F SPORT performance model as well. Now that's both a good and bad thing in terms of they look good, but that can also lead to some ride quality issues that we'll talk about a little bit later. The more interesting thing about the F SPORT performance model is that it also comes with standard four wheel steering which is something you really only find in a lot more expensive vehicles than this. It can turn the rear wheels up to four degrees opposite the front wheels to aid in a lot of low speed parking lot maneuvers to tighten up the turning circle quite a lot. Or it can turn those wheels in the same direction as the front wheels, but only make maybe a little less than half a degree in order to really aid in agility and higher speed highway maneuvers when changing lanes. We could talk about the styling of the TX all day long, but it's raison de etra. Its reason for being is this second and third row. This is ostensibly a replacement for the Lexus RXL which was a seven passenger crossover but not the best solution to providing that kind of a vehicle for the Lexus brand. And Lexus knew that. That's why they were waiting for this. The TX is specifically designed, engineered and built for North America. It's only going to be sold here too according to the brand. So they designed this thing specifically for how American families use big three row crossovers. And as such, you've got a lot of room back here in the second and third row. Now this model has second row captain's chairs but you can get a full three passenger bench back here for that full seven passenger seating. To enter into the third row, you push the button on the top of the second row seats, they slide forward and you have a fairly large opening to get into that third row. The third row has room for two full-sized human beings which is fantastic. Not something you often see in big full-sized crossovers. So you can actually use this thing for seven full-sized adults. Along with the extra width and height and size of the TX over the RX comes a boost to its cargo room as well. Now Lexus says that with these third row seats up you can fit seven people in here and seven normal roller board suitcases. And the nice part is they're also power reclining and folding as well, which is not a feature you can actually get in the Toyota Grand Highlander. On the inside of the new Lexus TX, it's okay. It's really not that much more impressive than the Toyota Grand Highlander. I mean the material quality really doesn't look any better. The shapes aren't any better. The switches are actually pretty similar to the ones you see on the top Toyota, but it costs significantly more. So you see a lot of sharing between Toyota and Lexus, which makes sense. But this is no longer really a brand that's doing special things with its vehicles. It's very much become it near luxury mainstream brand. No longer really I think a rival for things like Mercedes-Benz. Case in point, you look at these gauges, they're actually rather simple. They look very much like the Toyota Grand Highlander gauges. They're not the easiest to see. They're actually kind of small and the resolution is okay, but you know nothing terribly great. You do have this great big 14 inch touchscreen here, which is nice, but also you get a large one in the Grand Highlander as well and it's running pretty much the same system that it is in Toyota as well. This just has a slightly more Lexus font to it, but it is pretty much the same system. The climate controls are all touch sensitive as well which is suboptimal, but they are large buttons so it actually is easy to see. And the spot where you really want to touch on this touchscreen. The TX will come in three different grades. This one that I'm driving right now is the TX 500 H F SPORT performance. Now that's a lot of words but it's the mid-level hybrid version. It comes with a 2.4 liter four cylinder turbocharged engine. All-wheel drive is standard and it's made it to a six speed automatic transmission. It uses a nickel metal hydride battery and this powertrain is very similar to the one you can get in the Toyota Grand Highlander except it makes just a couple horsepower more. 366 horsepower in the Lexus TX 500 H versus I think like 362 or something like that in the Grand Highlander. So pretty much the same powertrain as well. The thing that comes across more than anything is that it's not as quiet as you might think it should be, despite the fact that this has active noise cancellation and special tuning to try and make sure that it is Lexus quiet. It's not, you get a lot of road noise through this thing because it has 22 inch wheels and tires. It's really hard to mask a lot of that kind of road noise. 20 inches are standard on the TX and the 350 but 22s are going to be the optional size in various different patterns depending on which trim level you get. Acceleration is really very good, especially in this one. It's supposedly a little like 6.1 seconds from zero to 60 which is pretty respectable for a vehicle this size. Handling in this model in particular is really quite good. It is the F SPORT performance model. All of the 500 H hybrids are going to be F SPORTs as well. So you get things like four-wheel steering in this model. You get things like the adaptive suspension that you can adjust as well in different drive modes. It's meant to be a more sporting, more aggressive style of vehicle, which is kind of strange given that this is a seven passenger family crossover. I don't know who's driving this thing aggressively and sportingly, but it has more of an aggressive feel to it and really excellent firmness to the steering. It's not vague, it doesn't wander. So it's overall a decent driving experience in here. Just wish it was a little bit quieter. You do have good visibility out of the TX. You're actually sitting up fairly high. The seats don't really lower as much as you might potentially want them to, but you do have the benefit of good visibility in that regard. Sides front, even to the rear. The window glass is very tall and so you have a lot of ability to see all the way around you. This one also has the rear camera mirror which is a great feature for a vehicle that hauls a lot of people in cargo and things. The Lexus has said that you can fit seven people in this vehicle plus seven regular roller board sized suitcases. But if you do that, you can't see out the back window using just a normal mirror. You flip this up now you've got the camera mirror it doesn't matter who's behind you. This thing just is basically a rear view camera that's always on, takes some getting used to I mean we've seen this in a lot of other vehicles as well. You do have to change your focus and your perspective when you're looking at what's in front of you versus what's behind you, because you're no longer looking all the way back. You're just looking at this screen. So it takes a little getting used to, but frankly for a vehicle that is meant to carry a whole lot of people and stuff, this is what you really want to have. Currently we're behind the wheel of the Lexus TX 350 front wheel drive model. The base engine as well. The standard 2.4 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine making 275 horsepower made it to an eight speed automatic transmission and have to say it's perfectly adequate. It moves things uphill without a problem. It's quiet in doing so. You don't have the hybrid operation so there's no electric only operation at lower speeds which you do see in the the TX 500 H, but it's perfectly calm. It actually feels pretty much like a Grand Highlander or Lexus RX. It's not remarkable. It certainly doesn't feel terribly luxurious either. The ride is actually better in the 350 than it is in the 500 H F SPORT with the adaptive suspension. I think that's due to the 20 inch wheels on this model versus the 20 twos in very low profile rubber on the 500 H. But the ride quality is really quite excellent. Handling is not quite as sharp, but then again you don't have the F SPORT performance suspension so you don't have that same level of sportiness to it but it's still adequate. For what this thing is gonna be, a people hauler, you're not gonna wanna make the kids sick in the backseat, you're not gonna wanna scare grandma on the way to Sunday dinner. So I understand making this thing a luxury cruiser as opposed to a sporty crossover. It doesn't need to be sporty, it needs to be luxurious. But is it that much better than a Grand Highlander or an RX? And honestly I don't think it is. Again, it comes back to how luxurious is this? And you're not getting that much more for your money. This one costs nearly $67,000. That's a full 10 grand or so more than you'd spend on a top Toyota Grand Highlander. So that becomes a problem because it's not necessarily that much better. Is it bigger and better than an RX? Yes, if you are only considering stepping up from an RX to this TX, then yeah, this is gonna be a decent upgrade. You'll probably be happy with it. But if you're cross shopping this thing against other things, even within the own, the Toyota portfolio it's gonna be a little bit more of a challenge to justify. So the third and final trim level is this one. This is the 2024 Lexus TX 550 H plus plugin hybrid. And it might look the same on the inside. It's a little bit nicer, it's a little bit different. This isn't an F SPORT model. It's not available as an F SPORT model either yet. So it's got a little bit more comfortable seats. It's got slightly different upholstery but the big difference is what's under the hood. This model uses a 3.5 liter V6 mated to an electric powertrain on the rear axle. And that is combined with a lithium ion battery and a continuously variable transmission to provide a plugin hybrid option for the TX lineup. Now it can go 33 miles on electric power alone according to Lexus, although unfortunately this one is depleted. So it's not doing anything electric only. It is running the gas engine, but it's also the quickest version of the TX as well. And despite it having a CVT, which you know, some people like CVTs, some people don't like CVTs, I am indifferent on them. It is fairly responsive and when you put your foot down you get a piped in growl from under the hood and it actually moves pretty smartly, not so bad. It does feel heavier than other models you tried. Especially than the base model TX 350 front wheel drive that I drove prior to this one. That one felt a lot lighter, a little bit more tossable. This one feels considerably heavier a little bit more ponderous in corners, even rides a little bit differently. But for some reason it also feels a lot quieter, which I thought is interesting as well. You're not getting much in the way of engine or powertrain or even road toys in this one at all either. I mean they all have active noise control to some degree but apparently it's working pretty well on this one. So this one actually feels a little bit more luxurious than the others do for sure. The new 2024 Lexus TX 350 and 500 H hybrid are going to be arriving in showrooms later this year. Now if you're wanting a TX 550 H plus that's not arriving until early 2024. Now as for pricing, the TX 350 is gonna start at about $55,000. And if you load up a TX 500 H F SPORT performance luxury version you're looking at something closer to nearly $80,000, which is quite a lot of money. Now, is it really worth it? That much more than a Toyota Grand Highlander. That's gonna be up to you. You're really just pretty much paying for that Lexus badge and a couple of extra features that you can't get on the Grand Highlander. But in terms of interior quality, in terms of powertrain, in terms of amenities, in terms of just how nice it is, there isn't that much difference in my opinion between the Toyota and the Lexus. Now when we have pricing for the new TX 550 H plus, which is coming next year, you'll see that and so much more information about the new Lexus lineup on cars.com.