Lexus flagship SUV, comfort in all the right places
2015.8.7
2015.8.7
Having a Lexus parked in the driveway always brings the neighbors out and raises questions from all, especially when the price tag is pushing $100k. Questions like are they really worth it? What makes them different from a Toyota? But as we have come to find out the Lexus moniker of ‘The Pursuit of Perfection’ is a very true statement. The engineers are always looking for ways to improve on what has seemed to us, the perfect vehicle.
All of the Lexus line have been built with style and craftsmanship that is second to none, it seems they are always looking for ways to add to the excitement of the driving experience when behind the wheel, yet we have always felt in control and pampered to the extreme. Whenever we have a week with a Lexus we look forward to going places and in fact, find places to drive the vehicle.
This week we had the opportunity to drive the extremely luxurious Lexus LX570, or the large family SUV and with three rows of seating and room for seven this vehicle definitely fits into that large category as there is nothing compact about it or the way it looks. The 570 is basically a very close cousin to the Toyota Land Cruiser on some kind of luxury-driven steroids.
We say this because the engineers have taken all the of great features and climbing abilities of one of the best rock crawlers in the industry and incorporated them into an environment, then left us thinking, would we really ever want to take this beautiful piece of automotive design to an environment like the red rocks of Moab and take it on and extreme rock crawling adventure. With a $97,000 plus price tag we personally would never dream of such and adventure, but the LX570 would have no doubt been up for the test.
However, there is a market out there for an SUV that will go anywhere, and get there in real style and comfort. Our tester came in just north of $97,000, a price not for the squeamish in the pocket book, and after laying out that kind of coin, get ready to continue to feed this SUV at the pump as gas mileage was not on the engineers’ list when designing this SUV, we managed only 14.5 mpg for the week, right in the middle of where the EPA estimated the 570 would perform at.
The full size LX570 comes in only one trim level and with only one engine option, weighing in at 6000 pounds, it of course took a large 5.7 liter V8 engine with 383 horsepower and 403 foot-pounds of torque to get the that kind of weight moving or crawling, no matter where the adventure would take it, be it from the extremes of Moab or just a simple trip to the mall!
Of course Lexus did not stop there when designing the ultimate luxury SUV as they included everything we could think of involved in the 4-wheeling part of the LX, including the likes of a 6- speed sequential shift automatic transmission and an electronically controlled throttle with intelligence.
This meant that the vehicle can automatically tell if it is traveling uphill or downhill and puts itself into the proper gear at all times for the best engine performance, and will also shift at the optimal moment and do so in such a manner that it is hardly noticeable.
Also included was a crawl control, that went along with all this other technology in the drive department that when engaged would automatically take the LX570 uphill or downhill over whatever obstacle was there, with the driver only having to steer the vehicle and the car doing all the rest of the driving. We had experienced this same kind of technology when attending the rollout of the new 4Runner two years ago and it is pretty amazing the way it works, almost makes rock crawling to easy!
Over the past eight years or so the LX has not changed much on the outside with all the great features we would expect to come on a Lexus, including fold away heated mirrors and the standard hourglass grill that has become a trademark for the brand. The exterior is rugged and yet refined enough to capture the attention of those looking for a high-end ride of this type with an eye appealing design. The addition of LED daytime running lights were a great compliment to the dual swivel adaptive high intensity headlamps and fog lights, there were also new LED taillights to round out the exterior.
Inside of course, nothing was absent that we would have expected from a luxury line like Lexus. The seats were all leather and felt to us more like a very comfortable couch when seated up front. They were both power adjustable, accents throughout out the cabin were of real wood of course with soft touch materials used everywhere we could of thought to rest and arm or place our hand.
Navigation was standard along with the Lexus Enform app for a year that would give out real time weather and predictive traffic information and would function much like Onstar in an emergency and even help with navigation if needed. The rear seats were also power adjustable and would slide forward and back, and the third row had a power folding option from with the rear hatch up, this was a great feature with the seats folding to the sides of the vehicle with the touch of a button, no more carrying the seats away an finding a place to put them as some larger SUV’s require.
Options that were additional to the LX570 were the addition of a DVD player with integrated screens in the rear of each of the front seats with wireless headphones included. There was also the addition of the Mark Levinson audio system that bumped the speaker count up to 19 and was called a reference sound system. In Craig’s world this would be the best of the best in home audio and with the unusually quite interior of the LX it made perfect sense to have a quality sound system of this type, we might as well enjoy the ride as much as possible.
The luxury package, as if there was not enough luxury already, added heated and ventilated front seats and heated second row seating, along with a cold storage box in the center console to keep drinks cool on the ride. The only problem with it was it needed the car running to stay cool.
We did have the opportunity to take our son Landon, his wife Michelle and grandson Jensen out to see the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights in the Lexus family- sized SUV. Putting in the car seat was a breeze and Jensen loved that he could see all the lights from his perch high in the back seat. We also received zero complaints from having three across in the backseat either.
The next night we got all dressed up and attended the Governors Annual Media Christmas party at his mansion in Salt Lake, and the Lexus was the perfect vehicle for a date night and more importantly going to the Governors home, turns out to be just a great all around SUV.
If having a vehicle that will go anywhere and get you anywhere no matter what the conditions are and you need a lot of seats and want to get there in as luxurious a way as possible then it is certainly worth a test drive in the Lexus LX570, see them today at Larry H. Miller Lexus of Lindon, 544 Lindon Park Drive, 801-227-3200.
Base Price: $82,930
Price as Driven: $90,720
