2024 Lexus GX 550

The 2024 Lexus GX design is as clean-sheet as it gets; one that’s not just a complete departure from its excessively long-lived predecessor that wore multiple corporate faces, but one from the rest of the Lexus lineup as well. To these eyes, it’s one of the best-looking SUVs of all time. Clean, modern, classic. If it manages to survive the same 14 years as the last GX, it’ll still look great in 2038. In concept, though, the new Lexus GX 550 is fundamentally the same: a luxury-lined, body-on-frame, three-row SUV that can actually go off-road. It’s just that it now looks the part, as opposed to the Kardashianland grocery-getter vibe it replaces. And sure, the Premium and Luxury trims are still more Patagonia brand than overlanding in actual Patagonia, but for that, the new GX 550 Overtrail exists. With its all-terrain tires on black 18-inch wheels, raised roof rails and serious mechanical upgrades, it represents the new vibe at its fullest. To be clear, though, even if the concept carries over, nothing else does. You name it, it’s new, a reflection of a nameplate that basically skipped an entire generation of progress. The 2024 GX 550 is as modern as the GX 460 was ancient. Its GA-F platform is the same body-on-frame one that underpins the Lexus LX 600, plus Toyota’s Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma and next-generation Land Cruiser. The resemblance to that last one is most obvious, as you can see below. It wouldn’t be a stretch to describe the GX as the Lexus Land Cruiser. The new engine is a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 good for 349 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. For those lamenting the loss of the old GX 460 V8, just know the hill you’re dying upon made only 301 hp and 329 lb-ft. It was also shackled to a six-speed automatic and could tow only 6,500 pounds. The new one has 10 speeds and can tow more than 9,000 pounds. There will also be a hybrid available “at a later date” comparable to, but presumably more powerful than, the Land Cruiser’s standard i-Force Max four-cylinder hybrid powertrain. The difference is obvious and immediate. Before it was all sound, no fury; just a bunch of breathy roar on the way to a leisurely 7.7-second 0-60 time. Lexus hasn’t released a 0-60 time for the GX 550, but the VBox in my brain says it’s now in the mid-6 range, and better still, attached to a smooth, torque-rich powerband that speaks to both the performance and refinement demanded of a luxury SUV. Fuel economy is estimated to be 15 miles per gallon city, 21 mpg highway and 17 mpg combined, so that’s not very good. The old V8 and six-speed got 16 combined. Meanwhile, a six-cylinder Land Rover Defender 110 returns 20 combined; a Discovery with the same engine gets 22 combined. I think we know what the first “con” is. Every version of the GX 550 gets a full-time four-wheel-drive system, which, for most buyers, can …
Hide Full Review