Gadgetory

this is the 2014 Lexus gx460 it's Lexus this other big boxy spindle grilled SUV it looks a lot like the LX that's because it slots right beneath it offering both just a little bit less off-road capability but still really good levels of luxury and it still strikes an imposing figure in a parking lot let's hop behind the wheel of this 2014 model and check the tech now here in the engine room you're going to find a 4.6 liter v8 engine that's worthy GX 460 gets its name from four 64.6 you're looking at about 301 horsepower 329 pound-feet of torque we're looking at about 15 miles per gallon city 20 miles per gallon highway and 17 combined now this engine strongest suit is that it is kind of dead simple and dead reliable which is kind of what you want from a big SUV and it's going to be paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission that's going to have a sport mode that you're probably never going to use in this vehicle and it also has a manual shift mode that could come in handy for passing every now and then now what we have here is the Lexus gx460 luxury it is the step-up trim level from the base so we've got a couple of nice amenities like nicer leather seats that have heated and cooled surfaces right here in the center of the dashboard we have Lexus IS 8-inch informed system at this luxury trim level we get navigation built in the navigation is pretty rudimentary you get 3d sort of like bird's-eye view maps but the graphics aren't the smoothest that we've seen in Toyota or even a Lexus vehicle but it will get you from point A to point B and it does have voice control which is pretty good we've also got the inform app system built into this and what that will allow you to do is pair your phone via bluetooth and run an app on your phone that's going to give the Lexus a connection to the internet and access to a handful of apps for example you'll be able to stream music from I Heart Radio or Pandora you'll be able to access the Facebook Places on your Facebook account so if you've RSVP to a party the address will show up right here in the Facebook app other apps that you have access to are things like movie tickets calm or open table so you can make reservations and actually find something to do tonight before you hit the road now if we look a little bit lower down on the center console here this vehicle is equipped with a full-time four-wheel drive system and you've got the controls here you'll be able to switch between your four wheel drive high in four-wheel drive low mode that's going to be able to drop you down to a sort of low speed high torque setting for when you need to tow something or kind of climb a really steep hill and when it comes time to go back down that hill you've got the DAC mode right here that's downhill assist control flipping this on is going to activate a sort of brake based cruise control for downhill it's going to help you control your speed so that you can focus on steering the vehicle while you go down a really steep decline up above that we've got the controls for the adaptive suspension in this case you have the option to switch between a sport mode a comfort mode when you want the ride to feel a little bit more supple and then a normal mode and right next to it we have the ride height controls and what that'll allow you to do is flip this switch and either lower the vehicle a few centimetres or raise the vehicle for those situations where you want to go off-road and need a little bit more ground clearance beneath the vehicle now that we've got that bit sorted let's take this thing off road and see what it can really do now I'm just kidding nobody actually off roads in a 50 to $70,000 Lexus let's hit the road and check the pack powered ESCO adequate but the v8 engines delivery is both a bit remote it seems like there's lag between what's happening was my foot on the pedal and the actual power delivery that I get about to see to my pants that end Lexus's engineer seem to have gone out of their way kind of isolate the driver away from what's happening with a fingertip feel in the steering wheel and what's happening through the suspensions now this is a big seven passenger luxury SUV what we just tested the Lexus LX which is another big 7 passenger luxury SUV so you've got to kind of wonder if flex is maybe putting these vehicles in direct competition with one another on paper it would seem that way but in person the GX actually prints a lot smaller now the LX is based on the Land Cruiser the GX is based on the toyota 4runner that means has a base that gives it some pretty good off-road bones but what we have in front of us isn't a whole lot of off-road controls we don't have a lot of the different settings for dirt and for rock crawling because that's not what the point of this vehicle is okay let's price this big box of luxury on wheels the GX 460 is going to start about 49,000 85 dollars for the base model but this luxury model that's going to come pretty well equipped with a lot of the optional features as standard it's going to be about 60 now we've also got an optional mark levinson surround sound system and a destination charge it's going to bring us to our s tested price of about sixty four thousand four hundred sixty one bucks that's a pretty good sweet spot for this vehicle but there are a couple more options you can add we've also got the optional driver aid package and a rear seat entertainment so it's really easy to push the price of the thing up to about seventy one thousand dollars find the sweet spot somewhere in the middle and you have a nice luxury cruiser you