2024 Lexus GX Early Review _ Consumer Reports

The Challenges and Opportunities of the 2024 Lexus GX's Third Row Seat

Obviously, can't raise the seat when it's in place bigger issue with this is that you have to lean all the way across the dirty bumper to get it out which is a kind of an awkward process and there's nowhere in the vehicle to store it when you're not using it so basically if you're not going to use the cargo cover because of the third row seat you got to leave it at home. Now, once you do that, you see you can raise the third row seats individually, they're slow but you know they work pretty well once you get them raised. However, another issue is that there's really not a lot of cargo room like many third row SUVs have when you're using all the seating positions in our second row of our Lexus GX.

You can see we had the three-person bench seat set up, as well as two-person captain's chair configurations available as well. The seats are kind of low and flat, so there's not a ton of leg support under thigh or hamstring support, and your knees are a little bit up in the air. There is decent tow room under the two front seats, but for that middle passenger who's an adult, you're going to kind of drive around with your legs jacked up in the air and not a lot of foot room. So, it's really best for kids or smaller adults to be in that middle position, maybe even using a car seat as well.

When you close the door, there's a pretty decent-sized window, even though there's no panoramic sunroof on this model. You have decent headroom and center armrests are nicely padded as well. Overall, the second row is decent space for two adults, but three people is going to be pretty snug. Toyota products go, it's actually pretty easy to flip and fold the second-row seats in the GX, thanks to a simple handle that requires just a quick pull to deploy.

Adding insult to injury, when you drop the seat and raise it back up, there's not much knee room for adults or children alike. And virtually no tow room whatsoever for larger items like luggage or bikes. But what is nice is that there are controls on the front panel where you can raise and lower the third-row seats from the doorway of the second row. Oddly enough, there's also a control on the back here to recline the seat a little bit for the third-row passengers.

But one thing that stands out when driving the Lexus GX is how great the visibility is. Sitting up high gives you an incredible view of the front corners, sides, and rear of the vehicle. However, this tall mirror system can be a bit of a challenge. The mirrors are situated on the door panel itself rather than at the apex of the front windshield pillar, which can limit your field of vision.

As you drive around, especially in tight spaces or over undulations in the road, the body of the vehicle moves around a lot. This is not to say it's uncomfortable or that the vehicle feels like it's going to lift its wheels or tip over – but rather that it's just not particularly sporty handling. The Lexus GX isn't designed for whipping around tight corners, and that's okay. It's more of a capable off-road vehicle than a high-performance SUV.

But despite this, the GX still manages to feel solid and confident on paved roads. And with its generous ground clearance and impressive approach and departure angles, it's well-suited to tackle challenging terrain. Overall, the 2024 Lexus GX is a capable and comfortable vehicle that excels in many areas – even if it doesn't always excel in terms of third-row accessibility or cargo space.

For more information on the Lexus GX and other luxury three-row SUVs, visit consumerreports.org.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyeah all right let's go this is the review of the 2024 Lexus GX 550 premium plus we bought this just like everyone else does added dealership we go and negotiate the best deal we bring it back home and then after some Breakin miles we put it through our battery of 50 tests so the GX 550 premium plus that we bought uses a 349 horsepower 3.4 l turbocharged V6 engine it's paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission and it uses full-time four-wheel drive that means it has a high or a low range but you're never in two wheel drive whatsoever it cost $67,900 MSRP to that we added a cold area package with headlamp washers and windshield washer dier traffic jam assist luggage cover head-up display and a digital key along with door Edge guards with the $1350 destination charge rgx rang up at $71,500 so the new GX is 5 in longer and 4 in wider than the version it replaced it's also a little bit taller and has a slightly longer wheelbase that allows it to have a third row seat yet again something that the Toyota Land Cruiser in the US does not offer so since the GX isn't really a racetrack SUV it has nice bolsters that give you support but they don't really make you feel confined the seats have adjustability to raise the front of the cushion independently of the bottom back cushion also you can recline or make the uh seat back more upright and there's two-way lumbar so it doesn't go up and down but it is well positioned so with Lexus being the luxury division of Toyota you can expect that the Lexus GX is going to be a lot nicer than the Toyota Land Cruiser and it is however for $71,000 SUV you don't necessarily get the same feeling of luxury that you might expect aside from some nice stitching uh padded surfaces like the armrest uh there's a interesting red background on the inner door panel here it's a dow interior and it doesn't really feel particularly luxurious it feels a little more utilitarian but again at $71,000 you may expect a little more luxury from your SUV the seating position really does put you in a good spot so that you can reach all of the controls and displays without a lot of straining for example we really like the fact the gear selector the traditional gear selector is right here at hand the climate controls the uh displays and the control is manual and it's right up on the front screen you don't have to dig into menus to go through there one draw back however is that uh the system is a little slow to start up the infotainment screen is pretty traditional uh standard Lexus Toyota display for current generation Vehicles you know you've got your infotainment map you've got Music phone uh you can pair Apple carplay or Android auto phone wirelessly which is really nice the GX does have some specific off-road features so a screen here that shows you exactly how much you're using the accelerator how much brake pressure you're putting on and then also angles of departure and approach and also how much uh you know what angle you're at going side to side when you're doing off-road uh activities also there's the Locking Center differential which allows you to send the same amount of power split it equally between the front and the rear wheels but coming around to the back the tailgate fortunately is a conventional one doesn't open to the side it opens straight up which is nice power lift gate so as you can see it has a really nice flat load floor when the power folded third row seats are retracted our Premium Plus version comes with the vanity cargo cover it's really nice to have protects your belongings from prying eyes but you obviously can't raise the seat when it's in place bigger issue with this is that a you have to lean all the way across the dirty bumper to get it out which is a kind of an awkward process and there's nowhere in the vehicle to store it when you're not using it so basically if you're not going to use the cargo cover because of the third row seat you got to leave it at home now once you do that you see you can raise the third row seats individually there's spots for two people they're slow but you know they work pretty well once you get them raised however another issue is that there's really not a lot of cargo room like many third row SUVs have when you're using all the seating positions in our second row of our Lexus GX you can see we had the threers bench seat there's also two person captain's chair set up that's available as well here we find the seats are kind of low and flat so there's not a ton of leg support under thigh hamstring support there and your knees are a little bit up in the air there is decent tow room under the uh the two front seats but for that middle passenger who's an adult you're going to kind of drive around with your legs jacked up in the air and not a lot of foot room so it's a a three passenger second row seat but really best for kids to be in that middle position maybe a car seat as well when you close the door there's a pretty decently sized window here even though there's no panel panoramic sunroof at RS you have decent head room Center armrest two has nicely padded as well overall decent space for two adults three is going to be pretty snug as Toyota products go it's actually pretty easy to flip and fold the second row seats in the GX it's a simple handle that same reclining seat back handle just a quick pull and it flips and folds up and then once you do that you climb through this kind of narrow space to get to the third row I'm a 6' tall adult there's not really much leg support underneath these small seats they're more like jump seats added the fact that when you drop the seat and raise it back up there's not much knee room for a person to sit in the second row normally and there's virtually no tow room whatsoever for my size 11 shoes so what is nice is that there's controls on the kind of the front panel here where you can raise and lower the third row seat from the doorway of the second row what odd is that there's a control on the back here to recline the seat a little bit for the third row um as you can see there's not really a huge range of motion when you're reclining or adjusting the seat back so underway in the Lexus gx550 you know first thing you notice is that you really have great visibility I mean you sit up high you can see the front Corners very well you can see out the side very well you can see to the rear very well one thing is that that you might notice the mirror is all interesting like current trends is sitting on the door panel itself not at the apex of the front windshield pillar in the door there very tall and narrow because of that feeling even though you can position them wide enough to really see your blind Zone it still feels as if they're cutting off a little bit of what your visibility is or what you're seeing so I found myself and some other uh Consumer Reports testers have found that they you know double checked or triple checked their blind Zone when driving you know just because of the mirrors sure the Lexus comes fully stocked with forward Collision warning automatic emergency braking rear cross traffic warning blind spot warning but you still don't necessar want to rely those systems fully which is why the tall mirror is an issue now this is a big vehicle is a on off-road focused uh body unframe vehicle so you think like a pickup truck type of type of uh platform and as such it is rly poy so going around uh turns its speed you know going over some like undulations in the road where it's up and down you definitely feel that the body moves around a lot not to the point of being dangerous uh but it just definitely is not a sporty handling SUV V you're you're rarely going to be whipping it around a very tight road course like we have here at the consur ports auto test track but still it doesn't feel dangerous it doesn't feel particularly ungainly it just isn't really designed to be whipping around tight corners but you know never did the vehicle feel like it's going to lift the wheel or tip over or anything like that so that wraps up our review of the 2024 Lexus GX for more information on the Lexus and other luxury 3 R SUVs go to consumerreports.org ohyeah all right let's go this is the review of the 2024 Lexus GX 550 premium plus we bought this just like everyone else does added dealership we go and negotiate the best deal we bring it back home and then after some Breakin miles we put it through our battery of 50 tests so the GX 550 premium plus that we bought uses a 349 horsepower 3.4 l turbocharged V6 engine it's paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission and it uses full-time four-wheel drive that means it has a high or a low range but you're never in two wheel drive whatsoever it cost $67,900 MSRP to that we added a cold area package with headlamp washers and windshield washer dier traffic jam assist luggage cover head-up display and a digital key along with door Edge guards with the $1350 destination charge rgx rang up at $71,500 so the new GX is 5 in longer and 4 in wider than the version it replaced it's also a little bit taller and has a slightly longer wheelbase that allows it to have a third row seat yet again something that the Toyota Land Cruiser in the US does not offer so since the GX isn't really a racetrack SUV it has nice bolsters that give you support but they don't really make you feel confined the seats have adjustability to raise the front of the cushion independently of the bottom back cushion also you can recline or make the uh seat back more upright and there's two-way lumbar so it doesn't go up and down but it is well positioned so with Lexus being the luxury division of Toyota you can expect that the Lexus GX is going to be a lot nicer than the Toyota Land Cruiser and it is however for $71,000 SUV you don't necessarily get the same feeling of luxury that you might expect aside from some nice stitching uh padded surfaces like the armrest uh there's a interesting red background on the inner door panel here it's a dow interior and it doesn't really feel particularly luxurious it feels a little more utilitarian but again at $71,000 you may expect a little more luxury from your SUV the seating position really does put you in a good spot so that you can reach all of the controls and displays without a lot of straining for example we really like the fact the gear selector the traditional gear selector is right here at hand the climate controls the uh displays and the control is manual and it's right up on the front screen you don't have to dig into menus to go through there one draw back however is that uh the system is a little slow to start up the infotainment screen is pretty traditional uh standard Lexus Toyota display for current generation Vehicles you know you've got your infotainment map you've got Music phone uh you can pair Apple carplay or Android auto phone wirelessly which is really nice the GX does have some specific off-road features so a screen here that shows you exactly how much you're using the accelerator how much brake pressure you're putting on and then also angles of departure and approach and also how much uh you know what angle you're at going side to side when you're doing off-road uh activities also there's the Locking Center differential which allows you to send the same amount of power split it equally between the front and the rear wheels but coming around to the back the tailgate fortunately is a conventional one doesn't open to the side it opens straight up which is nice power lift gate so as you can see it has a really nice flat load floor when the power folded third row seats are retracted our Premium Plus version comes with the vanity cargo cover it's really nice to have protects your belongings from prying eyes but you obviously can't raise the seat when it's in place bigger issue with this is that a you have to lean all the way across the dirty bumper to get it out which is a kind of an awkward process and there's nowhere in the vehicle to store it when you're not using it so basically if you're not going to use the cargo cover because of the third row seat you got to leave it at home now once you do that you see you can raise the third row seats individually there's spots for two people they're slow but you know they work pretty well once you get them raised however another issue is that there's really not a lot of cargo room like many third row SUVs have when you're using all the seating positions in our second row of our Lexus GX you can see we had the threers bench seat there's also two person captain's chair set up that's available as well here we find the seats are kind of low and flat so there's not a ton of leg support under thigh hamstring support there and your knees are a little bit up in the air there is decent tow room under the uh the two front seats but for that middle passenger who's an adult you're going to kind of drive around with your legs jacked up in the air and not a lot of foot room so it's a a three passenger second row seat but really best for kids to be in that middle position maybe a car seat as well when you close the door there's a pretty decently sized window here even though there's no panel panoramic sunroof at RS you have decent head room Center armrest two has nicely padded as well overall decent space for two adults three is going to be pretty snug as Toyota products go it's actually pretty easy to flip and fold the second row seats in the GX it's a simple handle that same reclining seat back handle just a quick pull and it flips and folds up and then once you do that you climb through this kind of narrow space to get to the third row I'm a 6' tall adult there's not really much leg support underneath these small seats they're more like jump seats added the fact that when you drop the seat and raise it back up there's not much knee room for a person to sit in the second row normally and there's virtually no tow room whatsoever for my size 11 shoes so what is nice is that there's controls on the kind of the front panel here where you can raise and lower the third row seat from the doorway of the second row what odd is that there's a control on the back here to recline the seat a little bit for the third row um as you can see there's not really a huge range of motion when you're reclining or adjusting the seat back so underway in the Lexus gx550 you know first thing you notice is that you really have great visibility I mean you sit up high you can see the front Corners very well you can see out the side very well you can see to the rear very well one thing is that that you might notice the mirror is all interesting like current trends is sitting on the door panel itself not at the apex of the front windshield pillar in the door there very tall and narrow because of that feeling even though you can position them wide enough to really see your blind Zone it still feels as if they're cutting off a little bit of what your visibility is or what you're seeing so I found myself and some other uh Consumer Reports testers have found that they you know double checked or triple checked their blind Zone when driving you know just because of the mirrors sure the Lexus comes fully stocked with forward Collision warning automatic emergency braking rear cross traffic warning blind spot warning but you still don't necessar want to rely those systems fully which is why the tall mirror is an issue now this is a big vehicle is a on off-road focused uh body unframe vehicle so you think like a pickup truck type of type of uh platform and as such it is rly poy so going around uh turns its speed you know going over some like undulations in the road where it's up and down you definitely feel that the body moves around a lot not to the point of being dangerous uh but it just definitely is not a sporty handling SUV V you're you're rarely going to be whipping it around a very tight road course like we have here at the consur ports auto test track but still it doesn't feel dangerous it doesn't feel particularly ungainly it just isn't really designed to be whipping around tight corners but you know never did the vehicle feel like it's going to lift the wheel or tip over or anything like that so that wraps up our review of the 2024 Lexus GX for more information on the Lexus and other luxury 3 R SUVs go to consumerreports.org oh\n"