Heres Why The Lexus GX 460 Is A Good Bargain

The 2021 Lexus GX 460 is a full time 4wd midsize luxury SUV bargain. If you’re looking for an off-road capable vehicle that has a V8, seating for “seven”, and really nice leather appointments, the GX is right up your alley. However, there’s a lot of things about this SUV that will make you think why it’s still available for sale in 2021.

Hey how’s it going everyone welcome to shifting lanes my name is hanson thank you so much for tuning in and for this video you find me sitting in the 2021 lexus gx 460 and i want to share with you my likes and dislikes about this luxury midsize suv so that you have a better idea before you buy and i also want to share with you my thoughts as to why this gx even

At the starting price of 53 000 is a really good bargain if you’ve been shopping for this then you know how outdated this suv really is and if you’re just finding that out now let me show you how this is considered old now this platform has been around for more than a decade it has received two facelifts and while the exterior looks more modern the interior looks

Pretty much the same as when it rolled off the showroom floor as a 2010 model the infotainment is old the features are dated and all the performance figures like the mileage power cargo capacity are not something you’d expect while buying a 2021 model year vehicle i’ll go into all of that in more detail later but i believe that buying the lexus gx is a lot like

Buying old solid wood furniture it may look old it may not have the best functionality and it may not be space efficient but it’s strong and it’s going to last you a very long time and once you’re done with it you can most likely pass it on to another person and it’ll serve them very well also and that’s proven here because the gx has a robust mechanical design

And that makes this a very capable multi-terrain type of vehicle it has the typical plush lexus on-road feel and does really well off-road the gx also has very good reliability ratings decent maintenance costs and the resale value is also very solid what i like most about this suv is what sets it apart from other mainstream suvs and that’s the mechanical hardware

And given the amount of equipment and capability at this price range the gx is priced really well the gx is a full-time four wheel drive vehicle that means that it has extra hardware the transfer case and that sends power to the front axle at all times it’s important to remember that four wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles are not the same yes all four

Wheels are getting power at the same time but four wheel drive vehicles are superior when it comes to off-roading because of that transfer case now the transfer case is basically a torque multiplier and usually it has a low speed setting what that means is that it’s basically a two-speed transmission on top of your main transmission and that’ll reduce your speed

But multiply our torque by the same factor as a result four-wheel drive vehicles like this can put a lot of traction on the ground that it can climb things that normal all-wheel drive vehicles can’t i also like that this gx is a body-on-frame suv which means that it has great ground clearance for tackling those hard-to-reach destinations most new cars and suvs are

A unibody construction and that means that the chassis and the body is a single structure there’s a lot of benefits to that the gx is more like a truck or other old school suvs based on trucks this is how you get the high ground clearance at 8.1 inches and also why this mid-sized suv is almost 5200 pounds whereas a unibody mid-size suv like the acura mdx weighs

About 800 pounds less i also like that this gx has an old-school naturally aspirated v8 in it and that’s necessary because of the high curb weight anything less than a v8 is probably somewhat unusable for people looking to off-road their vehicles torque figures is king and a big displacement engine like this 4.6 liter v8 will do the budget version of this suv

The toyota 4runner which if you’re interested in my review you can find that in the link up here that only comes with a v6 just imagine if toyota puts this v8 engine into that 4runner which they kind of did in the 2000s the sales figures would go through the roof unfortunately this v8 only makes 301 horsepower and 329 pound-feet of torque and i think the main

Culprit for those low figures is because this engine does not have direct injection that’s where fuel is directly injected into the combustion chambers so that you have a cleaner and more thorough burn direct injection engines have better efficiency more horsepower and more torque and toyota and lexus they have direct injected engines why that technology isn’t

Found here is really disappointing attached to that engine is this six-speed automatic transmission which is totally fine for something that you can buy in 2010 but by today’s standards of 7 8 10 speed automatic transmissions this really feels outdated as a result of that engine and this transmission and also the heavy weight the miles per gallon of the lexus gx

Is terrible in fact it’s one of the worst for luxury mid-size suvs at 15 city and 19 highway and here’s where you have the dilemma of old versus new on the one hand you have tried and true technology that works is reliable may not be the most modern and on the other hand you have a design that’s more modern that makes life easier better and more efficient but

Comes at a price of unreliability and also uncertainty this lexus gx feels exactly like the car that you would have bought back in 2010. there’s a lot of things that feel antiquated in here that newer cars just do a lot better because they’ve had more than a decades worth of time to see what works to engineer something that’s more user friendly and more up to

Date the biggest defender in here is the infotainment system and i sound like a broken record because anytime i review alexis i always have something bad to say about the infotainment and the problem here is that this one doesn’t even offer apple carplay or android auto now those smartphone integration tools is almost as standard for new cars that if you don’t

Have one it’s almost like selling a car with roll-up windows it’s strictly unacceptable for something that you buy in 2021 on top of that the screen quality and the user interface also looks outdated the one positive thing i can say about this infotainment though is that it might be the easiest system to use in lexus’s entire lineup and that’s mainly because

It’s just a touch screen whereas the other lexus models would have some sort of a clumsy touch pad or a track pad which can be very annoying to use the next thing that feels outdated in here is the rest of the interior design if you’re at a lexus dealership you should really sit inside the other lexus cars and see how their interiors have changed the lexus ls

Lc es and ux has that modern look and feel that when you sit down you’ll immediately feel like you’re in a luxury car meanwhile in the gx while the leather seats and other materials feel great and has that lexus grade dna and quality it doesn’t feel luxurious because it looks outdated cargo space is another big bummer in this suv because there’s only 11.6 cubic

Feet of space behind the third row and that grows to only 64.7 cubic feet with both rows folded down i do like the fact that the rear hatch has a window that can pop open independently of the door but i am not a big fan of this side swinging rear door this will be a big problem if you have to parallel park in cities because this door has a large swept volume the

Door also opens up to the right hand side which means that if you’re parallel parked you have to walk around to the street side if you want to load anything given that we drive on the right hand side of the road this door should really swing the other way for better access there is one occasion where a side swinging door is great and that’s if you have a roof rack

You can just step on the ledge and get access that way you can’t do that from the rear if you have a traditional hatch that opens to the top overall i think this door design creates more problems than it solves please let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree so outdated design and weird door aside how does this lexus gx drives i think given the truck

Like foundation the gx drives really well driving this suv you can tell that you’re driving a lexus the ride quality is great it’s not jarring or fatigue inducing the steering feel is good and takes very low effort there’s also very good road visibility because of the tall ride height the naturally aspirated v8 is also decent despite it not looking impressive on

Paper and i like the grunt and the exhaust noise when you really push it other non-body-on-frame suvs will drive better than this now unibody suvs are generally lighter and stiffer so that they will handle better and they will have better mileage the handling of the gx is what you can expect for an suv that’s riding on a truck platform great for off-roading good

For daily driving and for performance driving no comment so i think the gx is a bargain at least at the base trim which starts at 53 000 and it can do a lot of what other luxury vehicles can’t at this price range if you opt for the top of the line model with all the bells and whistles like the adaptive variable suspension and 360 degree camera you can cross over

70 000 that’s not quite a bargain but it’s still cheaper than the direct competition if you want to have a luxury suv that you can take through a rocky off-road trail you’d have to spend a lot more money think of lexus lx 570 or mercedes-benz g-class type of money there is a lot of hardware in the gx that warrants that price and on top of that you also have this

Luxury skin that drapes over the entire interior of this suv if you don’t need luxury you can go cheaper by going with the toyota 4runner you won’t get that great v8 but you’ll get a more modern feeling and looking suv that will also be a rugged off-roader if you want to see that review make sure you go into the description box and check out the links to our other

Reviews well there you have it if you’ve learned something from this video please consider hitting that like subscribe and notification buttons so that you could be notified anytime we make a new video i’ll wrap it up right there my name is hansen this has been the 2021 lexus gx460 and i’ll see you next time

Transcribed from video
Here's Why The Lexus GX 460 Is A Good Bargain By Shifting Lanes