The king is dead, long live the king.
The North American overlanding community shed a collective tear earlier this year when Toyota announced that the new generation LC300 Land Cruiser would not be coming to North America, ending its six-decade presence on our shores.
No sooner had the Land Cruiser faithful donned their sackcloth and ashes than Toyota announced that the upmarket version of the Land Cruiser – the Lexus LX 600 would be coming to North America, bringing all the improvements of the new GA-F platform.
The new platform is part of Toyota’s New Global Architecture, with its F variant being shared with the new Tundra, Land Cruiser, and the next generation of the Sequoia. The new frame is 20% more rigid yet weighs 441 pounds less than its predecessor. Lexus promises a noticeable increase in on- and off-road handling due to its completely redesigned suspension system.
The outgoing model’s 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V8 is being replaced by a new 3.5-liter V6 twin-turbo gasoline engine making 409 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, a considerable increase over the older LX 570’s 383 hp and 403 lb-ft of torque.
The new power plant will be mated to a newly designed direct shift 10-speed automatic, Toyota’s new top-of-the-line transmission design, built around 10 close-ratio gears. Toyota claims the new auto provides some of the “world’s quickest” gear changes and a manual transmission-like experience. Of particular note for the overland and off-road driver is the gear optimization for the low-to-mid speed range in the 10-AT architecture, which should shine when traversing technical terrain.
Along with the ground-up redesign of the powertrain, frame, and suspension comes some new off-road driving tech, as well as some significant improvements to existing technology. The most obvious change to the interior of the LX 600 is the 19.3 inches of screen real estate split between the 12.3-inch upper and 7.0-inch lower screen. During normal driving, the upper screen handles navigation and audio duties. The lower screen handles climate control. While a bit pedestrian in normal usage, the screens get very useful when operating in the Multi-Terrain Select/Multi-Terrain Monitor mode while off road.
The new Multi-Terrain Monitor system provides camera views of the front, side, and rear of the vehicle, as well as new underfloor video mode that superimposes the terrain under the vehicle with the vehicle footprint and front wheel positions. An alternate view magnifies the under-vehicle images around the rear wheels.
Lexus also redesigned their Multi-Terrain Select system, integrating engine power and suspension controls in addition to the conventional brake hydraulics normally controlled by the system. The six off-road modes – auto, dirt, mud, deep snow, and rock – now also work in high range, where the previous designs were confined to low range only. Lexus has improved their Crawl Control and Downhill Assist Control systems in the new LX 600 as well.
While pricing hasn’t been announced for the US, Lexus Canada has recently released MSRP numbers starting at $106,950 CAD for the base “Premium” model and topping out at $151,200 CAD for the VIP Executive model. Expect American pricing to start around $90,000 USD and top out north of $120,000 USD.