Cool, distinctive, interesting automotive builds are all over the place these days. Among them are several eye-catching off-roaders and overlanding vehicles. Beyond a showy display of one’s finances though, what’s it actually like to live with and drive such a contraption?
One man with a Lexus GX470 knows after stacking almost 60,000 miles on it with a lift kit, 33-inch all-terrain tires, a 4.7-liter V8, and several off-road-focused parts. He’s provided some insights that truly only come from everyday experience.
That man is Douglas Sonders of the BlackBird Moto YouTube channel. He typically spends time reviewing unique and interesting one-off builds like the ones mentioned at the outset of this piece. This time though, he critiques his very own SUV.
Again, this is a 2008 Lexus GX470. It came stock with the 263-horsepower, 323 lb-ft V8, though Sonders bought it with around 150,000 miles on the odometer already.
It also had a two-inch lift and some B.F.Goodrich KO2 all-terrain tires on it at that time. Now, it still has that same lift kit but sports new wheels and new Falken all-terrain tires. Sonders also added steel bumpers, a 15,000-pound winch, an ARB skid plate, and some rock sliders too.
There are a few luxury upgrades that help with overlanding and towing, too. They include high-performance fog lights along with airbag spring helpers for the rear coilover shocks. Sonders can inflate those bags via a built-in air valve that sits in the rear bumper.
On top of that, the interior now features a recently reupholstered set of seats, a long-range GRMS CB-style radio, a new steering wheel, and even a small flip-down table on the rear door. All of those mods make for more enjoyable off-roading but don’t forget one thing that makes this SUV even more appealing.
The engine is largely bulletproof. It’s the same one Toyota used for the 4Runner and that SUV didn’t get an update for over a decade. Beyond routine maintenance and important scheduled maintenance, it has no major known flaws.
The one issue with a vehicle like this is fuel economy. Sonders reports 14 to 15 mpg there which means that it’s worse in the city and likely even worse still off-road. Granted, off-road fuel economy isn’t a giant concern so long as one isn’t wheelin’ every day and everywhere they go.
In addition, he says that many of the mods he has now aren’t very useful to him currently. “I’ll be honest, I did all of these amazing off-road upgrades… and then I moved to New York City and it’s overkill,” he says. Perhaps that’s why the entire rig is now available for sale on Facebook. Sonders is asking $17,999. To be fair to him, the city is where most LX470s live anyway.
Based on sales of similar vehicles on Cars and Bids and Bring A Trailer, that seems like a reasonable price given the age, mileage, upgrades, and condition. Those in the market for an adventure vehicle now have just a bit more insight into what living with one is like.
If you like this one you can give it a new life back in the wilderness where it belongs!
But this topic brings us to a question: Sonders clearly realized that his rig is so overbuilt for what he needs now that he’s in the city. But plenty of folks in the city drive SUVs and trucks every day despite the compromises associated with them. So the question is: Do you own a car that has way more capability than you need? And how do you square in your mind that you’re making compromises for capability you’re not really using? No judgment here, of course, but I’m curious.
Images: Douglas Sonders; Blackbird Moto/YouTube
My dad had the opposite situation. He needed a pickup truck but used a ’06 Corolla to haul all his tools around for years. Then he got t-boned in the driver’s side, the car was totaled by a new suburban that had almost no damage (minor front bumper paint scrapeage and denting) and drove away(an argument starter for another time). However He finally got himself an actual pickup though.
There, that’s my insignificant contribution to this discussion.
Who are you and Big Mike to decide that I have more than I need?
Not in the same sense as the article, but a 400 hp V8 is way more than necessary for street use.
I know that feel. I live in Houston and when I bought my 01 XJ it was probably close to perfect for “local” conditions. Small lift 31’s, automatic axles swapped in. It was fun to cruise around.
Then I built it up like a western desert rock crawler. Went to Moab and did great, but needed refinement for that. Spent some more money on it, life changed, and it became a garage queen until I sold it.
Been telling myself never again- do minor mods and send it, have more fun.
Given that I am aware of only a few three seater vehicles, and they are exotics, my 4-door shitbox Civic is as close as I can get to minimum spec to do the job it needs to do.
I need to haul my two kids around, run errands, and visit this cute redhead that puts up with me. I don’t commute so it sits in the driveway getting dirtier than I’d like; but not dirty enough to make me wash it.
It mostly all works, keeps us cool or warm as needed, does reasonably well in the expected weather conditions for the area, and I gets sad if I push it to highly illegal speeds so I don’t have a much of unused horsepower. The upgraded wheels and tires were a need, the factory steel wheels were wobbly after 18 years of potholed roads, and the crappy tires it came with were balloon-like on the freeway.
I have a 4Runner, and it’s definitely far more than I need for my fairly short daily commute in South Florida. However it’s exactly the vehicle I want to be in on the couple days every year where the torrential rainstorms cause heavy flooding through big sections of the city. It’s also very handy when moving, and great for road trips.
Yeah, I’ve done it a couple of times now. Took a while to get there though. Initially had a bog stock ’93 toyota pickup that I took camping and did a ton of light offroad stuff with. Traded it for a 96 4runner that I did very much the same stuff with. I lifted it a little and it was really good, but I was starting to run into situations that I wanted armor. That truck got hit and was totaled, so I bought an 03 4runner as a replacement and that’s where it sort of falls apart. I grabbed a lift and some armor right out of the gate and threw a fridge in it for good measure. Then proceeded to almost never use it. Life got in the way and it ended up as a part time commuter for my wife.We had it for years and always wanted to spend more time doing what I put it together and use, but she was having to commute more and more frequently so we got rid of it and did the smart thing… Bought a brand new 4runner TRD ORP. It is a way better commuter, and we’ve had it out a couple of times, but it’s massive overkill for what it spends most of it’s time doing and I keep daydreaming about a winch and some armor.
I own more capability in one than I need *now*, but I regularly used ALL of it in the past. I have a 1995 Land Rover Discovery I. A very rare in the US no-sunroofs 5spd stick base truck. It is completely stock, well-maintained, and reasonably reliable (just jinxed myself). It has just the right amount of “patina” to not really give a crap if it gets some “Maine woods racing stripes”. It is *excellent* for driving to my office in Boston on the rare occasion I have to go there from Maine. Even Massholes are intimidated by the big green machine with big black steel bumpers. My housemates call it the BRAT – for BRitish Army Truck.
Today, I basically use it on the rare occasions I am at my summer place in Maine in the winter, and to run crap to the dump and home from Lowe’s when I am up there in the summer. But I used to use it to regularly tow and launch my buddy’s 21′ boat for him, as he only had a pair of Camrys. The best boat is *somebody else’s boat*. In exchange for towing duty, I got to use the thing the 2-3X a summer I felt like going out on the water. But he bought a 4Runner last year, so no more of that. In the past I used the off-road ability to get to my family hunting camp in the northwestern Maine woods regularly as we were rehabbing the place. My woosie cousins would park their shiny girly-trucks at the road and use ATVs to get back in there the five miles from road to lake. I drove my Rover. But we sold the camp a couple years ago. I am probably selling my place in Maine next year, and I have no use for the old beast where I live in Florida, so it will certainly get sold.
Otherwise, my cars pretty neatly fit what I use them for. In Florida I have a ’14 Mercedes E350 wagon that does “truck” duty hauling crap around and siting at the airport for too many weeks year. I have an ’11 BMW128i convertible for fun.
In Maine I also have my dearly-beloved pampered ’11 328i RWD/6spd wagon that I bought new Euro Delivery for my summer daily, and my ’74 Triumph Spitfire for fun. Those two will move to Florida once my new garage with attached house is done and the Maine house is gone.