I’m here in Vail, Colorado driving a quartet of off-road vehicles as part of eBay Motors’ goal to drum up publicity for its online car parts business, and while I’ll tell you a bit more about that later, today I have to make an admission: I’m getting old. I know this because I just fell in love with the Lexus GX, the ultimate dad-overlander. Here’s why I’m now such a fan.
A few months before I left Jalopnik, I went on an off-road excursion to Michigan’s mud-island, also called Drummond Island. I was joined by my then-boss and still-friend Rory Carroll, who is a bit older than I am and also father of two girls. He drove his Lexus GX, and I drove my Jeep Cherokee XJ.
At the time, I didn’t really get the Lexus GX. It’s humongous, its independent front suspension doesn’t flex much, it’s got a giant ass that requires a big lift to achieve an even acceptable departure angle, plus its otherwise extremely-reliable engine has a timing belt that requires work every 7-8 years. Not to mention, the vehicle looks a bit soft, and it costs a lot to repair when it does break.
I much preferred my boxy Jeep Cherokee XJ. It’s smaller, nimbler, has a solid front axle that offers way more articulation, it’s got much better approach and departure angles, and its four-liter engine is just as solid as the Lexus’. Why would anyone want the less capable GX? I didn’t get it at all.
But then two things happened: I got a little older, and also last week I off-roaded a GX for an appreciable amount of time. Now I totally get it. And that worries me.
The GX was one of four machines that eBay Motors had for journalists to drive [Full Disclosure: eBay flew me out there, fed me and housed me and gave me the keys to those four machines. -DT], and one of two vehicles that they’d actually bought from eBay and then outfitted with eBay-sourced aftermarket parts (this one had a small lift kit from Icon and some slightly larger tires on new wheels, plus a snorkel, rooftop tent and aftermarket front bumper). As you can see, my beloved XJ is among the four, and yet it was the GX that won my heart and the hearts of so many other journos.
The trail started off with a washboard dirt-road that beat the everliving crap out of me in the Jeep Cherokee XJ, and while the Lexus did have some bump-steer that you could feel in the wheel, its ride was shockingly good.
When the trail got worse, and big rocks started showing up on our Rocky Mountain trail, the GX shrugged them off in a way that seemed almost impossible. See this dirt road below? The Lexus made it feel like pavement!:
When it comes to off-roading, I’ve historically only given a damn about outright capability. Can this vehicle take on this hard obstacle? If yes, it’s a great off-roader, if no, it’s wack.
But my view on this has changed in recent years. If a vehicle can handle a trail difficult enough for 99% of off-road drivers, and it can do it in a way that’s much, much more comfortable than a more capable off-road vehicle, then why bother with the backbreaking CJ or XJ or Defender?
I still love solid-axle Jeeps, and in certain conditions – hardcore rock crawling, which I love doing — they actually offer a better, smoother ride than the GX. But unless you’re actively maneuvering through a huge boulder field, the Lexus GX seems like a better choice. And this is proof that I’m not a young whippersnapper anymore.
The GX’s suspension is a solid axle out back and an independent suspension up front. It’s nothing special, really, and yet it also is. The rough roads that it can shrug off still have me in awe.
But it’s not just ride quality, it’s quietness. The Lexus GX’s interior is like a sensory deprivation chamber, with dual-pane windows and more sound insulation than a recording studio. A key of the recipe, here, is the 4.7-liter V8 under the hood, which is the same motor as the one I had in my similarly-silent Lexus LX470. It’s a remarkable piece of machinery (despite its timing belt).
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The interior is a bit dated, but overall quality is so good, it makes a Jeep XJ look like a Lada Samara. Things are screwed together well, materials feel high quality, and overall the SUV just feels solid and safe and quiet and spacious and, well, all these other attributes that I’ve only started caring about in the last couple of years.
For the last 15 years, I’ve been more than thrilled with my $1400 Jeep Cherokee XJ rattletrap, but something is changing within me. I’m not entirely sure I like it.
I need to fix my 1954 Willys to shake off whatever this [see previous 800 words] is. I haven’t gone soft. I haven’t gone soft. I haven’t gone soft.
I get it. I love my GX470, and though it doesn’t quite have the off-road chops of my past Jeep Rubicons, it is far more pleasant in nearly every other regard – especially on the highway.
I also picked mine up years ago before the GX became the overlanding darling it is today, so I got it with low miles and for far under the price that a comparable 4Runner was getting at the time.
David Tracy, 2021: Discovers he kind of likes the comfortable Lexus LX470, and that worries him.
David Tracy, early 2024: Discovers he kind of likes Elise Not Her Real Name’s comfortable Lexus RX350, and that worries him.
David Tracy, late 2024: Discovers he kind of likes the comfortable Lexus GX470, and that worries him.
A Lexus executive somewhere in Japan: How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?
I am envisioning an entire advertising campaign built around David continually being impressed by Toyota; like the old Mikey commercials for Life Cereal.
He likes it, David likes it!
It’s more of a Memento scene, where David needs to write “Lexus=Nice” on his forearm.
Right before Joey Pants shows up with a torn-out Hemmings ad for a rusted out XJ, with the elusive Cummins 5.9 swap and a manual transmission. Sure, the floor is rusted through, but that just makes it easier to do Fred Flinstone-style starts.
When the Jeep Goggles fall away…
I mean… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What I been sayin’?
Great write up on the drive comparing the 3 GX gens!
Thanks!
The GX is a Tough Toyota Truck and they will last a long long time with no problems and can go anywhere!
You get Tough Toyota Quality plus the luxury and prestige of Lexus 😛
You are never too old to enjoy the awesomeness of Toyota :o)
Toyota and lexus make great trucks…. however… buying a used on tends to go like this:
Used Toyota/Lexus SUV/Truck: 8 billion miles, high asking price, zero service records. When break down and can’t find a deal anywhere, you start to inquire about service on these very high mileage, high asking price used vehicles, and the owners almost always say “It’s a Lexus or Toyota, it doesn’t need maintenance” and then you sigh and continue looking, knowing all the wear items that are so far behind their scheduled replacement, despite the absurd asking price.
I remember back when I was 15, not old enough to drive, but old enough to have an opinion. I had subscriptions to every car rag I could convince my mom to buy. One of my favorites was Petersen’s 4wheel and Offroad. These guys were true off road afficionados, and I took their word as the Gospel. The guys who wrote for this particular mag (as well as JP and Four Wheeler) had just as much a hand in shaping me as my parents did.
I was always especially excited for their “4 wheeler of the Year” test, which let me read about all the cars I had already seen in Motor Trend and Car & Driver, but under the conditions of off roading, and the opinions were from guys that wore camo shorts and flip flops to weld their axles back together with car batteries. I could not wait to get the “Of the year” Issue.
Then it showed up with this shiny gold Lexus on the cover. “The hell is this thing?” I remember thinking. I flipped through and read the test, and they crowned this shiny, leather clad, tarted up lexus the ultimate off roader for 2003. I was in complete disbelief about it, and the letters to the editor in the next months issue echoed that as well.
But looking back, oh how little I knew. Halfway through my 30s, kids, towing, and comfort are just as important as being able to handle a trail.
If I was handed 50 Large and sent into a time machine to buy one 4X4 in 2003 to drive for the rest of my life, that Lexus is the only choice. My allegiance to my Jeeps is unbreakable, but that doesnt mean we cant appreciate these rigs for what they are: Outstanding.
“Old?!?!” I’m like 20 years older than you. Piss off! ;^)
You’re just getting Kalifornicated.
David’s headline in about 6 weeks: I Just Bought a Third Lexus GX Even Though I Don’t Have Anywhere To Put It
Galpin got a pretty big parking lot
But what has he already got in the Galpin parking lot?
There’s the Overlanding Jeep Kitty Habitat.
The free classic car he was going to daily drive until he metamorphosed into Hollywood David, got a girlfriend, and began to appreciate things like ride comfort, air conditioning, and crash worthiness culminating in a BMW i3 and gushing over the Giga World Interior.
There’s also a WWII Jeep, a Jeep Wrangler YJ, a classic Mustang, a Jeep J10, a couple of BMW i3’s, and a Nissan Leaf. I know one of the I3’s and the Leaf is on the way out or already gone, but I feel like I am missing some additional XJ’s.
I think he left a couple of XJs in Michigan too.
I don’t know if “old” is the qualifier here. They are capable and reliable trucks. Nice interior because they are a Lexus and the designers likely knew they’d rarely go off road with their original owners. The one up the street from me is never muddy. Of course neither is the last gen Land Cruiser it shares the driveway with.
Now that you’re an international man of mystery, you need a cryochamber for decades long naps. It’s Groovy Baby!
I have merely sat in a 2008 GX. It felt like sitting in a nice recliner. It ruined me. The arm rest height is fantastic, the leather and the wood look great in an old school kinda way. It’s now a place that I need to spend time in. It’s a hard world out there, it’s okay to want a little softness in life.
Huh. I never got the impression of these being a “dad overlander.” Maybe because the 3 families I know who own them (including the Engineering Manager for Mazda North America) and actually take them off road are DINKs. They’re just fancy V8 4Runners basically.
Ok, Mr. Hollywood
At least it didn’t read:
“I’m here in Vail. Colorado. And just ran over Goldie Hawn’s foot in a parking lot.”
But yeah Time waits for no one weed hopper. Enjoy it while you can.
You referred to a Lexus GX as “old”. You’ll be fine. 🙂
Let me know if you want to get together to enjoy some soft cookies while we look through the obituary pages together to see if we know anybody.
I’ll have my grandkid show us how to use MapQuest if you need directions. Don’t forget comfortable socks and make sure you move your bowels by 10am.
Wow they’re going to make you turn in your Jeep card. It’s a Lexus thing, they wouldn’t understand
Ummm, this type of thing only happens when one thing has happened…. You may want to run to the nearest drug store and pick up a pregnancy test.
Congratulations in advance!!!!
Welcome to the comfort club, you’ll need it.
DT: When are you going to write about the Ineos Grenadier you drove to Utah?
Soon! I loved it.
It’s a small step from here to King Ranch and High Country trucks over Jeep J10s.
Welcome to the Dadside. Love my 460, had it on the beach this week in NC checking out some wild horses. I’d also like to point out that all the service points of excellence you pointed out years ago on the old site about the Landcruiser exist on the GX. Differential and transfer case drain plugs for real easy fluid changes. Oh and don’t forget All GX (470 and 460) were built in Japan at the same plant making the Land Cruiser, engineered to the same reliability. If you can’t make it last 250k+ miles you aren’t doing the barest of maintenance required.
You may be aging? If not, I want to know your secret.
As someone who went from a 2021 Wrangler to a 2023 GX460, I totally get it.
It was one of the last 2000’s era SUVs you could buy new. And they finally added CarPlay! And there’s physical buttons! And there’s more than enough room for my stupid 6’5” frame! And it’s built in Japan, in one of Toyota’s best factories!
Do wish it had rear lockers. That’s my one knock on these. They finally added it as a factory option on the GX550.
David,
For years we’ve waited for you to appreciate vehicles as more than piles of tetanus-inducing rust and leaking speedometers. You’re understanding that quality and pride can be had in something other than a 40 year old pile of mismatched parts that you washed in the dishwasher.
It’s not a bad thing. Enjoy!
PS in Vail you’re just 2 hours from where I grew up, outside Carbondale. I know you likely can’t this time, but someday you should head that direction and offroad near Marble and Crystal, it’s even better than Vail. I’ll even hook you up with a place to stay when you do!
It’s not going soft, it’s learning to appreciate new things and opening your mind to new experiences. Take, for example, learning to enjoy a pain-free body after a day of wheeling.
Pfft. What’s next, appreciating good food like spaghetti that was cooked in the absence of 3-in-1 body wash/shampoo/conditioner?