I didn’t necessarily need to read Thomas Hundal’s excellent review of the latest Lexus LX. He did get into technical details in a way that few other sites are going to and did so with his typical level of clarity and wit, but I’d already made three critical assumptions just by looking at the topshot image of the post and name of the vehicle.
First, it doesn’t matter how many advancements the LX employs: it’s a 6,100 pound body-on-frame SUV. You can make an elephant dance, but it really doesn’t want to. I have serious doubts that you’re ever going to truly have anything other than a comfortable-riding behemoth.
Next, it’s a sort-of Land Cruiser, so there will be little that you can do to stop it from reaching seven-figure mileage on the odometer, and its value is unlikely to ever drop to something that seems like a bargain.
Lastly, and most importantly: In a category filled with rather subdued, clean designs like Range Rovers, Lexus somehow chose to adorn its premium SUV with a grille-to-the-ground front end that resembles a modern-day Family Truckster. Are they serious?
Apparently, they are serious. This nose treatment existed on the last versions of the earlier 200 Cruise-based LX model as well, so I’ve had plenty of time to get used to it. I have not gotten used to it, and I think few others have either. Could a more “normal” nose allow people to appreciate the many good qualities of this descendant to what might be Toyota’s most legendary product?
Maybe The Grille Should Continue To The Windshield?
I was surprised to see that I was nearly four comments into Thomas’ review before someone stated their displeasure with the Lexus interpretation of the “spindle” grille treatment on the latest LX- to put it mildly. After that, the floodgates opened:
Damn, they are really letting this thing have it. This one is pretty good here:
That’s just a few, and all of this is rather a shame, since many commenters were totally on board with this capable machine, wretched excess be damned:
Inadvertently, Goose just said the cost-no-object, long-term focused LX600 or 700 is likely the best choice for the category. As a used car, it’s almost a no-brainer for someone who wants a reasonably-sized, three-row “prestige” cast-off SUV from a one-percenter whose main concerns are not having to buy another car for 10 to 15 years, never having to open the hood, and not being too “showy.” The first two points actually make sense for me; I’m rather un-Autopian in that I fucking hate buying cars almost as much as I hate working to keep them in as-new condition here in the Rust Belt (especially on a car that Somebody Else drives most of the time). Combined with my wife’s disinterest in anything flashy looking, this likely explains why I saw this when I went to throw something in the recycling bin at home last night:
It’s actually been there for some time if I recall correctly. Handling and fuel economy are nonexistent but it does the tasks at hand quite well; when it’s essentially used up (if it ever is) and I sell it (for pennies on the dollar to Mercedes Streeter) I’d gladly buy another. Or so I thought.
I’d have a hard time driving this current 2025 LX model without doing some vinyl or 3D printing work or something on that front end; I just “cannot” as the one commenter said. There are other parts which are tough to stomach as well. Let’s see what we can do to rectify the situation.
The Grille Of Your Dreams
It’s great to have a certain styling element you can hang your hat on. Whatever we think of the Lexus “spindle” grille, at least they’re trying something. However, it should be painfully obvious that as with any kind of design or fashion, not all styles fit all shapes and sizes. If you need proof of this, you can see me wearing a Speedo swimsuit (no, let’s not). Here are a few other Lexus models where the grille either works or isn’t totally offensive:
Not too bad, right? The LX is a totally different story; it’s way too tall and blocky to have such a grille visually look right with the design.
If we go back and look at the ancient truck sitting behind the bikes in my garage now, you’ll notice that the grille is broken up with body-colored sections, as well as some different designs of material (as in with chrome and without) to divide the space and try to lessen the visual impact of what is a massive frontal area. We can give that a go on the new LX. Here are the modifications:
“Can I see an animation?” You sure can:
Mind you, I did keep enough of the grille bars to allow for the “spindle” shape, meaning that it tapers in and then tapers back out again at the bottom to create that double-trapezoid form. Note that I also raised the bottom of the grille and the lower valance to not only reduce the visual frontal area but to at least give the impression that this thing has a breakover angle that’s decent for a serious off-roader. Who wants an overlander with a front spoiler dragging on the ground? The big detent down the center of the hood is gone, too.
How about a darker color? Here’s a lovely green:
Now with the modifications:
The animation tells the tale best:
Some of you might say the best answer is to just paint the damn thing all black. It looks better in those sportier versions, but it’s really a Band-Aid and a doesn’t eliminate the problem.
Let’s do some of the same fixes here, but with an even thinner body-colored crossbar in the grille:
Once again, let’s animate it:
If you look carefully, you can see I’ve also made another change to the LX. Notice the upswept rear quarter window, a very curious styling element that doesn’t work for a variety of reasons …
It blocks vision. More sheet metal to the back makes an already heavy truck look even heavier. Worst of all, it’s a design detail shared with the Infiniti QX80 (below, and aka Nissan Patrol), a truck that is forever sniffing the exhaust of the Land Cruiser/LX and seemingly would give its right headlight to be more like the Toyota (even though it isn’t a bad choice for a luxury SUV).
Why is Lexus copying a second banana? Actually, the current QX80 has lost that detail anyway for the latest model so Infiniti’s made the improvement before Lexus. Nice going. Let’s fix it:
One more animation:
The look is sort of Mercedes-like, a brand that Lexus used to be unafraid of copying to great success. If nothing else, if you’re a person that actually looks out windows to merge and back up, you’ll like the change.
Ahead By A Nose
Oddly enough, I’m sure that I will now see commenters looking at these revised LX designs and saying, “Now they’re too boring.” If that’s the case, my job is done. Honestly, when has a Land Cruiser or Lexus LX ever been known for its extroverted styling? The whole reason the car is so popular with so many is that it doesn’t have an ostentatious look. It’s an expensive, well-crafted machine that’s unassuming with merits that only the well-informed are aware of.
I do hope that Lexus eventually does something to eliminate that grille, the one part of this impressive machine that seems to be polarizing far too many potential buyers. Maybe the aftermarket can provide a solution. I certainly hope so, since like it or not, the new LXs that do sell are going to be rolling on streets and trails for a long, long, long time.
How I Would Tweak The New Jaguar 00 Into Something I Might Actually Buy – The Autopian
I don’t know why, but the silver one with the thinner body colored element looks like a Nissan.
Well, stock it looks like Zoidberg, your fix is a definite improvement for sure, but it still looks like a constipated catfish.
Don’t get me wrong, your changes are absolutely improvements, but I count myself among at least 3 other people who don’t mind the existing grille.
(I do hate rear pillars you can hide tanks behind, though.)
I don’t mind the existing grill either
ok, so 5 people + the blind designers who built the damn thing. That isn’t very much.
My wife jokes that it looks like it is going to eat the children in the pickup line at school.
Oh, I’m not denying it; I’m sure many people will make their decision based on aesthetics alone.
I just wanted to be here going “there are dozens of us [who are fine with it]! DOZENS!!”
Make a kit. Sell the kit. Profit.
I do think TRD should offer something like this under the guise of “grille with provisions for a winch” so as to not admit that the current look is bad. I don’t need a winch for hoisting out of the Whole Foods parking lot but I’d rather have it than the current grille.
Honestly, I took my LX in to the dealer for service a few weeks back (yes, I’m one of those people) and there was an unsold 2024 on the showroom floor. Pop a new grille on and I promise it will be gone in a week.
I mean, this is just a 2014-2019 GX460 face…which is better than the 2020-2024 GX460 face.
Somebody figured it what I was showing. Conversely, the standard 2025 LX is what a 2014 GX would look like if you ran the grille all the way to the ground.
Your fix harkens back to Lexus’ “L-Finesse” design theme from the early 2000’s – more streamlined and understated.
A gallantly restrained grill from a bygone age. Before the dark times, before the spindle. I’ll take mine in that lovely ’90’s green!
Most of the styling of Toyotas for the last 10+ years is not attractive. Those horrible gigantic black grills were abhorrent. I can’t believe they doubled down on that garbage. What is wrong with Toyota? That is SO UGLY.
Agreed. Toyota and BMW are in competition to make the ugliest cars.
And yet Toyota is #1 in sales and BMW is #1 in luxury sales… there’s a lesson here somewhere…
The customer is always right… in matters of taste.
That said, these grills are the equivalent of the ridiculous hats worn at the Kentucky Derby. Okay I guess for some fancy party, but not something I’d want to be seen in public wearing all the time.
Well Toyota makes all gas saving hybrid that are reliable, so I get them being number 1. Hell, they are trying to get $10k mark up on Siennas around here.
The lessons (there are two here) are that reliability and reputation both trump style.
Toyota (and Lexus) is the reliability champion. They will always sell, even if ugly. I’ve had more than one owner who wouldn’t argue that they bought an ugly car. “You can’t see the grille from the driver’s seat.” If not for job uncertainty, I would have bought the ugliest generation of the Avalon myself.
BMW has the performance reputation. If you consider their entire model line, they simply drive nicer than anything else if you really, really like driving. Picking one is sure to get you in the upper quartile of driving enjoyment in any segment they participate in. Even those who know BMWs are unreliable will still buy them. And not all of the BMWs are ugly.
Very well put! I didn’t buy that Lexus for styling or handling. The German car parked next to it was not bought for reliability, as witnessed by the SUSPENSION MALFUNCTION message I just got a few hours ago.
After the oh my God, it looks like a Cylon reaction. My second thought is how is this gonna get a winch bumper or an ARB winch bumper someday when these things spill into the used car market and people want off-road with them?
There’s an issue that will pop up sooner than that- where do you put a damn front license plate and, in states with white tags, not look like a tooth?
You just don’t. Fix it tickets are cheap, and I’ve never had my lack of front plate get enforced anyway.
Keep it classy with zip ties with an the plate on one side or the other (such as flat brim bros with with their WRXs) so as to not look tooth-like. I live in a state with a dark navy blue background with bright yellow bold letters (yeah!), or a white plate with navy blue letters. Dark navy blue plate would be chosen for sure. And our plates are stamped dammit as God intended! So even when cakes with dirt the plate still can be read and looks rad.
BY YOUR COMMAND
Step 1: Cut all the bumper cover plastic off that’s below the level of the wheel wells.
Step 2: Fab a plate steel bumper mounted to the bumper reinforcement mount at the front of the frame rails
Step 3: Reverse profit as you spend a ton of money on additional mods. Ask me how I know…
I’ve always thought these ridiculous grills look like the mid 1990s comic book “The Maxx”. But Cylon is more accurate.
I hate all current Lexus grilles – Can you fix the rest of them too?
And I’ve hated upswept rear quarter windows since the 1967-68 Plymouth Fury/Dodge Polara/Chrysler Newport Coupes.
Glad to see you doing the work to make our world’s roads a little bit less ugly.
It’s a start. Move the plastic up a few inches in the front and back to give a little more approach and departure angle and then we’ll talk (after someone hands me a briefcase of case to pay for this behemoth).
In all seriousness, and I recognize I’m not the target demographic for this, I’d rather spend the money (if I had it) getting a J70 to the states.
So, make it look like it was released in early 2010’s? Because that looks like a GX from 2013-14 facelift.
Also a bit like recent VW Tiguan, with the split hourglass grille.
Exactly. Not that looking like it was released in the early 2010s is a bad thing.
I guess it’s better than looking like it comes from the era of the Cylons which was…wait…that setting of that show was supposed to be forty years in the future? Forty years from 1978 is….uhhh
It’s much better of course, but I think more work is needed for it to loose all that aggressive stance and look friendly like a first-gen Kia Picanto.
The world’s only Mothman museum?
Yes, in Point Pleasant, WV. Supposedly the Mothman either made the bridge there collapse or tried to warn them of the impending collapse days before. There’s a lot to unpackage to be honest. Anyway, if you go there, try the Mothman Droppings at the cafe. You won’t regret it.
The fix you’ve posited looks more like the proto-Spindle Grille Lexus was doing in the early 2010s, wherein the upper and lower grilles were part of an implied single effect, but still had some visual separation. The cars that exhibited this were:
2013-2015 GS2013-2015 ES2013-2015 RX2011-2013, 2014+ non-F Sport CT2013-2017 non F-Sport LS2013-2015 LX2014-2019 GX
That said, I don’t see Lexus going back, nor do I think the altered LX grille is an improvement. It makes the car look less distinctive. I also don’t mind the current LX’s quarter-panel window; to me, it looks especially Lexus-like and the implementation is different from that of the prior QX56/80 and Armada. Nor does the larger window you designed necessarily provide meaningfully increased visibility, as a large chunk of that glass would still be obscured by the internal D-pillar, to meet today’s stringent roof-strength ratings. I don’t know if you’ve seen the third-row/cargo area of the current, related J300 Land Cruiser, but it’s not much better.
In short, I think this design should be left alone. It’s fine.
Every single time this subject comes up, here I am saying yet again without qualification or equivocation, The Spindle Grill Is a Mistake which cannot be fixed. I don’t give a flying Z, P, or K if Toyota stated by making looms. Put a fucking loom on your grill, and not a stupid bobbin! Idiots.
Taste is subjective, but I’m not convinced the grille changes make it look better, just more anonymous.
I’m all for more greenhouse, but the problem with that D-pillar change is that small tweak makes the profile screams “minivan.”
The grille change is an improvement, as anonymity is a step up from “highly distinctive visual atrocity that makes the onlooker’s December memorable in all the wrong ways that cannot be overcome even with intensive psychotherapy and the latest in psychedelic drugs.” There’s probably not much more one could do without redesigning the entire front end. But I concur with your opinion about the D-pillar change, although the scream I heard was “CR-V.”
Exactly. He somehow found a way to make it look more boring and generic.
Form over function? I’m on Team Bishop here.
Your conclusion is correct. The LX isn’t a looker but you made it totally anonymous which is worse.
The Lexus design isn’t aging well but this fix makes the car look 10 years old.
Anonymous, I agree. One would assume Toyota would be all over that. They should hire The Bishop, then ?he? can secretly weird-ify everything in they make.
Seems like an on overall improvement to me.
This instantly makes it look old to my eyes.
Probably the exact opposite to what prospective buyers of this vehicle actually want.
The side window changes remind me of an old parrot-faced Acura MDX side profile.
Top notch work as always, Bishop!
I’ve been anti giant grille since the Chrysler 300 and entire Audi lineup started this shit 20 years ago. I couldn’t have imagined the horrors that would come from BMW and Lexus. What you’ve done, what I’ve been saying this entire time, is just so simple: a body color piece to break up the expanse and hang a front plate if necessary. That’s it! Job done! How this has gone on for two decades is insane.
Indeed, if I end up buying one in ten years I’d likely want to 3D print some kind of thing to break it up, and incorporate the front plate we need in our state.
I’m beyond understanding the insanities of style.
How long has it been since the trend of hanging your beltline below your butt crack started? Forty years now? And I see grown men approaching retirement age still wearing pants like that, walking with their knees three feet apart to keep their pants from falling all the way down…
Y’all are really hating on cow catchers, aren’t ya. I’d take any Lexus with that grill any day over a CyberCuck.
Look, they’re both terrible. Just in different ways.
Indeed. Get rid of that Cylon grill.
By your command, Baltar
I know! I am old enough to have watched Battlestar Galactica back in the forever ago and Cylon is all I can see in that grill.
Yes, makes me want to go play a round of Triad with Starbuck and then take a turbowash.
Yes to the Grill, no to the D pillar. for one, its important to have a lot of structure there, and for another we don’t need to make it look like a Grand Cherokee. I don’t love that D-pillar treatment but its fine.
As for the grill, there is a problem in that those side vents that decreased a LOT in size are kinda important as they each have an intercooler behind them. I think you could get a lot of cooling performance without so much grill (and I hate the spindle) but You do have to consider that cooling performance is a HUGE deal to Toyota for these vehicles so that would have to be considered.
This is MUCH better.
With the departure of the Land Cruiser with the 300 series, Toyota assumed the 200 series buyers would end up in the LX. They missed the point.
People who drive 200 series (or 100 series, tbh) want stealth wealth. They want something that blends in, but will last forever with minimal headaches, while maintaining value (as the stealth wealth value their time as an asset). They also like having the capability to go anywhere, without the shouty-ness. The 300 series LX is shouty as heck with the grille and flashy styling.
Instead of the LX, they ended up in a Yukon. Lexus really needs to dial back the styling as seen above.
I definitely prefer your changes. The original grille just grates on my nerves.
Yup. Still not used to the giant spindle grille on the new Lexus SUV’s. The GX probably does it best.