Lou19

The rear door was the one obvious improvement Lexus missed.

The 2010 is a bust - with cargo space reduced, an ugly front end, and the barn door killed it for me.

As for tall people hitting their heads, you think the Japanese really care about that??

kelv2888

So short people dont have to hop up to reach and close it?

dgsvt

They don't have to "hop up to reach and close it" in the RX or LX... All they have to do is push a button on the remote and it power closes door on it's own. I'm sure that there are more people who find the swing door to be more problemsome than a liftgate / splitgate. I've read that it possibly has something to do with the trucks center of gravity. I guess that Toyota was able to figure out something for the 4Runner that they couldn't with the GX. Again, my guess is that Lexus didn't want to spend the money to redesign the rear hatch. If they did, they would have made it a liftgate / splitgate or atleast flip the door to open on the other side. I don't think people visualize how the door opens when parking on the street. With the door open you can't move between the back of the truck and the sidewalk. The door has to be opened after walking past it into the street and then closed before walking back to the sidewalk. If the door is open it completely blocks the space between the back of the truck and the vehicle behind it.

gs400jon

The GX460 has an piston arrangement that allows the swinging door to hold in whatever position it is opened to. That's a lot better than the two position stop on my truck, which doesn't always hold in place.

Fortunately, I live where 99% of the parking is done in parking lots so the swing door is a non issue for loading/unloading. That said, it was still a disappointment to see a lift gate wasn't designed into the new GX.

jo8923

I tried asking the lexus "live chat" guy about the side-swinging rear door, and the representative just gave a BS answer "It's just a feature of the vehicle" and said nothing more...

TRDFantasy

Do you think the GX is designed specifically for the Japanese? It's not even sold in Japan!

The GX is a world vehicle, and yes Toyota always looks at the little details, so I'm sure that part of the reason for the swing door is easier for tall/short people to use it, and not just for cost-cutting reasons.

malmon

You must be kidding, how tall or short do you need to be in order to push a button. A lot of mini-vans driven by soccer moms have power lift gates, is there a height requirement to use this feature?

jo8923

I'm starting to believe its to lower the center of gravity.

A power lift gate is a lot of weight up high, and the gx is already bad in rollover likelihood.

dgsvt

If it has to do with the center of gravity then fine, but why not switch the swing door to the other side in the US market?

malmon

I doubt that is the reason, the 4runner uses lift gates. Its not like Lexus is charting new territory, a lot of SUV's come with power lift gates.

jo8923

That's probably just lexus being lazy. There's no remotely decent explanation for this.

But the 4runner is shorter/lower than the GX, as are many other SUV's. Of the SUV's that are the GX's height and are body-on-frame, many are wider.

stiles_s

I think we've got a winner here. I can't imagine you'd be able to hang a spare tire on a lift-gate. The barn-door is the best way to support it.

So, it's a byproduct of the Prado having the optional rear-mounted spare, IMHO.

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

They stayed with the swing door hinged on the passenger side because I told them I prefered it. I think my exact words were "Don't change that feature and make me come over there and break a foot off in yo a$$ Toyota."

JimsGX

I bet there's a Prado Users Forum thread out there somwhere complaining about why Toyota can't put the spare tire under the vehicle instead of hanging it off the rear door. "They can put the spare under the car on the GX, why not on the Prado!?"

antonio98

The Prado is also available with the spare tire under the car.