Cabinetman

I'm considering trading my 2010 BMW M3 sedan for a SUV. I don't NEED a SUV. My wife drives a 2010 Ford Expedition and I have a 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Cummins to go along with the M car. The thing is I find myself driving my truck much more than the car. The downside to this is the truck isn't the smoothest riding rig, but I need a diesel truck to pull my 5th wheel.

Anyways, I'm thinking about the GX, LR4 and the Land Cruiser. I haven't driven any of them yet. I was hoping some of you here might have crossed shopped these same vehicles and can give me your opinions.

I have owned a couple of Lexus vehicles in the past, a 2008 GX and a 2008 IS-F. I was always impressed with the overall quality of the cars as well as the service from my local dealer. This has me leaning toward the Lexus just a bit.

The Land Cruiser is also pretty high on my list because I like not having a premium name on my daily driver. I own a small business and prefer to keep things low key at work. I doubt anybody that works for me would realize that my Toyota SUV cost over $70k. The true off-road legacy is also a plus to me.

The LR4 really tugs at my heart strings because it has the off-road heritage. I used to own built Jeeps and would go to off-road events. My biggest concerns are comfort and reliability with the Rover. I test drove a LR3 prior to buying the GX and I wasn't that impressed with how it drove. I'm hoping the LR4 will be better, but the long term durability is still a big question mark.

I will be using my new SUV as a daily driver. It will also make trips to the coast for fishing and to the hunting lease. I will use the low range from time to time. I won't be rock crawling or anything extreme, but I want to make sure I can get through most situations I will encounter while enjoying the outdoors.

Sorry for the long post.

ybing

If you are not doing extremely off road, you don't need Land Rover, I drove LR4, Q7 before, and end up with GX, main reason is because I get used to Lexus interior.
LR4 ride nice, but you can feel the car is for off road, and the navigation was like the first generation nav on Lexus... Land Rover had bad reliability issue, you may have to go back to service often.
The Q7 has weak brakes, the car is too heavy for the brakes, so scary on my rainy test drive day. And I hate using a turning **** to control the nav screen.
I feel Lexus has the best interior and MPG, unless you get a Diesel Audi

Land Cruiser is a different class SUV, it is same as LX, but LX has more luxury feature, I will go for the Land Cruiser if you don't think the interior is a big issue for you, since Land Cruiser can do anything on and off road.

For ride comfort on road, I'm sure Lexus is one of the best in class, I driven 1300 miles in 3 days from Las Vegas to San Fransisco by myself without any problem (beside I'm tired )

ybing

BTW... although I don't like BMW... (actually hate it) but M3 should be a very nice car lol

wannaGX

My $.02 - my husband owns a small business in DFW too and he ended up getting a 2010 prius to do sales in for that exact reason. He actually loves it and he's a truck/hunter guy. Drives my GX on the weekends when he's with me and takes the 4runner hunting. I don't know what business you're in but but I can't imagine they won't realize a LC is a spendy vehicle. . . just sayin. Can you get your dream car and just drive something cheaper to and from work?

Isn't the LC bigger than the GX? That's something that might rule one out - you just have to decide which size works for you. I didn't want anything bigger than the GX - parking in the garage, parking spaces, etc., which is why I didn't bother looking at the LX. Or any other car for that matter. . .

eta: duh. Didn't read your name. I guess I know what business you're in. . . .

Cabinetman

The user name does kinda give it away

What is funny about my industry is you can drive a $60k diesel pickup and no one thinks twice about it, but if you roll up to a meeting in a $40k BMW, Audi, Lexus, etc... there is a pretty good chance you are going to be immediately categorized as too expensive or possibly even stuck up.

I've tried to have a weekend only vehicle (the M3 and IS-F), but I find I rarely drive it because my weekends are spent with my kids and/or hunting and fishing. I figured an SUV makes more sense. As a plus it would be nice to have something I at least feel comfortable driving to the office. I almost bought a 4 door Jeep Rubicon, however I've become spoiled by some of the nicer cars I've had of late.

jwscfa

I recently swapped out a 2010 LR4 for the GX as the LR had two major service issues within 1600 miles and 1 1/2 months of ownership. The last problem involved 4 fault codes of which two were safety issues that I documented with my digital camera and when LR said they could not replicate the issue I had photographic proof and refused to take the vehicle back. They still insisted the vehicle was fine and wanted to return an unsafe vehicle to me. That being said the LR dealer was willing to swap the car for the GX (they had a Lexus dealership also) and it has been flawless so far.

akfd

Scary story.

At first I wanted to look at the Range Rover, but I've heard enough horror stories about reliability that I headed straight to the Lexus dealership (which was next to the Range Rover dealer) instead.

Craig B

I traded in my 2009 BMW X5 twin turbo diesel for the GX 460. The BMW was in the shop over ten times in one year. Parts availability was a joke. I waited 3 months for a part to fix a check engine light and another five weeks for a heated fuel filter in the middle of winter. The Range Rover is worse than BMW. I like the look of the Range Rover Sport, but would never buy one. My fuel mileage isn't great on my GX compared to my X5 diesel.

akfd

If a Range Rover wasn't a daily driver, and I didn't need the dependability of the car, then yes I would get one, simply because it's probably the most luxurious SUV out there. The GX is not as luxurious (but very good), and not as big, but it should be a lot more reliable than what Land Rover/Range Rover is cranking out at their factory in Solihull, or wherever they're making those things these days.

ybing

Diesel always get better mileage than gas...

Chi-town

I'd take a look at the LR4, LX 570, Range Rover Sport or maybe even the new QX 56.

For the price, the GX 460 was not done the way that I would have hoped. Cannot attest to the reliability of any vehicle, but if perceived reliability is a question then the LX 570 "appears" to be the most reliable option. However, the LR4 seems like the more suitable choice for fishing, hunting and most most situations to include the extreme.

xswl0931

I briefly considered the LR4 and Range Rover, but after much research, I need reliability and Land Rover is still near the bottom. I considered the new QX56 since I like the Nissan Patrol, but the leaked pictures didn't look good to me (although the interior is pretty nice). I considered the Q7 since I prefer a diesel for the mileage and torque and also could have gotten a pretty good deal on the Q7, but it looks too much like a minivan and the CUV underpinnings didn't satisfy me. I've always liked the Land Cruiser, so I test drove both the GX460 and LX570. After driving both, I was sold on the LX despite the price difference. Dealer didn't accept my offer and I ended up buying a 06 LX470. Pretty happy with my purchase and the money I saved can be spent on gas :P

Alaska

The LX570 won't work for Cabinetman. He said he needs to be low-key.