2016 Lexus LX 570: World-Class Comforts and Conveniences…and Wasted Capabilities
Several weeks ago, there was a lot we knew about the new Lexus LX 570. It was facelifted from front to back and given new wheel designs as well as a redesigned interior with more tech features for the 2016 model year. Engineers kept the 5.7-liter V8 in place, but replaced the six-speed automatic it used to be attached to with a more modern eight-speed unit.
However, there was something we thought we knew but weren’t 100-percent sure about. After years of seeing new and old LXs that were either perfectly clean or wearing only the thinnest layer of road grime on them in parking lots, we began to think the LX was a mall-crawler.
We checked with a representative at Jackson Spalding, a communications marketing firm that works with Lexus, to find out if the LX is primarily used as an on- or off-roader. She responded with: “We found out that most Lexus LX owners do not off-road in their vehicles, but that there are still some who do!”
That’s a shame. Under the LX’s thick layer of refinement, comfort and infotainment features, and soft leather and gleaming wood trim are the underpinnings of the Toyota Land Cruiser, a machine that’s legendary for its prowess in the rough. The big Lexus deserves some adventure on unpaved roads. We got the keys to a 2016 LX 570 for two weeks, so we had plenty of time to give it just that.
Before we took our review vehicle out into the wilderness, we spent days driving it around Austin, Texas. The LX is a body-on-frame vehicle, but when it was set to operate in Comfort mode, it did a satisfactory job of hiding its truck roots when taken over rough pavement. Unfortunately, the 5.7-liter V8 under the hood felt sleepy unless it was in Sport S+ mode and didn’t disguise the LX’s 6,000-pound weight. The EPA gives it fuel economy ratings of 13 mpg in the city, 18 mpg on the highway, and 15 mpg combined. Our highest gas mileage was 14.3 mpg.
Despite its length of nearly 17 feet and its width of 6.5 feet, the LX was surprisingly easy to park. Did we have prior training in parallel-parking RVs? No. The 360-degree bird’s-eye view on the massive 12.3-inch display in the middle of the dashboard was all we needed. It allowed us to keep our cool on busy one-way downtown streets. So did the drink-chilling cool box between the heated and ventilated front seats. Even passengers in the second row were able to avoid sweating in the late-spring Texas heat because they had heated and ventilated seats under them and perfectly positioned vents above them.
Then it was time to see what the LX 570 could do outside of the city. We traveled about an hour away from Austin to Marble Falls, home of the Hidden Falls Adventure Park. Many of the grades we encountered were easily climbed when the full-time four-wheel drive system was in its H4 setting. The more challenging ascents gave us the opportunity to use what we called the LX’s “off-road command center.” We looked like NASA control room technicians in a movie and the LX got us over terrain that’s alien to most LXs. At the bottom of a rocky uphill section, we shifted into neutral, flipped a couple of switches to engage low range and jack the Active Height Control System up to its max altitude, put the LX in Drive, twisted the knob for the Multi-Terrain Select system to select the Rock & Dirt setting, pushed a button to turn on CRAWL Control, and turned a dial to tell it how fast we wanted it to make the climb. CRAWL Control expertly – albeit noisily – handled the throttle and brakes for us. We monitored our upward progress using the in-dash feed from the front-mounted camera.
On the way out of the off-highway vehicle park, we decided to splash through some mud. Actually, we didn’t so much splash through as we did slide around in it. Feeling the back end slip out from behind you brings horrifying visions of costly damage to mind. All we did to banish those was stop the LX, set the Multi-Terrain Select system to its Mud & Sand mode, then throttle out of the muck calmly.
Taking a shiny new vehicle with the dimensions of the LX out on trails edged by tree branches and large rocks can make you feel like a slug in a maze made out of salt. Surprisingly, we didn’t get that sensation. The LX seemed smaller than it was and allowed us to fully concentrate on and enjoy our time in the quiet of nature.
Wherever we were in the 2016 Lexus LX 570, it was a comfortable and capable machine. It’s just too bad that so many people who own it only know – literally – half of the story.
***Our 2016 Lexus LX 570 review vehicle had an as-tested price of $97,405. That included a delivery, processing, and handling fee of $940 and more than $7,500 in options, including the 19-speaker Mark Levinson Reference Surround Sound Audio System ($2,350), the Luxury Package ($1,190), and the dual-screen DVD rear-seat entertainment system ($2,005).
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