http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/09/2...0-first-drive/

 

I agree that the US market wanted a liftgate and not a swing gate...

 

I was hoping Lexus would take the spilt tailgate/liftgate from the LX and utilize it on the GX.

 

That probably would have hurt LX sales

 

Doing the split gate like on the LX would have been great in the GX. I just don't understand why Lexus kept the swing gate in the GX. Isn't the GX similar to the 4Runner? I believe that the 4 runner has a liftgate. Isn't it only the Rav4 that has a swing gate in the US market? Wait, the FJ has a swing gate... Isn't the FJ being dropped? Could the swing gate be part of it's demise?

 

What I think is the GX is trying to compete with the Merc G Class, or tens of thousands of dollars less. The swing gate of the G Class swings to the left, while the GX swings to the right (probably the engineers were too lazy to change the swingind direction as in Japan it's RHD).

 

The GX / G-wagon is an interesting comparo. Although I don't think the GX (60K) is trying to compete with a Merc G-Wagon (104K-122K plus options), the rear swing gate with the rugged 4wd hardware make them similar.

I completely agree that the GX swing door opens on the wrong side. If you are parked on the street, the door swings open toward the sidewalk instead of away from the sidewalk. This is a bad design for the US market and the only reason they would not switch the swing direction would be to save $$$. How sad... :-(

 

Some gripe about the swing gate v. lift gate, but I prefer the swing gate for day-to-day use.
Also, I prefer it to hinge on the passenger side because it's more convenient for me as the driver.

Keep up the good work Lexus!