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Picked ours up today. What a huge upgrade in most ways. The tech is fantastic, love the panoramic roof that does cloudy or clear. Still working on understanding a few things like I did not know it steers the car when running cruse control. I learned today that I must crowd the left side of the lane because it kept pulling me to the center.
Lexus GX550 Review and Lexus GX550 vs Lexus GX460 Review. Some thoughts on our new GX550 after owning it for 2+ months:
Executive Summary: Having owned a GX470 and a GX460 I was excited about the big step forward when I saw the GX550. That said I would not buy it again without driving every other SUV in the segment. As background my priorities for a DD SUV are NVH, service costs, and overall engineering, quality, and design. I was surprised to learn that things that were not on my list, things that we all take for granted, are issues with the 550. FYI, I have a Luxury+ trim which is some of the problem. I will provide some context to my 460 which was also a Luxury trim.
Fuel Mileage - 11.7 mpg over 2-3 months, 1,550 miles in about 107 hours. Shockingly, no better than my 460. Frankly I consider this unacceptable in 2024. My wife drives the GX 95% of the time and drives like grandma…
Rear Door - The auto open/close has a mind of its own. It opens 100% of the time but it does not close often for no apparent reason. The closest reason I have observed is rain (we do get monsoon level rain in FL); it recently would not close in heavy rain and I guess the mechanics make the door extremely difficult to close. My wife cannot close it. I’d rather have manual close than this garbage. The 460 door was easy to operate but more importantly it was consistent. You never know if the 550 is going to work.
Ride - It’s probably the 22 inch wheels they make you buy on the Luxury+ trim but I’m not at all impressed with the ride. On smooth roads it’s fine. On the brick or bad roads in my area it “shudders” across the road verses the suspension actually working. The ride is worse than my 911 (17 C4S) or my Z06 (23). Shocking for a Lexus and worse than my 460.
AC - I live in FL where we have “surface of the sun” heat. The AC in the GX is horrible and unacceptable. When you get in the car after it’s been parked outside it’s 100+ degrees inside. The AC blows at 1/2 speed and if you do not turn off all the “eco cool” and “blow air at occupied seats” options, it’s terrible. Basically I have to manually turn on Max AC to get the car to cool down quickly. The recirculate button is not “auto” (like the 460) so it takes even longer to cool the car down. Way, way worse than my 460 partly due to what appears to be smaller vents in the front. I feel like I’m back in a car with a “manual” AC system which is ridiculous for a $80K car. When it gets to -40 degrees (when you live in FL 40 feels like -40) the heat is similar in terms of poor performance. It’s lackadaisically blowing some lukewarm air inside and the “auto” seat heaters and steering wheel heaters don’t appear to ever “auto” work. If you just consider it a “manual” system and then it’s fine. Again, way, way worse than my 460. I would not buy the car on this item alone. I consider the AC in my 1985 Lotus Esprit to be more effective than the 550. Full disclosure; I do not have tint in the windows.
Tech Stack - The Lexus tech stack is light years ahead of the 460 and it’s great in a lot of ways. That said there are some serious gaps. For example, I do think it’s ridiculous that when you start the car the radio, or the last thing you were listening to, does not come on. You have to select “source” and the pick something. If I’m listening to Sat Radio channel when I turn the car off, I’d like it to be there when I start the car. This may be related to the fact that two of us drive the car and we only setup one profile (the dealer set that up and I have not changed it).
Driver Aids - It took a few of weeks before I turned most of that off. It felt like I was constantly fighting the car and the constant beeping over stupid stuff gets really annoying really quickly. Some of my favorites are my son pulls his seatbelt off when we are rolling up to school drop-off (at <5mph). The seatbelt starts beeping and sometimes continues to beep until I shut the car off and restart it. The exit beep when you lock to doors gets old as well (8 times for check the back seat). It does that even though the car has stopped, he has exited and I drove a mile home. I park at the house and it still thinks he’s in the car.
Eye Tracking - Frustrating. If you are driving on a straight, flat road with no traffic, do not look around or you will be reprimanded. God forbid you put your right hand at the 10 or 11 o’clock position on the wheel which blocks the sensor; all hell breaks loose.
Auto Cruse Control - Much better; when it turns on. Many times it gives me an error and then works the 2nd or 3rd time. It is much faster than the old one in terms of recognizing what’s going on. The 460 would slam on the brakes 1 sec after a car passed across your line in front of you, and was no longer there. The new one is much better.
Lane tracking - Much better (I generally left it off on the 460). When you combine that with the auto steering then the car drives itself which is kind of cool. Unfortunately if it drives itself close to the lane line and then beeps at you. I have driven a lot of cars that have proactive lane tech; to me the Lexus is the most intrusive of any car I have driven. In fairness my wife likes it; I hate it.
Hold - Oh yea, don’t get me started on “hold”. Every car I have had for years has “hold” (mostly German cars) and it’s great. At a stop light, just the break pedal down, a hold light comes on and the car does not move until you hit the accelerator pedal (your foot is already on the brake from stopping, just push it harder down and Hold comes on). The Lexus Hold feature has to be turned on every time you start the car. If you are sitting in the gas line at Costco and it is in “hold” mode for two long it asks you to press the brake pedal (what’s the point of hold then?). If you don’t the car just puts you in park. Either have “hold” or don’t have “hold” but having a 1/2 baked hold feature is an insult to the brand promise of “the best engineered car…”.
On the "best engineered" car comment who spends hundreds of millions of dollars developing a car with a hood that flaps like a bird wing on the highway? It comes across as either incompetence or just poo quality. (That’s not “poor” misspelled)
Seat comfort exit - Even on 1/2 back there is no back legroom when the driver seat is back. When you add that to the fact that the rear seats do not move (like the 460 did) then imo there is less back seat room than the 460.
Engine Noise - Reminder: NVH is a top 3 item for me. Some of you may remember a commercial years ago where a guy was sitting in a car, windows down, in a huge city. Traffic noise, jackhammers, sirens, etc. As he rolled up the windows the noise went away. That’s what I expect. The 460 and 470 sounded like a helicopter when you started them but then quieted down. The 550 engine noise is always there coming from the firewall at your feet. Not a good engine noise, just noise. In regular driving the 550 has more engine noise than my 911 or Z06 (if in standard or quiet mode). If it was a good noise I’d be ok with it. Unfortunately it’s a metallic noise that is right up there with nails on a chaukboard. Due to the “brick” exterior design wind noise is a bit worse than my other GX’s but it’s not too bad. That said, hate the engine noise.
Exterior - Love the look but the 460 had mudflats and running boards which the new car does not have (has the auto running boards which are “in” when the car is being driven). Since the bottom trim is black, the car looks dirty all the time; I’m surprised it did not come with Lexus mud flaps for the car just to keep some of the crud off the sides. (I’m not putting the Land Cruiser flappy mud flaps on a Lexus…)
Brakes - Good but squeak a LOT.
Summary: Why I probably would not buy it again.
Noise (NVH), worse.
Vibration (NVH), way worse on crap roads.
Harshness (NVH), way worse on crap roads.
Service Costs - To early to tell but some of the engineering misses make me wonder what else they either missed or cut corners for cost reasons (mud flaps, noisy running board, floppy hood, reported problems with this engine in the LX, etc.).
Overall engineering, quality and design - Love the look but details matter and are not where they should be or even at the level of the 460 imo. Not impressed with the engineering; some things are just either poorly thought out or decisions are being made by lawyers, not designers (hold, aggressive driver aids, etc.). It seems like Lexus has become Toyota, which is not a bad thing but, it’s not Lexus.
Last edited by TpupNomad; Dec 4, 2024 at 01:07 PM.
Thank you for this very good review/update. It probably would have been better in a whole new thread to make it more prominent.
I have been lurking here to see if this will be the right truck to replace my wife's Volvo XC90. One of the reasons I am still waiting is to see what the hybrid option will be. I am hoping it is the Land Cruiser's I-Force Max powertrain which should have significantly better gas mileage. The gas mileage reports I am reading for the V6 engine are just bad. Even bigger trucks with v6 engines are able to get 16+mpg combined. It's not an affordability issue. It just feels wrong that a modern vehicle/engine should post such poor gas mileage.
Lexus GX550 Review and Lexus GX550 vs Lexus GX460 Review. Some thoughts on our new GX550 after owning it for 2+ months:
Executive Summary: Having owned a GX470 and a GX460 I was excited about the big step forward when I saw the GX550. That said I would not buy it again without driving every other SUV in the segment. As background my priorities for a DD SUV are NVH, service costs, and overall engineering, quality, and design. I was surprised to learn that things that were not on my list, things that we all take for granted, are issues with the 550. FYI, I have a Luxury+ trim which is some of the problem. I will provide some context to my 460 which was also a Luxury trim.
Fuel Mileage - 11.7 mpg over 2-3 months, 1,550 miles in about 107 hours. Shockingly, no better than my 460. Frankly I consider this unacceptable in 2024. My wife drives the GX 95% of the time and drives like grandma…
Rear Door - The auto open/close has a mind of its own. It opens 100% of the time but it does not close often for no apparent reason. The closest reason I have observed is rain (we do get monsoon level rain in FL); it recently would not close in heavy rain and I guess the mechanics make the door extremely difficult to close. My wife cannot close it. I’d rather have manual close than this garbage. The 460 door was easy to operate but more importantly it was consistent. You never know if the 550 is going to work.
Ride - It’s probably the 22 inch wheels they make you buy on the Luxury+ trim but I’m not at all impressed with the ride. On smooth roads it’s fine. On the brick or bad roads in my area it “shudders” across the road verses the suspension actually working. The ride is worse than my 911 (17 C4S) or my Z06 (23). Shocking for a Lexus and worse than my 460.
AC - I live in FL where we have “surface of the sun” heat. The AC in the GX is horrible and unacceptable. When you get in the car after it’s been parked outside it’s 100+ degrees inside. The AC blows at 1/2 speed and if you do not turn off all the “eco cool” and “blow air at occupied seats” options, it’s terrible. Basically I have to manually turn on Max AC to get the car to cool down quickly. The recirculate button is not “auto” (like the 460) so it takes even longer to cool the car down. Way, way worse than my 460 partly due to what appears to be smaller vents in the front. I feel like I’m back in a car with a “manual” AC system which is ridiculous for a $80K car. When it gets to -40 degrees (when you live in FL 40 feels like -40) the heat is similar in terms of poor performance. It’s lackadaisically blowing some lukewarm air inside and the “auto” seat heaters and steering wheel heaters don’t appear to ever “auto” work. If you just consider it a “manual” system and then it’s fine. Again, way, way worse than my 460. I would not buy the car on this item alone. I consider the AC in my 1985 Lotus Esprit to be more effective than the 550. Full disclosure; I do not have tint in the windows.
Tech Stack - The Lexus tech stack is light years ahead of the 460 and it’s great in a lot of ways. That said there are some serious gaps. For example, I do think it’s ridiculous that when you start the car the radio, or the last thing you were listening to, does not come on. You have to select “source” and the pick something. If I’m listening to Sat Radio channel when I turn the car off, I’d like it to be there when I start the car. This may be related to the fact that two of us drive the car and we only setup one profile (the dealer set that up and I have not changed it).
Driver Aids - It took a few of weeks before I turned most of that off. It felt like I was constantly fighting the car and the constant beeping over stupid stuff gets really annoying really quickly. Some of my favorites are my son pulls his seatbelt off when we are rolling up to school drop-off (at <5mph). The seatbelt starts beeping and sometimes continues to beep until I shut the car off and restart it. The exit beep when you lock to doors gets old as well (8 times for check the back seat). It does that even though the car has stopped, he has exited and I drove a mile home. I park at the house and it still thinks he’s in the car.
Eye Tracking - Frustrating. If you are driving on a straight, flat road with no traffic, do not look around or you will be reprimanded. God forbid you put your right hand at the 10 or 11 o’clock position on the wheel which blocks the sensor; all hell breaks loose.
Auto Cruse Control - Much better; when it turns on. Many times it gives me an error and then works the 2nd or 3rd time. It is much faster than the old one in terms of recognizing what’s going on. The 460 would slam on the brakes 1 sec after a car passed across your line in front of you, and was no longer there. The new one is much better.
Lane tracking - Much better (I generally left it off on the 460). When you combine that with the auto steering then the car drives itself which is kind of cool. Unfortunately if it drives itself close to the lane line and then beeps at you. I have driven a lot of cars that have proactive lane tech; to me the Lexus is the most intrusive of any car I have driven. In fairness my wife likes it; I hate it.
Hold - Oh yea, don’t get me started on “hold”. Every car I have had for years has “hold” (mostly German cars) and it’s great. At a stop light, just the break pedal down, a hold light comes on and the car does not move until you hit the accelerator pedal (your foot is already on the brake from stopping, just push it harder down and Hold comes on). The Lexus Hold feature has to be turned on every time you start the car. If you are sitting in the gas line at Costco and it is in “hold” mode for two long it asks you to press the brake pedal (what’s the point of hold then?). If you don’t the car just puts you in park. Either have “hold” or don’t have “hold” but having a 1/2 baked hold feature is an insult to the brand promise of “the best engineered car…”.
On the "best engineered" car comment who spends hundreds of millions of dollars developing a car with a hood that flaps like a bird wing on the highway? It comes across as either incompetence or just poo quality. (That’s not “poor” misspelled)
Seat comfort exit - Even on 1/2 back there is no back legroom when the driver seat is back. When you add that to the fact that the rear seats do not move (like the 460 did) then imo there is less back seat room than the 460.
Engine Noise - Reminder: NVH is a top 3 item for me. Some of you may remember a commercial years ago where a guy was sitting in a car, windows down, in a huge city. Traffic noise, jackhammers, sirens, etc. As he rolled up the windows the noise went away. That’s what I expect. The 460 and 470 sounded like a helicopter when you started them but then quieted down. The 550 engine noise is always there coming from the firewall at your feet. Not a good engine noise, just noise. In regular driving the 550 has more engine noise than my 911 or Z06 (if in standard or quiet mode). If it was a good noise I’d be ok with it. Unfortunately it’s a metallic noise that is right up there with nails on a chaukboard. Due to the “brick” exterior design wind noise is a bit worse than my other GX’s but it’s not too bad. That said, hate the engine noise.
Exterior - Love the look but the 460 had mudflats and running boards which the new car does not have (has the auto running boards which are “in” when the car is being driven). Since the bottom trim is black, the car looks dirty all the time; I’m surprised it did not come with Lexus mud flaps for the car just to keep some of the crud off the sides. (I’m not putting the Land Cruiser flappy mud flaps on a Lexus…)
Brakes - Good but squeak a LOT.
Summary: Why I probably would not buy it again.
Noise (NVH), worse.
Vibration (NVH), way worse on crap roads.
Harshness (NVH), way worse on crap roads.
Service Costs - To early to tell but some of the engineering misses make me wonder what else they either missed or cut corners for cost reasons (mud flaps, noisy running board, floppy hood, reported problems with this engine in the LX, etc.).
Overall engineering, quality and design - Love the look but details matter and are not where they should be or even at the level of the 460 imo. Not impressed with the engineering; some things are just either poorly thought out or decisions are being made by lawyers, not designers (hold, aggressive driver aids, etc.). It seems like Lexus has become Toyota, which is not a bad thing but, it’s not Lexus.
Thanks, very informative. Written like you work at a tech company like AWS or a consulting firm.
Can you not turn off the "Eye tracking" and "Lane Departure" settings? The lane departure stuff drives me nuts and is the very first thing that I turn off, in any car/SUV.
Curious what other vehicles you wished you had test driven first, before buying this? I'm not sold on this new GX, and seems like reviews keep getting worse.
New Lux+
