An off-road roughneck in a tux.


The Lexus version of Toyota’s world-wandering Land Cruiser SUV gets its first full makeover in a decade. The Lexus LX570 sprouts in early 2008 with a new body, frame, and engine, an opulent features list, and a predicted base price of $70,000, but it has the same objective: to be a luxury eight-seater capable of rolling over hill, over dale, and over the neighbor’s Prius—basically, over whatever separates upscale families from their upscale destinations.

Unlike Toyota’s pickups and lesser SUVs, which share common frames, the LX570 and the Land Cruiser ride on a single-purpose frame that is box-sectioned front to back and durability-tested to be the heaviest and toughest the automaker offers (it’s even hardier than the ’07 Tundra’s, says Toyota).

The suspension remains independent up front, with a live axle in the rear located by five links and shouldering the body with coil springs. In the LX570, which is slightly longer, taller, and wider than its predecessor, a new electrohydraulic suspension automatically lowers the body at highway speeds and can raise it for deep-water fording, slick-rock crawling, and other Lexus-owner activities. Electronic shock-damping control cuts body roll by a third as well as the squat and dive naturally engendered by a vehicle weighing almost 6000 pounds.

Amenities standard and optional include a power-sliding middle row, a Bluetooth connected navigation system, and a Mark Levinson stereo that will pipe XM satellite radio to your ears through 19 speakers.

The permanent four-wheel drive incorporates an electronically locking center differential and brake-based limited-slip traction assist. Toyota has developed “crawl control,” a low-speed, off-road cruise control. Up to 10 mph, the desired velocity is maintained by a system that closely monitors wheel speeds and works the throttle and brakes to ensure traction in ruts, sand, and polo-field horse poop.

A boat-yanking 401 pound-feet of torque stream from the four-cam, 32-valve, 381-hp, 5.7-liter i-Force V-8 shared with the Tundra. That’s 113 more horses and 73 more pound-feet of torque over the last 4.7-liter V-8. Towing capacity is a mighty 8500 pounds. A six-speed automatic should help reduce the fuel appetite, but the EPA mileage figures should remain in the low-to-mid teens.