2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570 – The $103,224 Thirteen Year Old

Six-figure vehicles are an interesting segment of the automotive world. On a daily basis, unless you live in a fairly affluent area, you won’t see that many on the road. Well, unless you live in Miami, whereas renowned poet William Smith said “Hundred-thousand dollar cars, e’ybody got em”. I would say that even around Washington DC it’s fairly rare, and six of the ten richest counties in the country are nearby. So, the average person might start to, even in a relative sense, believe that a $100,000 car is likely pretty special. It is with that in mind that I took this $103,224 Lexus LX 570 out for a spin to see if it feels special.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Background

The third-generation LX (J200) has been around since the 2008 model year. Thirteen years, that’s about half of the LX’s total time in existence! The sticker price of this tester divided by 13 means that’s $7,940.31 for each year it’s existed, which is an incredibly meaningless stat that I just made you read. Heck, even the “facelift” for the 3rd generation has been around since 2015, which is pretty wild considering how short most vehicle generations last these days. Most readers already know, but the LX is heavily based on the Toyota Land Cruiser, and development on this generation kicked off way back in 2002. All that to say, the LX is aging. It’s almost old enough to drive itself.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Anyway, on to the 2020 LX. As you can see above, the “base” two-row starts at a healthy $86,480, while you’ll pay another $5,000 for the third row. Our tester came with three rows, so that’s where we’ll take you on this journey. Building this online was easy, just select…everything.

2020 Lexus LX 570

That’s a pretty substantial list of stuff, let’s see how it does in our barrage of highly rigorous tests.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Test One – Helping the Less Fortunate

On a chilly fall morning, we awoke to a realization. We agreed to help pick up food for our son’s cub scout pack today! “Scouting for food” is a program where they drop off leaflets and a week or two later return to collect food donations. Mercifully it didn’t start that early, but I wearily arose and decided that such a task was an interesting test of a $103,224 vehicle. It not only tested the LX 570’s cargo capacity, but it also tested the all-important “driving slowly with the hatch open while 1st graders pile food into your car” factor. Super important in any SUV.

2020 Lexus LX 570

The LX did great, the warning system decided to occasionally remind me that the rear hatch was open, which was fine. The split tailgate was fantastic though, it allowed us to go from house-to-house and keep all of the food safe while on the move.

2020 Lexus LX 570

The heated seats and HVAC system also kept me warm while driving with the windows down. Plus, I didn’t have to walk, my favorite kind of charity. In the end, we filled the back of the LX with a ton of food for the less fortunate.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Test Two – Errands

Up next, the day-to-day grind of taking kids to sporting events and shopping for my own new ride. Each tested the LX in different ways. Some very unfortunate ways.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Up first, car shopping (top left, bottom right in the image above). En route to the Jeep dealer, which was about an hour and fifteen minutes away, we heard an “I don’t feel so good” from the backseat, followed immediately by that “gulp” sound that parents dread. With nothing to protect the six-figure LX’s interior, he let loose with the afternoon’s sustenance. We pulled off the highway onto the shoulder, likely causing us to be marked by a Wazer as a “vehicle on the shoulder ahead” and realized that we had absolutely nothing to clean it up. Being closer to the dealership than home, we pressed on, texting the salesperson that we were coming in hot and needed some cleaning supplies.

2020 Lexus LX 570

The LX’s leather interior was pretty easy to clean up, a testament to…something, probably. The only issue while cleaning was the extra vent below the 2nd row, great for blowing additional air into the cabin, awful to clean vomit out of. But, the next morning there were no foul smells, so it was mission accomplished. Oh and we bought a(nother) new car, more on that soon.

Next up was dropping our little guy off at hockey skating lessons. Because of COVID, parents aren’t allowed in, so this test factored in two key elements. 1) How good is it at carrying a kid and his hockey crap around, and B) How comfortable is it to sit in for the better part of an hour in a parking lot? Unsurprisingly the big, comfortable, SUV did great on both “tests”. It was super easy to get his gear on inside the LX, and the comfortable seats were great to lounge in while we waited. Plus, I had a cooler for my drinks.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Test Three – The Valet

lol, there’s no valet, we’re in the middle of a fucking pandemic! This is what it might look like. Glorious.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Test Four – Movie Night

Another COVID-related restriction, which has been front-and-center for me lately, is time with my older kids. Besides the six-year-old cub scout, there exists a sixteen and a thirteen-year-olds that call me “dad” as well. Unfortunately, their mom isn’t as concerned about the pandemic as I am, so their time at her house is less restricted. That means I have been seeing them socially-distanced since the fall started. Not easy to say the least, but I make the most of it.

2020 Lexus LX 570

It’s no secret around my house that my all-time favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone. It’s special any time I get to watch it, which is usually a few times each year.  Actually, in this case, I tried to show the movie Elf on BluRay, but my $100,000 loaner would only play DVDs. So, since Home Alone is one of the only DVDs I still own, I would bring it along for a socially distanced movie night with teens. That evening, I dropped by for dinner and a movie and the large interior of the LX provided just the right amount of distance between us. They took the 2nd row, I saw in the far back, leaving the $5,000 rear seats folded up to the side to give us some more separation. I also left the rear hatch open and had the windows down. It was chilly, but the LX kept everyone pretty warm.

Oddly enough, about an hour it, even on gas power, it shut itself off. I had to run around the front and restart it, which was odd, but not a huge deal. It passed the Christmas Spirit test, even though I remain a bit deficient in that category this year.

2020 Lexus LX 570

Summary

These strange days become stranger by the day. Just yesterday Virginia announced a new series of COVID restrictions. I’m fortunate to get to drive these cars on a (mostly) weekly basis, it’s a great distraction from what’s going on around us. In the end, I really enjoyed the time in the LX. Despite its age, it does just about everything well, and actually did feel special. I even had someone at a gas station say “that’s really nice”. And that’s the feeling that the LX gives, even though it’s a little truck-like compared to some of the competition, it is easy to drive, has a ton of amenities. Does it feel like it’s over $100,000? Most certainly.

Toyota doesn’t really care anyway, they sell around 4,000-5,000 LX’s per year, which is just a bit more than the number of Land Cruisers they sell. The point being, it’s not a high volume vehicle, and the sales numbers are incredibly stable year-to-year, which makes me believe they know exactly what they are investing (or not investing) in. At the end of my time with the LX, I was sad to see it go. Would I spend $100,000 of my own monies on it, that depends on my level of affluence I suppose. It’s going to be a raging bargain on the used market, that’s for sure!

Bonus Pics

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

2020 Lexus LX 570

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10 responses to “2020 Lexus LX 570 – The $103,224 Thirteen Year Old”

  1. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    As SUVs go, I would probably be interested in this if not for the price and awful front-end design. I would argue that this was a much more attractive vehicle 13 years ago. I’m definitely more of a Land Cruiser fan, but even those are pricey, too.

    Regardless, what I really wanted to say is that tailgates are awesome. Why more manufacturers don’t put these on SUVs and crossovers is beyond me. I mean, there was a time when you could get even tailgates on station wagons, and some of them could swing both down and sideways. Brilliant stuff, for some reason abandoned.

    1. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      Wagon tailgates that swing out are somewhat convenient for third row passengers that load through the back (either side-facing like full size Ford wagons or rear facing like just about everyone else), but inconvenient for most other uses because of the arc needed to swing a door wide enough to accommodate a sheet of plywood and the stress something that long and heavy puts on the lower left hinge. Swinging down can be helpful if you have a long load and need that extra extension of the cargo area, but every other time, it gives you that much extra distance that you have to reach across to grab anything out of the back.

      Now that most third row passengers load through the same side doors used for second rows, the MagicGate concept has become a bit pointless. I think I mostly prefer the top-hinged gates that seem most common on SUVs these days. Those also give you a weather protected area to stand under when you are loading your groceries. Those were made possible by the invention of gas-charged lift supports, which weren’t commonplace in the heyday of the fullsized station wagon.

      1. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        Enjoy your heavy umbrella. I’d rather have a tailgate.

        1. 0A5599 Avatar
          0A5599

          Funny you should mention heavy. I have in my driveway a full-sized SUV with a heavy umbrella at the back. Opening and closing it requires a push of a button on my keyfob, or on the hatch, or on the overhead console.

          I also have in my driveway a full-sized station wagon with a tailgate that will either fold down or swing out, but first you have to open the rear glass, which hinges up. In the summer months the glass was capable of staying up without my assistance, but now that things have cooled off, it constantly (and temporarily) reminds me that it’s time to replace the gas lifts. So for now, I always use one hand to support it when the glass is open. But the tailgate itself is rather heavy, and even though it is spring loaded it can still be a hassle to use, especially when trying to reach the lockable storage compartments in the floor or behind the left rear wheelwell..

          I also have in my driveway a full-sized station wagon with a tailgate that will either fold down or swing out. The glass on that one retracts into the tailgate if desired. That means the hinges and springs need to be strong enough for the weight of the tailgate plus the weight of the glass. Opening the gate like a tailgate requires the glass to first be completely lowered. You can open it like a door with the glass up or down, however note my earlier comment about the stress on the hinge; there is a good deal of slop that means a good hard slam is often required to get it to latch, and I’m always concerned that since the door sags a slight bit now, the top corner of the glass might make contact with the top of the right D-pillar during a hard slam, and break. Accordingly, I always lower the glass when using the tailgate. And of course, that tailgate always seems to be in the way when accessing the lockable storage under the floor or on the hinge side of the car.

          So, yes, I completely understand your desire for a tailgate, but I suspect you don’t already have routine experience using them regularly.

          1. Zentropy Avatar
            Zentropy

            Quite the contrary, actually. Our current Volvo XC90 has a tailgate, and its one of my favorite features of the car. And I still have an old 50s-era station wagon with a tailgate that works perfectly fine. The one on my SJ Cherokee hung in there long after the fenders rusted away entirely, and the one on my CJ was sorely missed when I swapped on a fiberglass body.

            I wasn’t suggesting that tailgates were more reliable, easier to use, etc. I simply said I liked them. Also, I feel that they provide a certain level of functionality that liftbacks lack altogether. My comment about your “heavy umbrella” wasn’t entirely sarcastic. I use the automated one on our minivan when loading and unloading groceries in the rain, and it’s great for that. I wasn’t trying to suggest it was inferior, but it doesn’t function in ways that a tailgate can.

            So, I don’t have inexperienced, romantic notions about tailgates. My interests are practical, but I’m also admittedly a person that for some reason appreciates manual door locks, manual window cranks, manual brakes, etc. I also like using my vehicle as a mobile base during the kids’ sports activities, camping, and building projects, and a tailgate makes for a nice bench seat or table.

            So seriously, I’m not knocking liftgates, I just don’t personally prefer them to a split tailgate setup. Like what you like.

  2. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    I feel like the most telling thing is the cooler instructions in English, Russian, and Arabic. It’s either that, or $100k, and it still can’t play BluRays. The LX is so old (*crowd* – “How old is it!), those tablets were originally used for cave paintings.

    1. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      A $100k dinosaur should be capable of playing the Wayne Newton cassettes owned by the dinosaur driving it.

    2. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Whenever I see one of these, I think of the traffic bonus™ you get in EEU countries. There’s one guy with a golden Landrover of this vintage in my village – sans the atrocious front. When I told him about the absolute power I would expect his car to project there, he just smiled and said he calls the colour “mustard yellow”.

  3. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
    dead_elvis, inc.

    Now, I’m neither a parent nor a scientician, but I’m fairly certain that vomit is not one of the substances that the bowels dispense.

    1. William Byrd Avatar

      I blame my editor…