This marque has offered SUVs since 1995, with the first LX. Looking at any pictures will reveal it was nothing but an upgraded Land Cruiser, but in this case this is actually good. After all, it wasn’t needed to develop a whole new vehicle because Toyota’s had already managed to become successful there. The problem was the fact of this brand’s image being too restricted to medium-cost cars, which made harder to succeed at upscale categories. Creating a luxury division came in handy because it enabled the company to make its first steps into higher price ranges by only giving the appropriate luxury touch to some of their cars, leaving the exclusive ones to be created only years later, if the new marque managed to sell well enough.
Lexus started to do this with the smaller cars, but preferred to maintain the old strategy with the SUVs probably due to their smaller demand. In other words, GX arrived in 2002 below LX, but they both are based on Land Cruiser’s versions – the first on Prado and the other on the original one. GX didn’t take long to prosper mostly because of Lexus’ generosity, expressed with a huge equipment list, some innovations like a dynamic suspension system and a powerful V8 engine.
Such market performance must’ve been the reason why GX’s second generation didn’t have too much to do: it only improved the original concept, increasing luxury, safety and internal space while adding new technologies and using more efficient engines, and wrapping all of it with a design which was imponent, but still discreet. This article’s pictures anticipate that Lexus’ intention was precisely to revert the last part of that phrase: this became its latest vehicle to receive their current design language, which is proudly showed at the front, with the typical spindle grille. The entire fascia was redesigned, and now includes LEDs for headlamps, daytime lights and even fog lights.
The interior’s biggest addition was the complete infotainment system, whose 8” touchscreen works for HD Radio, Bluetooth connectivity and traffic and weather information, besides the other typical functions. There are also new coating colors and textures, which adds mahogany wood accents on both Premium Package and Luxury version. GX’s equipments can include air suspension, blind spot monitor, driver monitor, parking assist, rear cross-traffic alert and ten airbags, always using the V8, 301-hp 4.6L engine that always brings a six-speed automatic transmission.