Author - Kaga User: Ogo who opened the acura
With the release of the Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 series in March last year, the models on the same TNGA-F platform have also been replaced, such as Toyota Tantu, Redshirt and Lexus LX, and today's protagonist is one of these cars: the new generation of Lexus LX600. In fact, I don't know much about the Lexus LX, and I haven't been exposed to the previous generation LX, mainly because this type of car is not within my needs (saying I'm poor can also, haha!). And I'm not too interested in all-terrain SUVs myself, but the Lexus LX is a very special car, and I think about it, as if this car has no direct competitors, unlike the European BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS and Range Rover, these cars do not have a non-loader chassis, more like an ultra-luxury road SUV, unlike the LX has some off-road capabilities. Unlike the American Cadillac Careyd, Lincoln Navigator and Jeep Grand Wagoneer, although these cars are non-carrier chassis, but there is no off-road performance, more through the non-carrier chassis to reflect a style, anyway, is the typical American luxury SUV taste. To talk about the car similar to the LX, I think the Infiniti QX80 is one, but this car is really too old, and it feels like Nissan is not going to build the next generation of QX80. In this way, the Lexus LX is a relatively independent car. As far as I know, in the past, Lexus LX has been very strong in the domestic market performance, if I am not mistaken, this car seems to be a representative of the price increase, but I do not know how much money to add (if you know, you can give me science in the comment area). All in all, this car has a certain degree of heat, although it may not be able to be introduced into the country through official channels in the future, but I believe that there will still be many people who buy this car through the form of parallel imports, so I may wish to take everyone to evaluate this car through my perspective, but one point has to emphasize that although this is a car with off-road performance, I have not experienced off-road performance, nor off-road experience, so I can not evaluate the off-road performance of this car, can only evaluate the road performance.
【Appearance】
I think the buyers of the Lexus LX600 will care a lot about the visual performance, and even pay more attention to the dynamic level than the dynamic level, so this article gives priority to the appearance and interior, and then introduces the driving quality, and the driving experience is finally introduced.
Although this car has not been replaced for 14 years, but the appearance of this car makes people feel that there is still no change, at least compared with the LX after the mid-term modification of the previous generation, the appearance has not changed much, and even in the appearance of the novelty brought to me is not as strong as the previous generation of the redesign, I feel that the body structure has not changed much, the shape of the lamp has not changed much, the grille has not changed much, saying that it is the second modification of the previous generation model I believe. What do I think about that? Since I don't think the car has been much innovated in appearance, it also means that the aura of the previous generation of LX still continues to this generation of models, which is not a bad thing from this point of view. Like I said, the Lexus LX is a relatively self-contained car, and probably the people who like this car still want him to maintain the aura he used to have, so I think Lexus may have taken those factors into account, and from this point of view, the appearance of this generation that does not seem to me to be innovative is not necessarily a bad thing for the potential consumer group of this car.
【Interior and Ergonomics】
If the appearance of the new generation of LX is still stuck in the last era, then I think the interior of this car is a step backwards in an era, I really feel that the interior of this car has no sense of design, I feel that the big screen on the center console and the center console are spelled out, and the rest of the interior is not integrated into one, and then the all-black interior I opened looks very monotonous, no sense of layering, so I think the interior atmosphere of this car is a big failure, even less than the LX after the mid-term redesign of the previous generation, There is absolutely no flagship SUV that should look like it.
In addition to the overall atmosphere, I can also find through the details that the interior of this car is very traditional, and I will list these details below. This generation of LX uses the design of the central control double screen, the upper large screen controls the multimedia system, the following small screen controls the air conditioning and the display of vehicle dynamic information, I remember about ten years ago some car manufacturers like to use this dual screen design, such as Honda, Acura and Infiniti, and then these brands will no longer use the layout of the double screen, such a layout is also an outdated design, so Lexus will apply the dual screen layout to the flagship model under its own brand to make me a little surprised, In such a popular intelligent era, I did not experience a little intelligent taste on this car, some people may ask, since the potential consumers of this car as mentioned above want this car to leave a traditional taste, then why is this car required to have intelligent attributes? My opinion on this is that since you want to be traditional, let's guarantee basic ergonomics, okay? However, the central control ergonomics of this car is not very good.
The small screen below has a very low resolution, the response is not fast, and the information displayed is not intuitive, and in my opinion, this small screen has no functionality at all. Since the air conditioning and driving mode can be controlled by physical buttons and knobs, why do we need this small screen? And there is such a large screen above, can't this information be displayed on the big screen? When you don't open the navigation, the big screen hardly displays any information, so I think the central control of this car not only looks outdated, but also cumbersome to use, and the design is very underconsidered.
Lexus has used electronic gears on some models, but this flagship SUV is still used after the use of mechanical gears, the long-term non-replacement of the Infiniti QX80, I really can't think of this level of the second SUV with mechanical gears, in fact, I have no complaints, after all, it is still very convenient to use, I just want to say that the mechanical gear on this car is a more traditional design, maybe some people feel that to this level still use mechanical gears.
Although the dashboard is LIQUID CRYSTAL, but the water temperature and oil volume and other scales are still using mechanical hands, the resolution of the LCD screen is very general now, other brands have begun to use the naked eye 3D LCD dashboard, but the new generation of LX LCD dashboard visual effect is still stuck at the level when the LCD dashboard first appeared, with other low threshold Lexus models of the dashboard almost the same, even worse than them, at this point I think some can not say.
The same criticism is the tactile texture, the material in the car is not much worse, but for a flagship SUV is not too good, this is not the point, the focus is that the texture of the buttons and knobs of this car is really too poor, the button texture is similar to other Lexus models, the knob texture is extremely loose, spinning up can also hear the "creaking" sound of plastic rubbing, to put it ugly, even most of the 100,000 yuan of the car is not as good.
The last time I evaluated the new generation of NX, I said that in the past LS and ES that kind of exquisite interior from NX began to nothing, did not expect that in their own flagship SUV LX is also the same (and I opened or the top of the stage), look outdated not to say, the texture has become cheaper, the use experience is not much better, in this era I can not accept such a level, give negative points are not excessive, even if this is a two or three hundred thousand cars I do not think there is a grade, let alone Lexus flagship SUV? I really don't know what Lexus thinks, in my opinion, his interior craftsmanship was still at the top level of the industry in the first two years, and now it is not too much to say that it is the bottom echelon, and the interior that disappoints me the most in this era is Lexus.
【Seat】
The front seats are decent, although there are no impressive highlights, but there are no hard injuries, with a certain degree of wrapping, can also be adjusted to a suitable sitting position.
The second row of space is not large, but the second row of seats can be praised, the material of the seat is relatively soft, the backrest can also be adjusted to a very soothing angle, the length and height of the cushion are very suitable, and it is very comfortable to ride. Of course! The new LX is certainly not as comfortable as the rear seats of some executive-class sedans, but if compared to some full-size SUVs, its seats are still very comfortable. However, the above conclusion is only for models other than the top, because the top model is a four-seater car, the rear row is two adjustable seats, and the structure and functionality of the seats are completely different.
This car also has a third row of seats, to be honest, I think this row of seats is completely unnecessary, subject to the limitations of the body structure, the third row of the platform is very high, the longitudinal space is small, can only sit a child, to adults to sit if it is too suffocated, so it is usually best not to use the third row.
The trunk space itself is not large, it is better to put the third discharge down to make more space for the trunk.
【Driving quality】
Speaking of luxury cars, the driving quality that everyone can think of should be very flexible, very isolated and have a feeling of driving on the flying carpet, but the new generation of LX is not so, I did not think that the driving quality of this car is so advanced, the above description of these characteristics are not on this car to the extreme, but this does not mean that the driving quality of this car is poor, overall performance is more neutral, but his driving quality may not be as high-end as everyone thinks, For a non-body-carrying SUV, I think the new generation of LX can still satisfy me. Non-carrier SUV center of gravity is high, suspension travel is long, the body in the driving process to produce multi-dimensional sway is very normal, but this LX600 body posture to maintain a very good, although the sense of feedback is relatively soft, but the body does not struggle at all, will not because of driving on the continuous uneven road to produce multi-dimensional sway, can always maintain a calm body posture, very neat, I think this is even better than some smaller size of the carrier structure SUV (such as Mercedes-Benz GLE), It didn't give me the feeling of being on a boat. The sense of isolation has not been done to the extreme, driving on the road can still detect some fine gaps on the road, but as just introduced, the texture of the chassis of this car is still very soft, can feel the dispersion with a little tight texture, there will be no hard and hard phenomenon, still can provide comfortable driving quality for the occupants, which is also acceptable for non-carrier SUVs. Seeing this, you should be able to understand why I said that the chassis of this LX600 is very neutral, no one is at the level of leapfrogging, but the performance of each one is not bad.
【Powertrain】
As we all know, since the replacement of this generation of Toyota Land Cruisers, all the models on the TNGA-F platform he is on have abandoned the 5.7 V8 engine code-named 3UR-FE, replaced by the 3.5L V6 twin-turbo engine codenamed V35A-FTS, although the displacement is 2.2L smaller, but the horsepower is greater than before, up to 409 horses, so it is no problem to pull such a large car with this engine, and the actual power experience is also very strong. In the process of normal driving, the running quality of the engine is not bad, but the running quality of the engine is somewhat inferior when accelerating sharply, the decibel is not large, but the sound is not thick enough, and there will be some very slight vibration transmitted to the steering wheel, I think for a luxury flagship SUV some should not, to a certain extent, it will affect NVH, in terms of engine operation quality, this car still has room for improvement. The gearbox is Aisin's 10-speed manual transmission, currently widely installed in Toyota's vertical model, in fact, before the new generation of smooth road experienced this set of powertrain, but in the tuning and LX600 is still very different, this will be described in detail later, on this LX600, the gearbox's smoothness is no problem, the process of gear shifting and power intervention are very smooth, but the low gear will occasionally produce a very slight setback in the process of starting. Power response is at a normal level, small amplitude power request is very positive, and the throttle is also very heeled, but the medium and large power request is a little conservative, first talk about the medium power request, the process of stepping on the throttle, the initial power will still be as positive as when the small amplitude power request, and linear, but after stepping on a point, I feel that the acceleration force becomes weaker, not like the initial stage, the acceleration force is so consistent with the amplitude of the throttle stamping, slightly lacking a little linearity, anyway, giving people a feeling of sluggishness, I guess is the reason why the low gear teeth are relatively large, it may also be that the starting point of the turbine is adjusted earlier, and the end of the Constant Power Zone may be earlier; when the big power request is requested, the response speed will slow down, but once it starts to respond, the gearbox can be reduced to the target gear in time, although carefully experienced, it can still appreciate the slightly non-linear problem of the power just mentioned in the middle, but overall the process of downshifting is still relatively one-shot, if you transfer into Sport+ After the mode, the gearbox will enter the higher speed range in time (may be reduced to a lower gear), I think the characteristics of this gearbox in the big power request are more like the ES350 F Sport I shared with you some time ago, to say that the response speed is not fast, but the transmission once it starts to downshift the process is very crisp, as if to remind the driver that this car can provide a certain sense of movement, but still did not escape the original intention of the executive car. In general, the powertrain of the LX600 is still not perfect, but these flaws are definitely not hard injuries, far from reaching the catastrophic point of the 8AT on the NX350 that was driven some time ago, and generally no one will drive this car fiercely, if you drive this car gently, these problems are less likely to be detected. The performance of this 10AT on the LX600 is in line with the positioning of this car, and the slightly sluggish response is very suitable for this car, after all, the gearbox can accurately find the target gear most of the time, basically ensuring that the driver can drive the car smoothly.
【Control】
The last thing to say is the handling of this car, in my opinion, this is the least important part of this car, but I did not expect that the handling of this car has many highlights, this should be the best non-loader SUV I have ever driven the steering calibration, whether it is the establishment of the steering feel or the body following can give absolute praise. Driving this car does not feel like a big car at all, without adjusting the steering wheel at a large angle to complete the turn and lane change, the body change rhythm is very consistent with the angle of the steering output, although it is not as sharp as the performance car, but it is not at all like some pickup trucks or hardcore off-road vehicles because the very large steering radius makes people feel that the body rhythm is slow, I don't know if this is a significant improvement of the new generation LX, because I have not driven the previous generation of LX, but I have driven the GX460, Although this car is smaller than the LX600, the turning radius is very large, so I can guess that the new generation of LX should have a significant improvement in body following compared to the previous generation. The steering feel has a very strong sense of high-end, the smoothness is very high, and it is accompanied by a very soft sense of feedback, and the rhythm of the return is just right, so driving this car will feel very slippery, and it is impossible to experience a slight sense of jerkiness in the steering. In addition, the speed of steering damping and the gain with angle are also very in place, very light at low speed, and the soft damping feeling introduced above is not lost at the same time, so that driving this car does not feel that the steering is very false; when entering the high-speed range, the damping has a tendency to become heavier, and there will be no particularly obvious vacancy phenomenon, making the high-speed driving experience more stable. From this we can see that thanks to the good body following and light and smooth steering feel, the driver can drive this big car easily and comfortably, for a non-carrier structure SUV I must praise the control of this car, even compared with a smaller size of the carrier SUV, his control and steering feel is also very good.
【Simple comparison with the new generation of Toyota Tantu】
You may have a question, is it that the cars born under the TNGA-F platform have similar dynamic performances? More specifically, more people should care about whether the performance of LX600 and the new generation of land patrol is similar, because there is no land patrol in the whole of North America, I can't examine this problem, but I have driven a new generation of smooth roads under this platform, you can make a reference through the driving experience of this car, let's talk about the conclusion first! The driving experience of Tantu and LX600 is very different, and it can be felt that the orientation of the two cars is obviously different, so this also fully shows that the dynamic performance of any car under the TNGA-F platform may not be the same. The powertrain calibration of the new generation of Tantu is not as conservative as the LX600, and the gearbox response is more positive than that of the LX600, but the engine running sound of the LX600 is handled more thoroughly than that of the new generation of Tantu, and there will be some sound waves during the acceleration of the Tadato, and the LX600 will only intervene in some engine operation sounds during the rapid acceleration process. The chassis of Tantu is tougher than the LX600, the vibration feedback is more direct, the feedback is also greater, the road sense is clearer, and the chassis of the LX600 appears softer. Tantu's steering is more dynamic than the LX600, manifested in better body following than the LX600, and the damping is tighter than the LX600, both of which are well tuned in this regard, but the Tantu controls more sportier, and the LX600 is more leisurely to control. It can be seen that in the dynamic dimension of the new generation of Tantu and LX600 has almost no similarities, in order to achieve a luxurious dynamic atmosphere, LX600 or in the tuning of a certain amount of effort, I guess this car and the new generation of land patrol will also have a more obvious difference.
【Summary】
In fact, for me, the new generation of Lexus LX600 is not my favorite car, nor is it a car I hate, anyway, my impression of this car is very neutral. The visual aspect is not very pleasing to me, on the one hand, it lacks a sense of design, on the other hand, the overall tone is too traditional and does not match the trends of this era. In fact, I am not against tradition, the visual level of the Genises G80 and GV80 is also more traditional, but they have worked the design, and the visual effect that finally looks like it is still very eye-catching. In the dynamic dimension, apart from a little surprise in terms of control, other aspects are probably just the right level. In the past two years, the entire Toyota Group has often had some cars that have deviated, or even deteriorated to the point of astonishment, but fortunately, the new generation of LX is not in this category, although I criticized the interior of this car, but there is no hard injury in testing the mechanical quality of the tuning skills, most of which have reached a better level, and it is still a more realistic car. In fact, the visual design and mechanical quality of this car are not the most important thing about this car, the life cycle of the previous generation of LX is as long as 14 years, in these 14 years his demand has been in an unabated trend, as I said at the beginning of the article, the people who buy this car value the aura of this car, a certain passability and Lexus's reputation accumulation in reliability over the years, as long as there is these, the demand for a new generation of LX will not be weakened, but the only thing that worries me is this set of 3.5T+ The reliability of 10AT, when I looked through consumer reports half a year ago, I found that the reliability of this generation of LS is at a much lower than average level, which may sound a bit surprising, but this is indeed the truth, and many of the problems are in the powertrain, so I don't know if the same powertrain can maintain good reliability on the LX600. All in all, tradition is indeed the first impression left by the LX600, when I personally drove this car, I felt that this car is very conservative, although the structure and hardware are new, but in the technology and intelligence did not see the shadow of this era, there is no freshness in the configuration, the interior is more like an ordinary home demand car, not like a luxury car (this is the opposite of another flagship car - LS), tuning is also more neutral, so "traditional" and "conservative" These two words can sum up my impression of this car.