If the new Toyota Land Cruiser 300 Series Sahara ZX isn’t baller enough for you, you’ll need the incoming 2022 Lexus LX 500d. We’ve already conducted a full walkaround of the new LX 600 Ultra Luxury, but what about the regular J300 Lexus LX? Well, here’s an in-depth tour of the 2022 Lexus LX 500d base model with Enhancement Package, specified here in handsome Khaki Metal green over a tan leather interior.
This is one of the most important lexus products to launch in 2022 the new lx the flagship four-wheel drive of the range and it is a four-wheel drive isn’t it you can’t really get away with calling this an suv because it has the underpinnings of a toyota land cruiser and this one next to me has the engine from a land cruiser as well not like that’s any bad thing
Because this is the new lexus 3.3 litre twin turbo diesel v6 making 227 kilowatts of power and 700 newton meters of torque just like the previous gen lx there’s a petrol engine and a diesel engine but this time neither of them are v8 they’re both brand new v6 powertrains it’s going to save you at the bowser while still providing a nice refined talky experience now
We’re going to be able to road test the new lx range in about a month from now but today i’m going to take you through this base model lx 500d well it’s not truly a base model can you really call a 148 000 car a base model but this one has the optional enhancement pack which will set you back another 5 500 so whichever way you look at it it’s a little bit dearer
Than the old j200 lx but you’ll see when we jump inside it’s a more opulent car pretty much all around now the one i’ve got with me here is khaki metal a deep green over hazel tan certainly uh tom speck if you’re a subscriber to the channel and i encourage you to do so down below where you’ll also find my walk around of the lx 600 ultra luxury four seater but this
500d diesel is a seven seat model only the base grade lx will be a seven seater there’s an f sport for the first time and a sports luxury which are five seaters and then an ultra luxury four seater at the top so we’ll check out the interior the back seat and the boot and then talk about the mechanicals under the bonnet before i give you my sort of verdict of first
Impressions ahead of a later road test so let’s make a start so what do you get for your 153 000 or so in this base lx 500d with the enhancement package well you get quite a lot because standard specification across the lx range is really quite good you can take it pretty far you can spend 60 grand more than a base model on an ultra luxury and i’ve already got
A video on the channel you can watch of that car with the four seat interior but even on this kind of school run spec lx 500d base with enhancement package this is still a very luxurious car as it should be we are talking about over 150 000 dollars here but in terms of opulence this isn’t as far as the lx goes so what do we have same infotainment package across
The range built around a 12.3 inch touchscreen navigation digital radio why are apple carplay on android auto although we expect an update to wireless to happen at a future date but you also get a 25 speaker mark levinson reference stereo across the range one of the best stereos in the industry and to have that as a standard feature rather than a pricey option
Like cars like the gls and x7 typically have is awesome we then get this seven inch screen beneath the main unit you’ve got your climate controls sort of redundant climate controls because we do actually have buttons for most of the functions apart from fan speed which you have to drive through the touch screen we also get off-road controls and a camera view
For if you are taking this vehicle off-road beneath that i’ve mentioned some of the physical climate controls we then have drive modes rotary dials with a nice clicky sound and also the low range transfer case over here on the left hand side on this big wide bridge we have obviously the gear lever for the 10-speed auto wireless charging big cupholders and we
Have controls for the heated seats interestingly cooled seats are no longer standard on the lx which is a bit of a disappointment here in australia you’ll have to step up to the f sports or the sports luxury to get that feature a bit more storage ahead of the shifter usbc and usb a then we get onto the steering wheel which is pleasantly small has paddle shifters
Behind it all the shortcuts you need and here on the base grade lx we have beautiful shimamuku wood in dark brown gloss looks really really lovely we’ve got a mix of analog and digital gauges here in the center trip computer info media navigation and a standard heads-up display plus quality is really really really high in the lx as you would expect of any lexus
But particularly one which is such an important hallmark vehicle for the brand now what about the seats we’re sitting on the base seat here feel supportive i do need to do you know a few hours in the saddle to let you really know about that you can catch that in a future road test but we’ve got plenty of adjustment 12-way adjustment in this seat a little bit more
Actually 16-way adjustment in the seat and you’ve got a choice of colors black white crimson which is like a deep red or hazel which is what we’re sitting on here which is a classic tan always a classy option particularly underneath the deep green color of this car which looks really lovely in the light as well as here in the studio so up front we’ve got a high
High quality interior feels like it’ll go the distance let’s check out the back seats here in the second row of the lexus lx it’s an accommodating space now compared to that ultra luxury that we’ve already got a full breakdown of available on the chasing cars channel it’s obviously a step back in theory but it’s still a very luxurious place to spend your time and
Of course you have a center seat meaning you can get more people into the car not only that but the lx base grade which this car is is the only spec to have a third row so that’s available in both the lx 500d diesel and the lx 600 petrol the range takes in the seven seater base model which you can have an enhancement package on as this car does and then you jump
Into the five seaters the f sport and the sports luxury and then into the four seater which is the ultra luxury so if you’re actually intending to use this as family transport you’ll just want to keep it base in terms of what the enhancement package adds we’re talking 22-inch wheels up from 20s sunroof fitted to this car and a kick sensor for the power tailgate so
It’s not a massive change fairly modest in terms of amenities back here the seats themselves are actually quite comfortable being a body on frame vehicle your legs are a little elevated but you can kind of splay them just slightly and they are supported by the seat base but a monocoque suv something like a volvo xc90 is ultimately more comfortable in the second row
Than anybody on frame vehicle then we have air vents down here we have separate temperature zone for both sides of the rear and a shared fan control as well all the materials continue to be soft dark headliner quite chic manually adjustable rear blinds which is okay at 148k but on the 210 000 ultra luxury could have been motorized i reckon more mark levinson
Reference speakers back here of course because there are 25 in total if you can’t hear the stereo well you got to turn it up a bit louder flip down armrest here with cupholders integrated within it we don’t have features like the um power operated rear seats that you get in an ultra luxury of course but they do have quite a bit of recline in them so i can see
Myself potentially dozing off here on a longer trip regardless and of course we have the third row two not massive because ultimately the lx isn’t that big there are longer suvs available on the market but really nice so you could take a couple of extra kids with you if your children have friends going to the movie theater or the ice rink games parlor etc we’ll
Drive the new lx500d and lx600 models pretty soon and you’ll be able to catch those road tests here on chasing cars so make sure to hit subscribe but i’ll give you a few preliminary details now so as i mentioned this vehicle is fitted with the 227 kilowatt 3.3 litre twin turbo diesel engine that’s expected to account for a few more sales this time around although
Overall we think the petrol will probably still be the most popular lx the lx 600 uses a 3.5 litre twin-turbo v6 petrol engine making 305 kilowatts of power and 650 newton meters of torque the diesel is slightly more affordable but there’s only a few grand in it it used to be a massive jump from the base diesel to the base petrol in the lx range that’s definitely
Been condensed while the range itself has gotten a lot bigger than last time because we’ve now got four distinct grades and an enhancement pack on the base grade as well let’s just say they’re expecting about 500 sales per year of the lx although they’re all spoken for for 2022. so if you like the look at this car you’ll be getting a 2023 delivery if you place an
Order with a dealer now now in terms of other mechanical points the hardpoints and the wheelbase pretty much carry over from the j200 lx what toyota and lexus refer to as the magic wheelbase everything’s in the right place to take this vehicle off-road now the lx off-road spec that we’ve already seen in japan there’s been no discussion at all about that coming to
Australia so if you are intending to go far off road in one of these vehicles a toyota land cruiser will still be an easier vehicle to retrofit you’d have to do pretty substantial work to this front end in order to fit aftermarket bars and that sort of thing but you know still a very capable vehicle inherently baked into the mechanicals of course these wheels
Here these are 22 inch wheels everything has 22s from the enhancement package right up to the ultra luxury but the base model has 20s and given the overall size of the vehicle the 20s will have a very tall sidewall and they’ll deliver the best ride quality of any lx the f-sport model which is new that has adaptive dampers the rest of the range has passive dampers
But this has always been a comfortable car and we’re expecting that to continue to be the case dunlop rubber ground trek tyres fitted here again as per the j200 not expecting this to be any kind of sports car but tnga f the platform underneath the vehicle is more rigid than the 200 series platform was i’ve mentioned the wheelbase quite a short wheelbase given
The vehicle is five meters long but that means that the overhangs are pretty significant on the vehicle and that’s one of the reasons why cargo space is fairly generous particularly in the five-seat models but it’s not bad in the seven seat model either here around the back of this khaki metal lx 500d we can see this new full width led light bar it’s kind of got
Similar rear lights to the new nx this is the new family tail end that lexus is going to be adopting across its cars and of course we have the lexus word mark here now rather than that the l logo the l is still on the front and on the steering wheel this is polarized views in our comment threads on the nx you can let me know what you think down below but we do
Have diesel badging here but again just like with the j200 no exposed tailpipes on any lx just sort of a stylized diffuser down here toe package of course is a very very popular accessory for the lexus lx and also just a quick word about quality this is a production stage vehicle this isn’t a prototype and going around the car the shut lines are impeccable which
Is exactly what you would expect for any lexus product any land cruiser derived product as well that’s a big reason why you’d consider buying one of these things is the idea that it probably won’t fall apart now underneath this tailgate one beep the land cruiser beeps all the way up there’s a good reason to buy the lx huge tailgate big big struts and it opens
Up to reveal 982 litres of boot space which is pretty large in five seat form but a little bit less than the five-seater lx’s and that’s because this base grade even though it has the enhancement pack it’s hiding a third row oh we do have to hold those buttons down so we hold them down but it is power operated as you can see it slowly carefully brings the third
Row seats up i’m evidently doing something weird with the buttons here but there they come and then the last stage i have to do myself folding up the headrests definitely more spacious looking than the last generation but you’ll have to wait for our full road test to see how space is in that third row but eyeballing it i’d fit which is good partially because
The headroom is excellent this is a full wagon body full drive so the roofline continues forward even longer in terms of boot space though in seven seat mode very very limited um the kids are going to have to hold their school bags i think because there’s not a huge amount of space left over here we do just have a little underfloor area though for the tool kit
And the warning triangle one quirk to remember though is you’ve got to drop these headrests manually before you then put the third row down oh that’s interesting the backrest is a bit disconcerting the backrest actually has two angles of recline so you can generate a little bit more boot space but this is still not massive with all seats up we’ve got a 100 watt
Household power point in the boot which is certainly a nice to have and then buttons to close the boot or to close it and lock the vehicle so you’re able to just walk away with the proximity key that functions on all doors and the boot so those are my first impressions of the new lexus lx 500d base grade with enhancement package one of many new variants to the
Lx lineup that will now also take in a first ever f sport for the lx and also a super top of the range grade called the ultra luxury that we’ve already covered on the channel in future we’ll have road tests of both petrol and diesel j300lx models so make sure to hit subscribe down below if you haven’t already but in a static fashion at least my first impressions
Of this vehicle are good i don’t mind alexis lx if i’m being honest with you they are more chintzy than something like a toyota land cruiser sahara but the quality is really there and if i was gonna be buying a family suv that i thought was gonna last the distance it might be expensive but it’d have to be on your short list as always though i’ll put a massive
Asterisk there and say everything relies on the road test that being said we have enjoyed the time we’ve spent in 300 series land cruises since that vehicle launched although it is very difficult to get your hands on one as it will be with the lx so if you think you’re on the fence but you’re leaning towards getting one of these i’d be speaking to a dealer pretty
Soon about a 2023 delivery let alone 2022. keen to know your first impressions though let me know down below in the comments don’t forget about that subscribe button i’ve really plugged that one this video haven’t i and as always thanks for watching chasing cars
Transcribed from video
When a Land Cruiser is NOT enough! (Lexus LX 500d 2022 review walkaround) By Chasing Cars
