Luxury Don't miss out on the headlines from Luxury. Followed categories will be added to My News. If you forget the name of Lexus’ new four-wheel-drive, remember that it has a thirsty petrol engine and might visit service stations twice as often as its Toyota cousin.
Tell yourself “Gee, that’s expensive to run” and you’ll be damn close to the badge on the back of the Lexus GX. This is a new type of car from Toyota’s luxury cousin. In the same way that Lexus’ LX is a luxury LandCruiser, the GX is a posh Prado that deletes the Toyota’s HiLux-derived diesel engine in favour of a 3.
5-litre twin-turbo V6. 2024 Lexus GX Overtrail. Photo: Supplied The engine is an asset and liability.
It’s smoother, quieter, and far punchier than its cheaper four-cylinder cousin. Overtaking on long steep hills is effortless thanks to peak outputs of 260kW and 650Nm that result in V8-rivalling thrust, helped by a sophisticated 10-speed automatic transmission keeping the engine in its sweet spot. But you also get V8-rivalling thirst.
Our test car returned 18L/100km fuel figures in urban running, which settled down to 16.5L/100km after a couple of hours on the highway. 2024 Lexus GX Overtrail.
Photo: Supplied That's not great. Brim the tank with premium unleaded and you’ll be greeted by a fuel gauge that shows less than 450 kilometres of range – a number that falls further if you fill it with people or hitch something to the tow ball. I’ve seen numbers approaching triple that di.
