The new 2024 GX550 unveiled by Lexus!!! (4Runner Replacement??)

By sheer volume (not looking at an individual vehicle or segment) can you say mercedes sells more than toyota?

 

I am getting old. These prices are through the roof. A small mortgage for buying LS or LX with that price for a GX.

 

It seems every TNGA-F vehicle has a smaller fuel tank than the preceding generation.
GX550: 21.1 gal
GX460: 23.0 gal

This means the 6th gen 4Runner will probably get a smaller 21 gal fuel tank as well.

 

Try driving a vehicle that has a 17 gal tank and gets 15 mpg at best.

 

Configurator is live: https://www.lexus.com/build/GX/2024/

Interestingly the Overtrail trim has a moonroof-delete option, reducing the price by $1100:

 

Yes the moonroof delete reduces the total to just over $70,000. That's a lot of nope.

 

^That's always been the case, and Lexus production volume is around one-tenth of Toyota production volume, so you have fewer to pick from.

I put in a Boston-area zip code. Not sure if the option choices vary by region in the configurator.

 

The way I understand it is that Toyota is one of the few car companies that have regional distributors who order the cars from Toyota and deliver them to dealers. Toyota dealers do not order from the factory like almost every other car company / dealer relationship.

Toyota regional distributors order the types of configurations that sell best in their regions.....an example being 2wd 4Runners with a sunroof being ordered and sold primarily in the Southwest.

 

The Bronco killer

 

I considered the GX550 Premium before putting a deposit down on my 4R, however the inevitable dealer markups for at least the first year as well as the unknown long term reliability of its V6 twin turbo made me go 4R. It looks amazing and I'm sure it'll be capable like the older GX models, but I'll play the long game and see how things to. I still think the 5th Gen 4R looks better and you get proven reliability.

 

Cute model. What do you make of that gizmo on the dash that she has her hand on? It looks futuristic for the time period? Notice the SONY name in it?

 

It looks like a reel-to-reel tape deck.

 

That’s one of the 2000GT's used in James Bond "You only live twice", so it was probably some fake spy equipment. It would have been the glove compartment otherwise. Or, maybe it's an 8-track?

The girl is an actress, Akiko Wakabayashi.

Fun fact: The 2000GT was only available in a hard top. They cut the roof off the ones used in the move because Sean Connery was too tall.

There were only 300-some made in the late '60's. It had an early DOHC M series engine, only 2.0 liters, with (3) 2-barrel carburetors. They made 148hp, which was pretty impressive for such a small engine back then.

 

Bruh, BetaMax. Its kind of famous.

 

A full review of the new GX's "Quirks & Features!"

 

Canadian GX550 configurator is up: https://www.lexus.ca/lexus/en/build-price/gx#/

2024 base trim is $8k more costly than the 2023 base trim. Overtrail (which is listed to include rear diff lock) is a $9k pkg, bringing total price to $96k before taxes:

 

https://youtu.be/c0CqIZJAx9k?si=qmQ3isL_Ing0_8ME

 

I'm more amazed at how many regular folk can afford $95k cars these days. Prices just keep creeping up.

 

They cant. Most of the people spending that much are trying to act rich and make themselves believe they deserve to have a luxury vehicle. It’s what actually keeps them poor and they will never realize what being wealthy is.

it’s all a house of cards made by easy financing. If most people had to pay cash they would be driving a 20 year old shit box because that is all the money they actually have. They are one or two months away from loosing everything if they lost their job tomorrow.

 

Speaking in context of Canadian dollar prices, most regular folks can't afford it, that's why Lexus sold only 662 GX's in its best year in 2015. In 2022, only 167 were sold: https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/lexus-gx-sales-figures/ The dealership structure and retail margins are set up for the low volume.

Average income for 25-54 year olds in Canada is $65k: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110023901&pickMembers[0]=1.1&pickMembers[1]=2.3&pickMembers[2]=3.1&pickMembers[3]=4.1&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2017&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021&referencePeriods=20170101,20210101

 

Hard to understand why this thread is even open now we all know that both the 250 and 550 are DOA.

An awful lot of us have predicted this sad state of affairs for quite sometime now. Where is the resident informercial team?

So let’s all hope the 6th Gen 4Runner is the cavalry that can save Toyota from its own Little Big Horn blunders.

Maybe Toyota can live twice

 

At the risk of being called names I 'd say it's by design. Regulations keep making automakers to add more technologies to cars that consumers don't need or want, and they do and add their margins to it, and that is on top of inflation and higher cost of doing business.

Every new generation, we get one step closer to the goal: Private transportation only for the super rich!...You'll own nothing and be happy!

 

On the contrary, both the 200-series Land Cruiser and the GX460 were sales failures (with the GX460 doing a bit better), so I'm sure the 250-series LC and GX550 will sell considerably more. Being actually practical, the 250-series LC might even last longer than the 8 year run the FJ Cruiser got.

 

The GX460 sales were better than the GX470 after the 2009-2010 period where all car sales tanked, so failure may be a bit strong of a description. But the predator grill drove away a lot of younger customers who were upgrading from their Toyotas(like our family)

The 200 series land cruiser, I think it was entirely greed on Toyota's part by pricing it so high and refused to sell a more mainstream trim, the same fate was suffered by the Sequoia, whose 50-70k a year sales early in its run tanked to barely 10k in 2019 before the virus hit.

 

That's what I mean, they barely sold 20k units on the first year of the 3rd gen Sequoia. the highest number of the chart, 2005, was in its 6th year of its model cycle

 

The gas mileage on the new 2024 GX550 isn't palatable.
16/17. With unproven engine.
Just like the new LC
Worst than current T4R

 

Yeah, the 17 combined figure is disappointing after a complete re-vamp and a large price increase.

I wish they could have found a way to carry over the GX460 everything but with the GX550 exterior for a few years. That would have been the bees' knees. I understand the regulations forced Toyota's hand since the overseas LC300 still offers motors like the 1GR so not Toyota's fault.

 

^Do you own a GX460? The 4.6L is gutless. The extra torque of the 3.4L turbo will be welcomed by most people.

 

I test drove one and found it just fine. We opted to not buy one due to the hideous front end and a few small things, we ended up buying a 2nd 5th gen 4R instead.

Maybe the butt-dyno feel is important to some Toyota and Lexus buyers but I am not one of them.