On the Road: Lexus GX 460 [VIDEO]

Let’s be brutally honest about the Lexus GX 460. This truck is an ode to cheap gasoline.

If we weren’t swimming in low priced petrol right now, The GX would be sitting on dealer’s lots like Escalades and Navigators.

And like those two luxury barges, the GX 460 shares it’s underpinnings with a mostly bread and butter vehicle. In this case, we’re talking about the Toyota 4Runner. Think of it as a 4Runner in a tux. Which isn't bad at all.

And with such a superb platform underneath, the GX is a very capable off-road vehicle. The question is, will anyone take this $65,000 beauty into the boonies to be banged and scratched up with a little rock crawling? I think I can safely say, the answer is negatory.

So, like the dentist driving his Ferrari at 60 miles an hour, we have a lot of automotive potential that will never be used. But in return, we have a superb luxury SUV always ready for around-town duty, or the occasional long road trip.

And all of the above will be handled in style in a vehicle that gives new meaning to the word posh. The look is actually very utilitarian from the sides, but that grill. The GX has been given the Lexus family grill that looks like an hourglass made of two triangles stacked on one another.

This is a body-on-frame truck that weighs over 5100 pounds, so the 4Runner’s V6 just wouldn’t cut it. Instead, we find a 4.6-liter V8 under the hood that cranks out only 301 horsepower. That may sound modest, and it is. But in an SUV, it’s the torque, the low end grunt, that gets a beast like this moving, and the GX has 329 ft. lbs of it.

That will take this luxo-box to 60 miles an hour in 7 seconds, which frankly, isn’t bad. And as much as I made of the cheap gas necessity, city mileage is 17 miles per gallon, and you can get 22 on the highway. It isn’t great, but there are a lot worse offenders out there.

Inside, there’s wood and leather galore, and a mix of analogue and digital instruments that is a bit startling. Go with all analogue, guys. It’s classier.

On the road, the truck pulls well, and you can set the adjustable shocks to one of 3 firmness settings. You won’t win many races, and the handling is just good enough to keep you out of trouble. But this is not about speed, it’s about getting there in style and comfort, and if need be, getting there over some rough terrain.

The Lexus GX 460 isn’t cheap with ours loaded up to over $65,000, but with Toyota quality and timeless sport ute styling, it’s a truck that will last as long as you take care of it, or at least until gas is over $3 a gallon again. By then, Lexus will surely have a hybrid version waiting for you.