Hands-On With the New Toyota Land Cruiser AND Lexus GX- Which Should You ACTUALLY Buy!?

Hey everybody, I've got a great video for you today because I'm out here at the Overland Expo Mountain West and we are comparing two of the hottest new vehicles which are about to hit the market. The new Toyota Land Cruiser and the new Lexus GX and in this video we're going to compare and contrast and talk about which one you should buy because there's a lot of cool stuff to talk about here. A lot of big differences on what is a vehicle that shares the same platform. So let's start with the Land Cruiser. Now I was at the launch of this vehicle in Salt Lake City. I have a video over at TFL Car if you want to see all the details on this vehicle but this is actually my first time seeing the first edition. When I was there they had the 1958 and the top trim Land Cruiser but this first edition offers some really attractive features and we're going to take a look at those in person. Now this is of course much smaller than the outgoing 200 series Land Cruiser. Internal designation on this vehicle is the 250 series. It also has a much smaller engine so the 5.7 liter v8 has been replaced by a 2.4 liter turbo made into a 40 horsepower electric motor so it's a standard hybrid. Total system output is 326 horsepower and the torque 465 and we're going to compare and contrast that to what Lexus is doing with the GX. Now visually a lot of old school design elements that have made its way into the Land Cruiser and this first edition is a very attractive package and I'm excited to see this person so there are two different headlight designs which I'm told are interchangeable but the 1958 and the first edition has the round headlight. There's also a square one which is going to be on the upper Land Cruiser trim. The round headlight is the way to go and look at this front end design right very modular so you can see separate big separation between the front quarter and then of course the front bumper nice and chunky and it looks pretty modular so for bumper manufacturers I'm hoping unlike the current 4Runners and the current GX right you're going to have to do a lot less trimming of sheet metal and sheet plastic to get a winch and that kind of thing into the front of the Land Cruiser. Now the first edition does have the Michelin LTX trail tire 265 70 R18 wheel pretty small wheel off-road tire not very aggressive I think that's going to be something I would probably change pretty quickly if this was my vehicle and then the first edition has that integrated rocker protection which I haven't seen yet. Nice tubular design looks pretty beefy I'm not sure if it will offer much assistance in stepping up into the vehicle but it will certainly help protect those door sills which is nice. You can see solid rear axle independent front suspension not a lot of ground clearance in this vehicle like eight point I think of 8.7 8.8 inches of ground clearance somewhere in that territory if I remember correctly which is you know Subaru leveled about an inch less than the 4Runner but first edition cues also include the roof rack nice slim design on that roof rack and this also has a leather interior and then making your way to the rear you see the standard tow hitch chunky tail lights does have the swing open glass which is cool and then Land Cruiser first edition mud flaps yeah not a huge fan of those especially with that little check strap it's kind of odd but that's easily going to be removable and then the two-tone white over over tan is gorgeous really really into that. Now pricing Toyota hasn't officially announced pricing they're saying mid 50s and I mean I would expect that probably first edition is going to be over 60 just my hunch and then Toyota folks have also said that the first edition is coming to market first so unlike Gladiator the first edition is actually going to be first and not going to be behind some of the other vehicles so overall I'm digging this I really like that roof rack let's get a let's get a side profile shot of that nice little arrow profile there good fuel economy too so when I was at the launch they didn't tell me the fuel economy and then a bunch of you guys actually reached out and said Toyota had published it on the website not sure if that was an accident or miscommunication but 27 mpg right pretty damn good especially compared to the current 4Runner very very impressive let's see what the underbody protection looks like in the first edition big chunky skid plate yeah recovery points there looks pretty good nice uh nice kind of swept up front end too to help with the approach angle what about the underbody over here um looks like maybe we got a skid plate there over the engine trans still seems very vulnerable I'm hoping the skid plate would extend further back on the first edition right with the off-road tires but that's interesting now unfortunately I tried to convince them they wouldn't let us get inside this vehicle but I do have shots from Salt Lake so you can see what at least the 1958 looks like on the inside so let's cut to some of that footage now the rear situation you've got a dual opening rear gate so you can start by popping open the lift the rear glass there if you want to like lift over smaller items groceries that kind of thing and then of course the full rear gate does swing open it is a vertical lift on this new Land Cruiser pretty tall lift over height so got a little bit of additional storage there which I'm liking kind of just going on exploration tour with me not sure that this lifts up and of course you got your view blocker here but what are we missing back here no third row so no third row is available on the new Land Cruiser so this this is one of the iconic Land Cruiser traits that they are missing on this vehicle if you look dating all the way back for I know the 80 series had it I think the 60s did too and certain versions of the 40s did as well the third rows would fold down from the side of the panels here at the rear portion of the vehicle and then you had two seats and they were like an iconic trait no third row is going to be available in the states now abroad I'm told the third row is because this is a vehicle manufactured in Japan which is going to be sold around the world and you see reminiscence of that in the rear portion of this vehicle because you still have cup holders for a non-existent third row now I do find that to be pretty useful right you're out camping you've got lots of stuff in the back you want a secure place to put your bottles or your drinks it's a great place to do that stick them in the cup holders I also like this too I do like the lift open gate a little bit more of a pain for some garages but it means that when you're working back here you got a nice place to stay dry if you're dealing with all sorts of rain all right Cole let's take a look at the interior because lots of big surprises on the interior of the Land Cruiser now as I mentioned I wanted to focus on this 1958 the base trim and the first thing you notice the seat design is extremely unique almost like a wool design the texturized not a traditional cloth like I was expecting I find the seats initial impressions I'm six feet tall pretty narrow I find the seats to be very comfortable manual seats in this car good amount of movement backwards so even at six feet tall you know I've got tons of room I think if I was six three six four I'd still have good room really good headroom in this vehicle as well so one of the benefits of designing a square vehicle tremendous amounts of headroom as we see here in this 1958 interior materials and plastics I mean look lots of black materials I see you know the dash is a pretty a flat black material not a lot of contrast on this base car and let's see if we can get power curious if it's gonna this is a just a static display right this is not a final version of this car but let's let's let's boot it up latest version of Toyota's infotainment system located here this base car 1958 has an eight inch screen you can see where the screen would be bigger if we had the upper trim Land Cruiser that's a 12.3 inch display on the tall one you got your driver user settings you got Apple CarPlay you got Android Auto this system is used in many many Toyota vehicles now from the Crown to the Tacoma to the the new Tundra right pretty standard and in the way that works there but um pretty pretty good system overall volume control as well physical volume control below that dual air vents you spin these little knobs to adjust the air vents feel good feel really really premium dual automatic climate control and I'm even seeing here heated seats and a heated steering wheel which is quite nice there is a premium package available on the Land Cruiser trim but not on the 1958 I know that's confusing but you just you just got to go with it right so the base car is the Land Cruiser 1958 the midline is the Land Cruiser the top line is the Land Cruiser first edition so just get that in your head because it took me a while to get that now below that we've got three USB-C ports a couple of blank switches and I'm loving this mode selector here we've got this little toggle spin that to go between eco sport and normal here we've got your drive mode I think I'm not really sure what that button does I'm gonna have to ask the Toyota folks what that does we've got our electronically controlled second so that I believe starts the eight speed in second gear and then we have crawl control here in this vehicle and then upper end trims also get multi-terrain select but oh I see what this does so I think what you do is you you actually can cycle this this knob so you can go between drive mode or crawl control selection on that mode select pretty sure that's that's how that works and then like I said upper upper end Land Cruisers are also going to get multi-terrain select good physical feeling there on the eight speed automatic transmission selector dual cup holders and then this is the stuff that's gotten me excited so permanent four-wheel drive it's got a true center differential it's not selectable between two high and four high it's always in four-wheel drive high then you can push in if we were in neutral we could select four-wheel drive low and then here we've got our center differential lock and our buttons for the rear differential lock which is really really cool and then traction control off so this is the panel that got me excited specifically that one button is what should get you excited now as we lift up the armrest good size storage bin there really good size storage bin and the steering wheel I love the steering wheel chunky square old school right very 1980s actually in kind of its approach you got adaptive cruise standard standard Toyota safety assist to 3.0 so you got you know your blind spot monitoring lane keeping all of that's going to be standard in this vehicle and then across the board here Cole I'll take the camera for a sec you can also see we've got the digital instrument cluster it's flashing a lot pre-production don't judge the quality of the vehicle based on the screen but you've got your indicators for charge eco and power temperature control fuel gauge on the right steering wheel controls for volume for tune all of that here and then on the left side of the steering wheel we find buttons for backup assist automatic high beams there AC it's got a 2400 watt inverter in this vehicle fuel there and then this little guy down here is what I'm really excited about trailer brake controller now it's not as accessible as I'd like I always like my trailer brake controllers typically on the right side of the wheel as they kind of went full GM on us by putting it down here on the left but just having standard trailer brake control is a really big deal all right Cole let's go ahead and check out the rear seat I've got about five minutes left with this vehicle so super quick first look as we step into the rear rear seat here surprisingly flat floor for both driver and passenger side and then a small hump in the middle for of course center mounted occupants and then we got air vents located for the back seat old school style air vents with a little LANC cruiser logo there and then we've got dual usb c's down there and then your uh your 12 volt socket see how does the cup holder feel good cup holders look at that once again this wool material I'm really absolutely digging got a center mounted dome light in the rear here so if you're out camping that could be very very useful I'm liking what I'm seeing I really am curious how the seat mechanism works it's got the fold and the tumble super interesting look at that that was kind of a surprise so it's a fold and a tumble or you can just do the fold very interesting very old school lots of interesting mix of old school theories and new school approaches to this vehicle I assume that fold and tumble too would be useful if we had the third row in other markets to get into the rear of the vehicle all right well we've made our way to the Lexus booth here we can take a look at the new GX550 and this is such a unique thing for Lexus if you had told me 10 years ago we'd be here at the Overland Expo looking at Lexus SUVs on off-road tires I would have thought that you were crazy but this Lexus 550 is based on the same basic platform as the LANC cruiser we were looking at earlier but it does offer a bunch of nice features and luxuries that the Toyota doesn't have now let's start with the powertrain so the Toyota comes standard well the only engine available is the turbocharged four-cylinder with the hybrid system the GX550 has a twin turbo v6 so you've gone from four cylinders to six cylinders and they've added another turbo and the power is up as well so this vehicle makes 349 horsepower and 479 pound feet of torque now that is more power than the Toyota but what's interesting is it's not that much more power so especially the torque number is only up about 15 pound feet um and you know the horsepower number is up what 20 23 horsepower so you know it's not that big of a difference now of course we're going to have to see how the twin turbo v6 performs relative to the hybrid system in the Land Cruiser because that of course is a big difference between the two and maybe off-road we're going to see a big difference in torque modulation and power delivery but at least on paper the numbers are pretty similar what else is pretty similar they both have full-time four-wheel drive they both have the center diff lock they both have the rear diff lock they can both be had with the stability bar disconnect in the front right so a lot of the same tech now this model of is the top trim off-road version and it's got a set of the toyo open country tires on it um more aggressive funny rubber than what you can get on the first edition land cruiser so it's kind of interesting that the luxury lexus has better rubber than the uh than the toyota but obviously a lot of similar visual cues the square chunky fj cruiser like style mirrors you've got this cool little step up there on the uh on the the rear belt line for the rear uh rear windows this one of course does have the roof rack not quite to the same extent as what you find on that toyota and then making your way in the back right like the tail lights fairly similar but a little bit smaller and then the trunk situation also fairly similar they are both two-row vehicles so front row second row only let's see in the back here of the lexus we've got a little bit of additional storage and then underneath you'll find the spare tire but let's go ahead and kind of poke around see what else uh we can learn so 10-speed automatic that's another good point thank you helpful reminder lexus thing versus the eight speed in the uh in the toyota interesting green inserts here which i think are really really funky um the lexus then you have the stepped up rear seating um obviously plastic sidestep here easy to get in and out of yeah pretty good rear seat room six feet tall got enough room lots of headroom as well man that green uh green alcantara it's quite the look not sure if i love it or if i really think it's kind of silly but um let's take a quick peek at the interior here and see how that is in comparison now obviously that first edition was locked this one is unlocked which is cool first time ever sitting inside this gx my dad went on the press launch and first thing i'm noticing is the quality of materials like the leather feels a lot nicer in the lexus than what i was seeing in the toyota and then obviously something like the tech in the layout is a little bit more kind of bougie and modern so huge screen integrated more vertically and horizontally like in the toyota you got wood trim here wireless charger there you've got your full-time four-wheel drive uh center of your diff lock buttons are a little different but same kind of same kind of idea crawl control just like the toyota nicer steering wheel with the paddle shifters right nicer dashboard design small sunroof that's a little bit disappointing i'd like to see a full length sunroof on the lexus version um and then like the bronze accent so this is a nicer much more comfortable seat than the toyota as well i'm seeing that just off the bat so it's a very very good seat to love the way that it kind of just supports you that feels really really good so the interior is a step up right but what is also going to be a step up is pricing now we don't have we don't have official pricing numbers so toyota says that the land cruiser is going to start in the mid-50s um lexus has said this vehicle's pricing is going to be in line with the uh the current one but it's kind of my best guess would be mid-60s so it's going to be a pretty pretty significantly more expensive vehicle than the toyota i'm also not sure like once the aftermarket grabs a hold of these what what's going to happen from a a parts availability standpoint right like what's going to happen our lift kit's going to be interchangeable let's see we got coil springs looks like on this on this vehicle let's get the camera in there best we can yeah you know standard coil springs similar to the toyota same platform right the the 250 platform but a little bit more plastic in the front i mean i wish toyota would cut down on some of the plastic i like the modularity um the multi-piece bumper design of the land cruiser which looks like it's going to be easier to accept like accessory winches and that kind of thing but the interior is much nicer in this vehicle so if you are looking for let's be honest if you live with someone that wants a luxury experience every day that can also go off road the lexus is going this is another cool thing which i just learned about so this is the current gx right and quite a visually different vehicle very striking in its differences v8 twin turbo v6 but lexus has launched a new program let me get the official name here i don't want to mess up the acronym the um associated accessory products program and now through lexus dealers through their part catalog you're going to be able to order lift kits and other components that are going to be warrantied and crash tested by lexus to ensure that um you know they're up to the same lexus standard which are so high so i'm really interested in this and if you want a v8 right and you want the legendary lx sorry gx platform as it currently sits this is still a good option and they're surprisingly affordable like this is an old platform it's like 10 years old in the current body style but the good thing about that is you get 10 year old reliability 10 year old v8 technology and you know just good basic phone so yes the new gx 550 is very cool rear diff lock sway bars connect but this is still a very attractive platform now for me comparing the new 550 to the land cruiser for me it's got to be land cruiser all the way i just like the retro styling i like the more affordable price point and i'm excited about that hybrid system believe it or not probably one of the few that's excited about it but i think it's a cool idea this is going to be awesome excited to see what the community does with it but for me it's going to be uh it's going to be land cruiser all the way guys let me know what you think in the comments section below so then tommy with another episode we'll see you in a future vid