I currently drive a 4Runner. If I had to choose between the new LandCruiser and the Lexus GX, I’d pick the Lexus. Seems like for $70k you get a lot more with the Lexus GX 550 than the LandCruiser standard for $65-70k.
I have not looked at nor driven either one. Perhaps I would not like how they drive. I must be truthful that my driving is mostly paved roads, some dirt roads, and only occasionally something muddy or snowy. I don’t need a TRD Pro or real off-road capability.
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master"
There is no way I would buy a hybrid for 23 MPG. As much as I would love to own a Land Cruiser, I’m perfectly happy with my 4Runner.
“If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything." - Miyamoto Musashi
Elaborate on your thought process -- are you worried about reliability or durability? The legacy Land Cruiser is low teen's mpg, so if your comparison is to it and not your 4Runner, it is much more efficient.Originally Posted by MGW
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
I was "impressed" with the fuel mileage of my wife 2018 Lexus GX..........until a woman with no license and no insurance managed to hit the front AND back of it. Totaled.
We replaced it with a 2016 Lexus LX. And while it is probably my favorite vehicle I have ever owned, it makes the GX fuel mileage look like a Corolla. It is truly amazing how a modern vehicle can get such abysmal gas mileage. It is an absolute engineering achievement. The dash computer currently reads 12.7mpg which is probably optimistic. That is with ~80/20 city/highway driving and my wife drives slow. Of course it wants 93 octane fuel. On the interstate driving 65 mph, down hill, with a tailwind you might get it up to 15.0mpg. Which is nice for road trips because when paired with its Corolla sized gas tank it, fuel stops sync up pretty well perfectly with my old man bladder capacity. No extra stops. Lexus efficiency.
I think the terrible fuel mileage must be due to the HVAC system, which is by far any away the best of any vehicle I have ever owned.
And the fact that it weighs 6,000 lbs.
I'm more concerned about durability. I know the life span of a battery pack will be much lower than that of a traditional internal combustion engine. We just paid $200 to replace a battery in the significant other's vehicle. I can't imagine what it would cost to replace a battery pack, and I'm sure it's not user-level maintenance.
You make a good point about comparing the new LC to the legacy model. I wonder, however, what the gas mileage of the current model would be without the hybrid power system? I assume the new engine is more efficient than the old one. Reducing the overall weight by removing the battery pack couldn't hurt.
“If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything." - Miyamoto Musashi
Given that the old LC and new LC are such different creatures (the new one is really just an LC Prado, rather than an actual LC), a more apt comparison might be to the new Lexus GX, which has 15/21/17 MPG for city/highway/combined, as the GX is basically the Lexus version of the LC, but instead has a V6 twin turbo rather than the hybrid engine in the LC.
I am far more concerned about the mandated “remote kill” switches than I am about it being a Hybrid. Looks like 2025 will be the year to get…..
I wouldn't worry about those. There will be dongles to defeat them on the market within a year of their hitting the market. Legislators don't know or care that these mandates are easily defeated, they just need to be able to get on the evening news claiming to have "done something". The reporters don't know or care either, and neither do most voters. They'll keep stroking their egos with legislation, and we'll keep bypassing the tech. The Chinese are only too happy to engineer and sell stuff to defeat our laws.
There are no mandated remote kill switches except in the media. The actual legislation is worse, IMO. Remote kill indicates a human somewhere decides to do it, likely based on law and with some accountability for misuse. An electric version of spike strips, basically. This technology already exists but nobody uses it because of the obvious liability of shutting off a vehicle that's in motion. If you have OnStar, you have a remote kill switch in your vehicle. If you have OTA drivetrain software update capability, you have a remote kill switch in your vehicle. Any of these can remotely shut off your car, limit the speed, tell it to not restart after it's shut off, etc.
No, the reality is *your car* will make the decision. *Your car* will decide if you are too sleepy or too drunk or whatever to continue to drive based on whatever programming it's been given. What actions it takes are not yet legislated, it may just yell at you, it may pull you over and shut off, it may do anything in between because the technology doesn't exist yet and the law is only to fund research to mandate 'something' down the road.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
BB thanks for the clarification.
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