2020 Lexus LX 570 Road Test and Review

2020 Lexus LX570 hero ・ Photo by Ron Sessions

The Lexus brand’s most exclusive sport-utility is its flagship, the LX 570. Available as a two-row vehicle with seating for five, or a three-row equipped with eight sets of seatbelts, the full-size LX 570 tops a five-SUV lineup that encompasses the sales-leading RX, mid-size GX, compact NX, and extra-small UX. Including destination charges, the five-seat LX 570 starts at $87,675. Another $5,000 nets the eight-passenger version. Add a few options such as a Luxury package, the upgraded stereo system, 21-inch alloy wheels, and a rear entertainment for the kiddies, and the LX 570 can breach six figures. New for 2020 is a Sport Appearance package.

What separates the LX 570 from just about every other luxury SUV (except possibly the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and some Range Rover models) is its off-pavement ability. As it has been since it was introduced as the Lexus brand’s first SUV in 1996, when it was called the LX 450, today's LX is based on the intrepid and indomitable body-on-frame Toyota Land Cruiser.

Eight Great Cylinders

There's no fancy twin turbochargers here. Just eight great cylinders and 5.7 liters of displacement. The LX 570’s naturally aspirated 5.7-liter double-overhead-cam V8 nets 383 horsepower and 403 lb-ft of torque.

The smooth-running V8 sounds appropriately husky at full throttle but otherwise burbles along effortlessly, scooting the three-ton, four-wheel drive SUV from rest to 60 mph in just over 7 seconds on premium unleaded fuel. A slick-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission handles gearchanges seamlessly and includes steering-wheel-mounted paddles for sequential manual-shift control. EPA fuel economy estimates are a bit old school at 13 mpg in the city, 18 mpg on the highway, and 15 mpg in combined driving, but they're not out of line considering the vehicle's off-road capability. Maximum towing capacity is 7,000 lbs.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Command and Control

Just like the SUVs of the 1980s and 1990s, it’s a climb getting into the LX, even via the standard running boards. They're easier to find now at night, though, with puddle lamps that project the Lexus logo onto the ground outside the front doors. Once aboard, the driver and front passenger can settle into soft, sumptuous power-adjustable leather-clad buckets up front. The front seats are heated, and there’s a standard memory feature for the driver’s seat, steering wheel, and side mirrors.

Leather is in abundance, on the doors, dash, center console, and power tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, along with real wood trim. A handsome analog clock with GPS time zone synchronization sits prominently, mid-dash, bolstered by a second digital clock readout in the infotainment screen. And yes, cigar fans, the LX 570 is one of the few vehicles remaining with a standard cigarette lighter. One of the few options, a $1,190 Luxury Package, upgrades the seats to buttery soft semi-aniline leather with contrasting stitching and adds front-seat ventilation. Other interior options include a wireless phone charger for Qi-enabled devices, a heated steering wheel and a head-up display in the windshield. No massaging front seats are available, however.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Staying Connected

Although there are simple-to-use analog buttons for climate control functions and knobs for audio volume control and tuning, navigating around the large, 12.3-inch landscape-oriented dashtop infotainment screen is accomplished via a mouse-style controller on the console. A handrest helps minimize clicking and scrolling mistakes when on the road, and voice control is standard. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and a Wi-Fi hotspot aren't available. 

The base nine-speaker AM/FM/MP3 stereo comes with an in-dash CD/DVD player for your vintage tunes, HD radio and SiriusXM, plus the Lexus Enform suite of apps that adds connectivity to iHeartRadio, Yelp, Pandora, Slacker, stocks, fuel prices, destination assist, and more. The $2,350 Mark Levinson surround-sound system with 19 speakers and 15 channels brings an enveloping audio experience, as well as DVD audio and video playback. An embedded navigation system with a 3D mode and speed limit display is standard. You can also opt for Lexus Enform Safety Connect, which allows you to access certain vehicle functions such as door locking/unlocking, climate control, and vehicle start/stop remotely via your cellphone, smartwatch, or Alexa-enabled device from the comfort of home.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Venturing Off-Pavement

What separates the LX 570 from just about every other luxury SUV out there is its bona fide off-road ability. Standard, of course, is full-time four-wheel drive with a Torsen limited-slip center differential. In normal operation, the Torsen center differential delivers 40 percent of the engine’s drive torque to the front wheels and 60 to the rears. It can vary that ratio to the tires with the best available traction.

With the transfer case in low range, the LX 570’s standard Crawl Control with Turn Assist becomes available. Crawl Control is essentially cruise control for slow-going over challenging terrain; the driver sets a maximum speed and only needs to steer. Turn Assist applies an inside rear brake when negotiating a tight turn around an obstacle, pivoting the big SUV and making it more maneuverable. Also on the console is the Drive Mode Select control which allows the driver to adjust engine response with Sport, Normal and Eco settings and the Multi-Terrain Select system, which offers five settings to adjust the SUV’s traction control for different surfaces and conditions. Settings include Mud and Sand, Rock and Dirt, Loose Rock, and Rock and Mogul (uneven terrain).

Photo by Ron Sessions

Other Drive Assists

The 2020 Lexus LX 570’s standard electro-hydraulic Active Height Control has a load-leveling function that keeps the vehicle on even keel regardless of how much cargo or people are on board. The system can also raise the LX 570 up to 3 inches for increased off-pavement ground clearance and articulation.

Also standard is Hill Start Assist. This feature helps keep the LX 570 from drifting back on a steep uphill grade when moving your foot from the brake to the accelerator.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Second-Row Seating

Every 2020 Lexus LX 570 comes with a power-operated three-across second-row bench seat that adjusts fore and aft. The 60/40 split seatbacks recline individually and can fold flat for toting cargo. A fold-down armrest houses a pair of jumbo-size cup holders, and when the Luxury package is ordered, the climate and seat heating/ventilation controls for the outboard second-row chairs as well.

There’s plenty of stretch-out room for knees, noggins, and shoulders, plus amenities such as rear door pull-down window shades and rear USB ports to plug in to. An optional $2,005 rear-seat entertainment system brings dual 11.6-inch screens mounted on the front seatbacks, plus wireless headphones, for those long trips with bored young passengers.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Cargo Area and Third Row

As it is with the Toyota Land Cruiser, access to the Lexus LX 570’s cargo hold comes via a split cargo door. The top section is power operated and opens like a conventional liftgate while the bottom pivots down to form a short tailgate, convenient for loading heavy items. There’s a handy 120-volt outlet just inside the cargo doors, and the tailgate has storage compartments built into it for small items.

With the two-row version of the LX, there’s an ample 49.5 cubic feet of stowage behind the rear seat, expandable to 79.7 cubic feet with the rear seat folded. The three-row LX 570 shown here has just 12.1 cubic feet of luggage space behind the rearmost seat, but that increases to 43 cubic feet when the third-row seats are folded up and away along the sides of the cargo area, a multistep process. Access to the three-across third-row seat is not easy, as it requires squeezing past the lowered outboard second-row seatbacks.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Safety and Driver-Assist Systems

The 2020 Lexus LX 570 comes armed with a large portfolio of standard safety features. Included among these are all-speed dynamic cruise control, pre-collision emergency braking, a lane-departure alert, automatic high beams, and blind-spot and rear cross-traffic monitoring, as well as a panoramic view camera and sonar-based rear parking assists — all good things because the high seatbacks and thick roof pillars obscure a fair amount of the driver’s view to the rear and rear quarters.

The panoramic overhead image is displayed on the 12.3-inch landscape-format infotainment screen alongside the conventional rear camera image with trajectory lines and the Lexus Park Assist image showing the direction of the nearest obstacle. The camera system can also display an under-bumper view of the area immediately in front, which is handy for traversing difficult terrain and obstacles.

Photo by Ron Sessions

Land Cruiser in a Tux

The 2020 Lexus LX 570 has got character and immense capabilities off-pavement to take you most anywhere you might care to go — all in sumptuous, leather-lined Lexus-grade luxury. Some call it a Land Cruiser in a tux. The LX 570 is a serious piece of equipment that takes a bit of time behind the wheel to get accustomed to. Ride quality, steering feel, and brake response are akin to something from the 1980s or 1990s. Its moves are that of a granitic, three-ton truck, not an agile, car-based crossover suv like the top-selling Lexus RX 350 — though the LX does manage to be whisper-quiet even by modern luxury standards. 

It’s not likely that most owners would risk scratching and scraping their six-figure luxury suv deep in the backwoods, but the LX 570 has the goods to take you through all kinds of weather and over the most potholed and underfunded sections of highway imaginable, all with the security of standard four-wheel drive.

Photo by Ron Sessions