During the first six months of 2013, Lexus sold to well-heeled buyers some 2,016 examples of the restyled 2013 LX 570, while Toyota moved 1,484 units of the essentially identical Land Cruiser. These figures pale in comparison to all Land Rover models except for the LR2, and during that same time period, Cadillac moved 9,504 Escalades. Even Lincoln coaxed nearly double the number of LX 570 buyers into choosing the Navigator, at 3,829. Indeed, what you see here is a relatively rare beast.
Yet, as fate and wealthy zip codes would have it, I found myself in the company of two identical LX 570s while running around Southern California gulping premium fuel at an alarming rate. The first was on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and the second was in a parking lot in Thousand Oaks. Both of them were spotless, immaculate, spindle-style grilles twinkling in the summer sunshine, SUVs clearly not purchased for their original intent, which is to go anywhere, at any time.
So why do a handful of people buy a Lexus LX 570 (or a Toyota Land Cruiser) over other luxury suvs? I spent a week with this Mercury Metallic example to find out.