You probably already heard that we aren’t getting the 300 Series Toyota Land Cruiser in North America. At least not yet. Luckily for the affluent among us, its luxury-oriented sibling—the new Lexus LX—will be sold here, and it’s likely to be based on the same TNGA-F platform. Lexus just confirmed that the new LX will be revealed next Wednesday, Oct. 13, so we’ll know by mid-week if our Land Cruiser stand-in is as cool and capable as the truck enthusiasts really want.
Then again, it’s not like the last Land Cruiser we got was cheap. We reviewed a 2020 model year Heritage Edition and it stickered for nearly $90,000. Those who are seriously yearning for a Land Cruiser-adjacent off-roader may not care for the LX’s fancy paint or inevitably cushy interior, but if they’re familiar with modern versions of Toyota’s earth-roaming SUV, they probably won’t be taken back by sticker shock.
We expect the Lexus LX to feature the same 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 that’s in the Land Cruiser as well as the 2022 Toyota Tundra. Power in both of those applications is sent through a 10-speed automatic and if we had to guess, the LX will have all-wheel drive as standard just like the outgoing model. It should also have the Land Cruiser’s Multi-Terrain Select off-roading assist along with Crawl Control for technical four-wheeling.
Multi-link rear suspension is said to boost the TNGA-F platform’s trail worthiness and on-road comfort, the latter being something the previous LX struggled with a bit. With improvements to that and the interior, especially from Lexus’ new infotainment system, it’s set to be a substantial upgrade over the aging model it replaces.
Design-wise, there’s not much to glean from Lexus’ 15-second teaser aside from the Heckblende tail lights. That said, there’s not long left to wait until we see it in full on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
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