Engineering engagement: Old-School Feel at the World Car Awards
So many modern cars are so slick.
All shapes and forms and swoopy lines, also all swipes of the hand and expanses of glass. The use of electric power for propulsion has started to make things look all sleek.
Why then are cars like the Lexus GX coming into a world of waiting lists?
The LA Testing Sessions of the World Car Awards brought together the latest and greatest from all over the world and at all levels. And the electric presence was stronger than ever, especially with models like the crowd-pleasing VW ID.Buzz and the fun new electric Minis.
How then does a vehicle like the Lexus GX 550 fit in? It has always been built as a workhorse, and while it is definitely more luxurious and more upscale than ever, it retains the same feel almost.
This is most apparent behind the wheel of the extremely capable 4X4, and maybe that is the point. While other brands and models may pay lip service to going off road, it is these vehicles and their Toyota siblings that are called on when you need to be serious about the dirt. And mud. And rocks.
Look at the controls. There is a big, almost chunky gearshift, both your eyes and hands fall to it. And for those of us who remember driving such vehicles, it is a welcome sight. It is so big you could probably use it to brace against if you get seriously tilted. And below it? Actual buttons with which to choose high or low four for off-road gearing, and how you want the powertrain to act. Above it, further up the console, is the Mode Select rotator and the buttons for drive mode, crawling and hauling or towing. All tactile and clicky. So, if you do get in the mud, you aren’t smearing it all over a computer screen.
Is this what people really want, though? In a world where everything is controlled by swipes, do you really want this physical gearshift? To be honest, the whole car felt familiar. And maybe that is the point.
People keep saying that younger people just don’t want to drive, that cars are looked at as appliances, that they are all the same. Yet many companies are going out of their way to deliver a different product and a different experience. The aforementioned VW ID. Buzz is one direction, fully forward-thinking and all electric, but with a quirky retro feel. The Lexus GX550 is kind of the opposite.
Propulsion is unabashedly internal combustion, 3.5 turbocharged liters of it in V8 format and running through a 10:Speed Automatic Transmission out to all four wheels. Seats 5 or 7 depending on the model.
Visually, the GX550 looks angular and somewhat boxy, but not in the rather antiseptic way that some more lifestyle-oriented SUVs have become. It has presence, and it has form, but it projects more than anything ability and strength. The Lexus spindle grill look is still there, but a bit different. Sides are a bit bolstered, all the better to actually protect things when you do go bashing through mountain passes.
I guess that what is so welcoming about some vehicles nowadays, they are changing and adapting as they have to do, but they also don’t stray too far from their real soul. The GX 550 is comfortable inside and striking out. It has the Lexus Safety System in its latest variation to keep everyone safe and on the road.
But it just feels different. It doesn’t feel sterile or antiseptic or overly-designed. It is imposing but not too “pretty” or cute. It is, as the big Lexus vehicles have always been. Something that will bring you wherever you need to go and take on whatever Mother Nature and bad guys have to throw at you. It just does so, and again in the way Lexus vehicles always have, in an extremely pleasant way.
