Driving, Hauling Humans, and Getting a Massage in the 2022 Lexus LX600 

• Big (At First) and Easy to Drive
• Impressive Amenities and Ample Power
• A Squeeze Box
• Off-Road Grace, but Needs More Space

lexus lx Full Overview

Here’s something I heard more than once as a family member clambered aboard the 2022 Lexus LX600: “Wow, this thing is HUGE!” It’s an inescapable feeling you’ll get the first time you step up from its fixed-position running board, settle in behind the LX’s leather-trimmed wheel, and gaze out over its massive, undulating hood.
The new LX is also huge for Lexus, a vehicle that’s finally been redesigned to better compete with the other luxury leviathans in the full-size SUV space, including the Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator, BMW X7, Grand Wagoneer, and others. Recently, I had a chance to get up close and personal with the fully updated 2022 LX over several hundred miles behind the wheel and in the back seat of two LX trims on both coasts. What I found was an SUV with many unquestioned strengths, though with a couple of drawbacks worth mentioning.

Big (At First) and Easy to Drive

One of the biggest (pun intended) dichotomies about the new Lexus LX is how large it seems at first blush thanks in part to its stance and astoundingly massive spindle grille, then how much smaller it becomes the more you live with it. Once you get over how much that creased prairie of a hood makes it feel larger than it is from the cockpit, the LX starts to shrink back into its lane.

Drive it like you’re supposed to in a deliberate and stately manner, and the LX is an absolute darling of a luxury liner. With a couple of normally super-fussy senior citizen in-laws in the back seat during several drives over some of L.A. ‘s more pockmarked pavement, the lack of fuss from them was stunning. Part of it is a result of the numerous dazzling second-row distractions they were treated to thanks to the Ultra Luxury LX we had for the week, including massaging seats and a right rear seat with a huge amount of configurability, a control pad to play with the settings, wireless phone charging, and entertainment screens, among other amenities. The LX’s adaptive variable suspension setup also gobbled up road imperfections and kept the human cargo I was hauling from experiencing any harsh impacts.

You can use its active height control system (standard on Ultra Luxury, $1,300 on the F-Sport) to batten down the hatches (it lowers by 2.0 inches), and although its Sport and Sport+ modes aren’t too much more aggressive than the normal mode, make a couple of adjustments, and the LX starts to feel slightly easier to point and shoot during tight, higher-speed maneuvers. The LX lineup as a whole also benefits from relatively direct inputs from its electric power steering, and it doesn’t wallow or lean too excessively when you’re cornering it harder than normal.

Impressive Amenities and Ample Power

Out on the freeway, the 2022 LX glides along without care in the world. It’s as quiet at speed as any vehicle in its segment, its driver seat is without question among the more comfortable thrones you’re going to sit in, and the cabin as a whole is as luxurious and well-crafted as any in the class. After chauffeuring the in-laws around L.A., I flew out to New York and grabbed an LX F-Sport to drive to Boston (about a 4.5-hour trip) and was none the worse for wear. (Give the driver’s seat a messaging feature like the Ultra Luxury back seats get, and it would have been darn near perfect. )

Speaking of best-in-class interior amenities, the optional ($2,600 on F-Sport, standard on Ultra Luxury) 25-speaker Mark Levinson sound system offers an aural assault like few other setups on the market. You’ll hear things you’ve never heard before from songs you’ve listened to 100 times. The LX’s new 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen is a huge upgrade from previous Lexus LX SUVs (no more touchpad, hooray!), though the 7.0-inch screen below seems to be a bit of an afterthought, with a limited amount of information that likely could have been just part of the main setup. (I would have liked to have seen a single screen like what Lexus unveiled in the new NX.) Space in the center console is copious, as are the power/USB ports, and I had plenty of space to throw snacks, sunglasses, and phones. You can also option a cooler compartment if you desire.

Motivating the LX600 is Toyota’s impressive 3.4-liter (or 3.5 if you’re doing Toyota round-up math) twin-turbo V-6 with 409 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque in LX spec, mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission, a borderline perfect powertrain for this vehicle. It moves out briskly when you want power, with a brawny exhaust note, and when you’re cruising along, it’s barely audible, as a good luxury SUV should be. It’s also far more efficient than the outgoing model’s V-8.

The 10-speed does its up/down sashay with no complaint. The best automatics in the business work so well you hardly notice them, and this is one of those transmissions. Stop-start could be a bit smoother, however. It’s a feature we got intimately familiar with during an interminable traffic jam we became lodged in on the way to the The Kittansett Club (one of the Boston area’s finest courses, which I subsequently hacked to death; sorry, grounds crew!). I did LOVE sitting in that special Ultra Luxury seat on the way back, though, with its 48-degree recline, massage for my aching back, cooling feature, and its “air showerhead” bathing me in cold air.

A Squeeze Box

But once you get past the “OMG this thing is a beast” feeling, you start to realize the LX can shrink in negative ways, as well. Primarily, we’re talking about the LX’s second-row seating space, which at 36.61 inches of legroom is about as tight as it gets for a vehicle this big (it’s 41.7 in for the Escalade, for example), especially for taller 6-footers like yours truly, who spent a fair bit of time being chauffeured around Boston to check out the recent 2022 U.S. Open golf tournament. Lexus has been an official partner of the United States Golf Association (USGA) for the better part of 16 years now, and its vehicles were front and center around The Country Club course.

One of the primary reasons why the LX600’s second row comes up short is the vehicle’s 112.2-inch wheelbase, which is unchanged from the last-generation LX570. There’s a good reason for that, called the Golden Ratio (a measurement that has remained unchanged since 1995), which Toyota engineers have used to balance the off- and on-road agility of its large, body-on-frame-constructed vehicles like the LX.

The problem with the Golden Ratio is that it’s well short of literally every major competitor in the LX’s segment (Escalade: 120.9 inches, Navigator: 122.5 inches, BMW X7: 122.2 inches), and you feel the squeeze. Then there’s the third row. Although it’s better than it used to be, in that the seats now fold flat, they remain painfully small and borderline unusable. (I tried sitting back there for a minute: 50-plus-year-old adults, do not attempt this at home.) Best to just keep them down unless absolutely necessary (or you can opt for a five-passenger LX trim and skip it all together). Cargo space is also well off the pace of its competition. At 71.0 cubic feet at max capacity, it’s far and away the least copious in the segment.

Off-Road Grace, but Needs More Space

To better compete in the space race, the LX could really use a long-wheelbase model, or perhaps an all-electric version with a fully independent suspension, which would help make its third row usable. Despite the considerable positive updates to the LX’s ride and handling, vastly improved upscale amenities, and overall presence, the overwhelming majority of today’s full-size luxury SUV buyers want ever more usable space and pleasant on-road demeanor over off-road capability, which has been an LX/Land Cruiser/Sequoia hallmark and selling point over the years.

That said, if you’re one of the few and proud who actually want or need to head off the pavement in a full-size luxury SUV, short of the Grand Wagoneer and perhaps a Range Rover or two in its six-figure price range, the LX is the one with the goods. Given that it rides on the same new GA-F platform as the Toyota Sequoia SUV, Tundra truck, and global Toyota Land Cruiser, the LX remains a truck-based vehicle at its core. Among the key off-road features are its Multi-Terrain Select, downhill control, and crawl systems, full-time four-wheel drive with low range, a Torsen center differential, and 8.9 inches of ground clearance. It can also two 8,000 pounds in all its configurations.

But it’s probably about time for Lexus to let the LX leave most of that to the Sequoias and Tundras of the world. Or perhaps it needs a different vehicle altogether. (There are more than rumors of just that.) Because despite its myriad strengths and initial shock-and-awe presence, the LX600 remains just short of what others in its class can offer in a couple of significant areas. Namely, although it’s plenty big in some ways (and I can’t believe I’m about to type this), it’s arguably not quite big enough.

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Keyword: Driving, Hauling Humans, and Getting a Massage in the 2022 Lexus LX600