Lexus made a sale because of y'all: I took delivery of my GX550 today.

A while back I posted a query to the hive mind about selecting an SUV that was good off road but also had towing chops, and the GX550 was the best recommendation.

Then after my local dealer broomed me (I'm guessing because I came in wearing work boots and jeans), I posted a question asking if anyone had a contact at a Lexus dealership.

Well, thanks to y'all, I followed up on that lead and took possession of my new GX550 today. It's an Overtrail+ with pretty much all of the options thrown at it (rock rails are on order). 

Bam.

Nice. I like the alot. If I ever got an SUV that would be high on my list.

These and the new LC look sharp! Congrats!

Your post was the first I'd heard of them and then today I saw one on the road for the first time. Sharp looking truck! Enjoy it. 

Cool and congrats. 

Was it Jeremy that got you in it? 

Tasty!  Congrats

Looks great!  I think a better choice vs the Land Cruiser, I'd rather have a v6 twin turbo than the 4 cylinder...

In reply to yupididit :

Yes it was! He was a good guy to deal with: Straightforward and no typical sales BS. Way better than the dealership with which I tried to deal locally. 

In reply to docwyte :

I suspect I'll be debadging this because I don't want to show up on job sites with a big L on the front. The LC is attractive and I'd have likely gone with the Toyota offering if it had better towing capacity. My enclosed trailer, however, is 3700lb by itself and the LC only has a 6k tow capacity; the GX is rated to pull over 9k, which means it is much more versatile to me. 

It's too bad there are no American offerings that have reasonable off-road capacity while also having the ability to tow decent weight. 

Congrats, nice looking SUV. Does the GX550 have a dedicated transmission cooler?  The last generation of 4Runners did not have a dedicated transmission cooler.  I would often see 250 degree F transmission temperatures when towing over grades.

I'm not sure if it has an external transmission cooler, tbh. I'll keep an eye on trans temps when I start to tow with it, though there aren't grades around here over which I plan on pulling anything (at least in the short term). 

brandonsmash said:

In reply to docwyte :

I suspect I'll be debadging this because I don't want to show up on job sites with a big L on the front. The LC is attractive and I'd have likely gone with the Toyota offering if it had better towing capacity. My enclosed trailer, however, is 3700lb by itself and the LC only has a 6k tow capacity; the GX is rated to pull over 9k, which means it is much more versatile to me. 

It's too bad there are no American offerings that have reasonable off-road capacity while also having the ability to tow decent weight. 

Great looking SUV! Agreed on the towing capacity. I have held onto my 2012 X5 because it tows 7700 lbs. I really don't want to have to buy a pick up!

That's pretty cool. If you were local, I'd send you the link to TEQ Customs meet and greet tonight, that thing would cause a bit of a frenzy there.

I saw one of these on the highway the other day and look even better than the photos. 

brandonsmash said:

I'm not sure if it has an external transmission cooler, tbh. I'll keep an eye on trans temps when I start to tow with it, though there aren't grades around here over which I plan on pulling anything (at least in the short term). 

 

If it stays in lockup, temperature isn't too awful.  Most of the trans heat is generated in the torque converter.

Downshifting to keep the converter higher than its stall speed also helps a bit, if the converter unlocks.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

I'd love to do a meetup with it! It's a seriously slick rig, and I can't wait to get it dirty. 

You're on the opposite side of the country from me, though NC is very high on my short list of states to which I'd like to move.