Living With The 2024 Lexus GX 550! Does It Live Up To The Hype?

hey Tommy would it be fair to say that this is the most anticipated new Lexus not of the year but of the decade I think you're exactly right this is probably the hottest SUV of 2024 the new Lexus GX now those of you guys who've been following us know that we were just in Arizona driving this well actually looking at it we did a little bit of driving but now we got the vehicle here in Colorado uh so in this video/ podcast we're going to do a walk around but we're also going to drive it and give you our first impressions after living with it so where do you want to start well let's start with what they sent us okay so this is a luxury trim of the new gx550 this is the expensive one dude yeah so luxury starts in the $77,000 territory Luxury Plus 81 Grand fully loaded you're going to be looking at Mid 80 so it is an expensive vehicle but Dad I have to say I feel very honored um is that because they sent us one of the only luxuries of all the Press fleets around the country they've all been getting premiums and we got the luxury now they said that we've got an overt Trail coming shortly hopefully yeah cuz that's the one I really want to you know take Offroad I agree and it's not quite ready to hit the Press fleets this is still a pre-production unit the over Trail we're going to be getting is full production but this is still given us a great taster of what life in the new GX is like well first of I think we have to start with styling uh it certainly makes a statement it's bold it's Brash uh it's kind of in your face when you sit behind it you see these two giant humps and you feel like you're piloting a very um purposeful vehicle Tomy yeah you're spot on the money and compared to the old one you know I never really loved the way the old one looked it just kind of had this gaping Ma and then it had this low plastic hanging thing and then it had the ridiculous side steps and it was a fantastic vehicle don't don't get me wrong it was just very busy in the design like a whale shark you're right this one is Sleek it's Square JW it's chiseled it's got tear ducts like a man it's expensive it's ready to cry out the side of the headlight it's expensive that's what it is Tommy yeah but let mean look at like even the spindle Grill which used to have like little little dainty Crome bits all over now it's gone full like Storm Trooper white and black and no Chrome it's just awesome they killed it and we'll tell you how much it cost before the end of this video so so don't worry and by the way guys at the end of this video we're going to do something fun I interviewed uh um two really great podcasters uh Bloomberg has a new podcast Tommy called Hot Pursuit uh and Matt and Hannah host a podcast and I've been listening to them a lot so I thought well why don't we interview him and talk about big old SUVs cuz uh Matt just bought a Mercedes so that's coming up at the end of this we also talk about this some so uh where do you want to start you want to start under the hood or you want to start well let's keep going with the design we got a lot more to talk about how about the wheels how could you not look 22s at least right right I mean look how big those are a little wagon wheels it's a little dub to be honest with you a little dub but um 22s you know are kind of the new 20s which should become the new 18s so yeah at 22 on a full size SUV now it's nothing crazy if you want like an 18-inch wheel get the overt Trail if you want a smaller wheel you can get like a premium it's going to save you a a little bit of sidewall there but this is the coolest part of the design for me dead this little guy right here that's an FJ mirror yeah it's styled after an FJ Cruiser mirror and this perfectly demonstrates the direction Lexus has taken with this home vehic this whole vehicle which is very functional squared off wellmade it's very cool well let's face it tmy if you were in the no and if you were an Overlander in the no what you would have done with the previous generation is you wouldn't have gotten the LX cuz that was way too bougie as you youthful people like to say you would have waited for maybe s years and gotten the G X and turn that into the ultimate Overlander and Toyota got the message uh and if you've been watching our coverage you know that there's an overt tril version of this which is very similar to this except for one big detail what's that what is it it's missing the rear seat hey podcast listeners and tfl talk viewers I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about a quick and simple way to sell your car or truck with the help of our new partner highroad with high Road's online portal you enter your vehicle VIN number or plate mileage and zip code and you'll get competing offers from several qualified dealers in your area within seconds you pick the best deal offered and follow through with the dealer to sell your car no more managing scammy emails from buyers on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace no more time wasted on no show buyers no bait and switch with a will you take a check excuse from sketchy buyers now keep in mind these offers will be for tradein values of your vehicle if you want to go through the hassle of getting more for your car that's up to you but if you want to sell your car hassle free and fast go to tflcar.com and click sell your car in the navigation menu or click on the high road ad at the bottom of the website if you're on mobile or click on the column if you're on a desktop High Road makes it easy and we like easy the third row that's right great Point forgot about that but you gain the rear locking diff so it's kind of a give and take thing um now dad look at this look vertical windshield almost almost Wrangler like in how close that dashboard sits to the steering wheel and how upright the windshield is look at the little cow line I am a little worried about rock chips on that in Colorado I I almost said cow line I guess if you're a farmer this could be a cow line if you're not it's a cow line so they were very proud of this Tommy didw intervie with the chief engineer uh what was his name uh God I can't think of his name now I just had it a second ago Kaji sji come on you interviewed the dude look if you want to see the interview check out tfl now I don't want to get his name wrong but you're right that's I already did so too late they lowered the Belt Line a lot which really raises the amount of glass area you have so when you're driving this vehicle you get a huge panoramic view around and then I like this little design queue a little F-150 here but they pick up the Belt Line in the rear which then gives the uh impression of kind of height which is nice and then you got these little black strips front and back which are supposed to be reminiscent of a floating roof you can option this vehicle with a contrasting white or um sorry contrasting colored roof so uh lots of cool things there and then as we come around to the back here there's something that's not that cool you should show them when you open up the back I'm going to go off-roading through the sticks you got that width of the vehicle occupied by the Light Bar push a little button here if you don't want to lift up the whole gate you can do that put your stuff back there and then another big change compared to the outgoing model which used to have the swing gate this is now a lift open hatch here's the bad thing look at the amount of room well it's about 10 cubic feet worth of space with you couldn't fit a roller bag in here this is always a problem right with the third row unless you get something like a Suburban uh which has just massive amounts of room behind the third row here you've got to pick kids or stuff you're right about you can't have both yeah but look this third row is more of a temporary use third row if you're looking to go across country with kids in the third row you are going to need to get the LX or a Tahoe or an Expedition or a navigator something like that yeah yeah I mean this is for when you're going you know driving the kids around and you have to take half the soccer team uh you know for ice cream then you can put the seats up and get some more kiddos back there you can put them down electrically I'm going to be older than you by the time they fully fold flat I always think that these are just better to do manually but this being that top loaded luxury model it does fold down like that now you've got with everything folded down up to something like 70 cubic feet worth of space and then you also have some onboard power 120 volt 400 WT has the captain seats yeah Captain's chairs back there m and then if we take a look down here Cole behind this little cover we're going to find the integrated oh sorry just bumped the camera you got to pull these little pins but you got the integrated hitch back there and that's the biggest news because this thing toes a ton Tommy well it actually toes like four and a half tons um up to ,000 yeah up to almost 9100 lb depending on configuration this luxury trim with the third row the big panoramic sunroof it's not going to tow quite that much but yeah up to 9,000 lb of Towing speak let's look at the payload yeah let's go check that out let's let's go check out the payload and see see what the sticker says you know that I'm excited for Andre to get this out on the ike though because it does seem to be a pretty short wheel base for that amount of towing capacity so what's the uh what's the payload well on this particular model it's 1,235 LBS and that's because there's so much luxury that most of the payload is taken up by things like the really funky sunroof yeah yeah you got the the opaque to clear changing sunroof in this model and we'll show that to you in a second right you got the cool box in there you got the cooled seats you got everything you got the running boards so basically the more stuff you cram into the vehicle from the factory the less payload you have so if you want a tow lot um you know you need to have less luxury and more capacity exactly right and you know thinking about it the wheel base is is pretty long considering that the wheels are tucked quite nicely toward the edges you just popped the fuel filler there I noticed I noticed I did the wrong one thank you do they still have a mechanical fuel filler pop they do that is very 90 look how long this thing is this thing's like look look at the size of this I think this is because there must be like a diesel version somewhere else so that you have DF flid that go or a hybrid plugin cuz this this has enough room for more than just fuel right interesting yeah good observation I think it's funny they're still using the 1990s third gen 4Runner um fuel release but it's Lexus yeah if it's not broken why change it yeah exactly okay so this is based as you were talking about earlier dad on the global Land Cruiser Proto series but underneath the hood we're not going to find the Land Cruiser 250 engine instead we got the Tundra engine baby it's got 20 and um that is just totally wrong 349 horsepower 479 lbet of torque and that's what you can feel you can feel the torque now the venerable was at the 4 .6 V8 that was in here that is uh and a lot of people are going to be like oh no it's got twin turbos and I'd be like yeah Ford did that 10 years ago in the F-150 and the world has not stopped moving should we see what it looks like underneath there yeah you got those two cool little air Runner look at that that's quite nice I don't know I wonder what this bar oh that's probably just to hold the little cover on very interesting yeah um so the engine in this dead is um largely the same as like a Tundra engine but um chief engineer told me smaller turbos so um I think his name was Kaji Kaji son no Tommy's giving me just you don't have to be like that it's fine it's a podcast sorry I don't know what sometimes I make mistakes I just want to make sure that we're not the okay okay you keep talking I'll look up the video how about that I appreciate I appreciate that I just want to get my my my my name right there um anyway yeah so um Mr chief engineer um you were out there and you did a really nice job with this vehicle but he said smaller turbo than the tundra but largely the same block made it to a 10-speed automatic transmission and what's interesting about this vehicle is the four-wheel drive system is a little unconventional by 20 well really by any standards it's a it's an old school durable way to build a four-wheel drive so a lot of full-size SUVs will have two high settings four high settings four low a lot of smaller crossovers will be a full-time all-wheel drive setting that uses a clutch based power takeoff unit this uses a proper sensor differential with a locking function kisan oh you were close hi kisan very good thank you for doing that interview with us I apologize dad I should not have questioned your uh your ability there any he was great he was you know he told us what he was a prodest of if you go to alfl you can find that video uh but uh you know it's it's really cool that Lexus is actually uh listening to their customers or at least seeing what the customers are doing with their cars and then adapting to it you also have some underhood um sound deing there there's a lot of attention in this vehicle focused on comfort as you'd expect for over $80,000 there you go you just said the price uh we said it at the beginning did we I thought we were saving it for the end no we talked about it at the beginning um yeah this is still a pre-production unit so some things maybe like this this is a good way to tell it's pre-production they they put a big X through the emissions control information see that's what happens when you get twice as old as you you start to forget things I don't think uh I don't think that's true I wish I was twice as old as you you're you're pretty sharp now the downside to this powertrain dad um the 4.6 I mean what a legendary engine it really is a fantastic engine venerable did I say venerable you're right and they last 350,000 miles last 300,000 we just don't know fuel economy was pretty bad on that one like 1519 yeah realistically what's this one well you you get up to 21 on the highway according to the EPA but but the city number really hasn't changed very much compared to the outgoing model and just like the tundra there is a hybrid cuing but it's probably more for power than it is for yeah fuel economy so Toyota does two things if you buy a Prius I should say Lexus but it's the same company you guys know that if you buy a Prius you're buying a fuel efficient hybrid if you buy a tundra you're buying a hybrid that is used to increase engine torque and output not necessarily increase fuel economy and I think this is what's going to happen with this one the hybrid maybe a tad better uh in the city but I think it's going to be more for power and towing and you know all the good things that people like to do with these big SUVs Tommy well let's check out some of the rear seat space here Dad all right cuz people do use these for longer trips look I would say this seat is all the way back and that that that leg room is pretty minimal um you know there's no such thing as too much space especially when it comes to three-year-old Vehicles this is why the Suburban has been the the oldest name plate in America because people just love the utility in the room of it right you you you'll never go wrong by going bigger you will though well how so in America you won't what is the GX known for it's off-road capability I think that's something that a small percentage of people use it for but that is the coolest part about this is it does have a center locking diff in a low range and if you go too big you're really going to sacrifice yeah but I don't think that's what most people will use this for I think this is going to be a family getter you're right but you also have parking right this is a much easier vehicle to maneuver and park um anytime you make a vehicle B bigger you're sacrificing fuel economy so there are sacrifices okay so pretty small you're right though dad in the second row um now H let's put up the third row you going to try to crawl back there I give you much Kudos if you see and then what happened the reason Tommy went ah if you're listening to this is he folded down the second row seat and the headrest hit the first row seat which means you can't fold the second row seat all the way down so you have to go to the front and now Tommy is moving the second row forward so that the first row forward so the second row can actually go down and still won't go down maybe we have to lift the seat back up before the second row seat can go down that was an excellent play by play dad there you go all right try again I'm trying to see how this works um the tumble process oh there is is there a tumble process I bet there is okay we're figuring this out on the fly there you go that was easy so what happened was uh he basically pulled on the lever at the bottom cushion of the chair the back of the seat folded down and then the front of the seat folded forward allowing him egis into the third row so third row um okay we got to get the full picture here we'll put up the little headrest hold that down Let's Fold that up it's actually pretty good um third row third row Leger room is actually okay it it's just the the head room's a little challenging and your knees are in your face but the the room is better than I remember from the program any USB ports yeah we got um one for each rear passenger and we got a little bit of little bit of recline even electrically in the third row this is not a bad third row you just squished all those orange slices that were back there for the kiddos yeah you're right there in some ways the third row I would say is better than the second from a leg room standpoint now the second row does have it's own climate zones if you show them that it's very nice I always like when you can control your own temperature yeah you know being the luxury spec right we got um heated rear seats and then USBC ports back there couple of cup holders and I do love the captain's chairs fold that down I also love kind of that cappuccino colored leather interior yeah it's really nice it is very nice I'm a sucker for well brown right but uh I'm sure this has a name like cappuccino or something much more sexy than brown well should we have um a CO HP in and take this thing for a spin yeah so what we want to do um here let's do this uh before we do that uh let's do this let's come show them the front of the vehicle uh so jump in the driver's seat okay I'll jump I'll jump in the uh passenger seat and we'll show them the front of the vehicle and then we're going to do a 0 to 60 Tommy you want to grab Cole's bag no we'll get it we'll get it don't worry it's all it's all good all right let's turn the let's turn the car around let's let's turn it around so we don't go left so we don't run over the camera bag thank you that's nice I like this this is good all right all right yeah there we go okay so um the the the the main focal point of the Interior is that large center mounted screen that has just about every function built into it so of course you've got navigation you also have your full range of vehicle settings off-road information as well in here which is cool look you can see accelerator and Brake position you got your your tilt indicators something that I learned recently and that is um I was talking to a source of mine at Toyota and they said for the first time ever Toyota allowed America to design their own infotainment so this was designed in Plano for America by an American team and that's a big deal for Japanese because as you know Japanese often like to control uh the destiny of their own company and to allow the Americans actually design this uh you know it's a big deal yeah and they did a nice job it's got Alp carplay it's got user profiles it works pretty well and you still do have some hard controls for climate control I like the little rainbow colors on the inside I think that's really nice I love the fact that we have real vent controls that you can move manually and not going into the screen um you know this uh is okay it's a little bit invasive it makes you log into it it makes you set up a personal setting page and and then when you get the app it texts you all kinds of silliness so part of me likes this especially compared to the old one and part of me thinks you know are they using my car and myself to go and mine as much data as they can so if we look at the in this is cool tutory Isn't that cool I think this is real wood and then you push down and then you get actually this I'm sure in some countries that's still a lighter but in many places that's an auxiliary power port if we look at the um instrument cluster it's also gone fully digital and it is um very configurable so you can use these little toggles to change your different panels so you've got your left panel your Cent panel and then your right panel as well and it's all changeable save it it saves its position which is very very nice leather WRA steering wheel feels great to hand well positioned and you also have paddle shifters left and right downshift and upshift you're showcasing the the the 360 camera not particularly I'm showcasing the fact that they actually match the car color to the you know color in the picture which is nice yep so you can see uh you can actually change that though oh there you go so make yeah let's make a green really confuse the next person exactly there you go now the car is green um yeah but it's nice you can do that pretty decent camera system let's check out the backup camera there you have that top view still green um and then y change the angles a little bit you can add the lines parking lines yeah it's all very very good and of course heated and cooled seats or at least vented seats I'm not sure if they're if they're actually cooled now I do have a bone to pick with Lexus uh and that is outside of this cappuccino that's what I'm calling it leather it's still a little bit of brown here it's still kind of a sea of gray I feel like there needs to be a little bit of like joy and life and color uh to make me feel uh less uh Serene and more happy I think that's a good observation yeah and we've driven like the premium and the overt Trail and they're all a little Stark on the inside it would be cool to add a splash of color to the dashboard do we have a a rear view camera y flip that open you've got your rear cam um function there which is very very good and how about the most like noteworthy the most Tick-Tock feature of this car you want to demonstrate it yeah so we've got that chromatic sunroof there so you can go from in opaque to oh sorry opaque to clear now I don't think it's variable there's no like middle section but yeah you can do that all at the push of a button you know the first time I saw that uh was Mercedes on the S yeah the previous generation SL or maybe it was two generations ago now had that and I thought that was pretty ballsy for them to put this uh roof onto a convertible I thought that was only Mercedes would do something like that so some really great things in here check this out okay integrated brake controller yeah I love that from the factory well if you're going to 12 to 9,000 you better I mean you know I don't know for you guys out there who don't do a lot of Towing basically you need a brake controller after about 3,000 lbs yeah but I mean Alex Lightman has a Ram 2500 cumin which can tow 20,000 lb no brake controller standard yeah GX boom there it is ready to go yeah I'm not but that I'm was saying legally you need a brake controller Alex has to go with a wireless brake controller if he's going to go over three is it three or three and a half Andre would know it I'm close enough or get it custom installed yeah um speaking of trailering too if you come over here you can actually see we have a number of different Drive modes ranging from Custom to sport S Plus sport s normal comfort and Eco and then if we had like the overt Trail there'd be a button here to engage crawl control and multi-terrain select this being the more streeto version we just have the onroad drive modes but even still look at this down here we have a full-time four-wheel drive system push in and you can engage low range and there's also a center differential lock awesome but no rear diff lock you have to get the overt tril uh to get the diff lock 100% y that's a really good point but keep in mind that um even in low range you're going to have that traction control brake base system which will really help you get over a lot of tricky obstacles now you do have a tow Hall mode yeah that's what I was looking for there's that tow Hall button and then this is interesting remember this ECT second basically uh that's your uh U it's always been a confusing thing it it allows the vehicle I think to start in second gear if I'm not mistaken electronically controlled transmission second yeah so that'll start it in second which is like if you're driving in the snow and you want less torque off of the line yeah this is another thing that Lexus and Toyota do they have a lot of very um well too many acronyms uh that unless you're really a product planner for the company you'll never know what they all mean I would say seat Comfort is very good nice wide seat as well so even if you're a wider individual you're going to fit in the seats pretty nicely and of course we do have um at least a two-way uh lumbar support function and then of course it's power recline forward as well as up and down massaging um we don't know I don't remember in the over maybe if you hit the seat button that's no that's your little man that's little man let me go seat controls we have mass of course it's massage that's right um I don't like Lexus massage very much go back would you yeah do you see the different modes yeah you got a lot of them yeah centipede feels like a giant centipede seat centipede no no that that's cental centripedal what the heck is centripedal centrifugal upper body lower body and Lumbar okay I don't think that the the Lexus massage does quite enough for me hey Alexis if you're going to go with centipede which I think is a great name for a seat massager don't you think that's cool like a thousand legs all massaging your back just give us credit you don't have to pay us royalty just give us credit uh dual cup holders uh chi Wireless charging what's under there well this is your favorite cool box oh so push a little button there's a little vent there and then cool air condition air is going to fill up that cool box they make a lot of noise but they make a very clear deal not to put steak or fish in there so if you want how about poultry I I think that's under the category of steak so no steak or fish in the cool box but poultry is okay uh if you want more information you have to refer to your owner's manual there Dad how about venison I don't know okay I I'm I'm guessing any kind of raw meat is probably right probably not cold enough to store your raw meat yeah exactly and then it also does take away some size in the center console but if you want the ultimate in luxury well the cool box is the way to go all right well uh shall we cut here and set up our solo deal and do a quick 0 to 60 and talk about what it's like to drive this uh new GX sure let's do it Tommy can I tell you a little secret about this car mhm if you want the better ride go for the off-road one in other words go for the overt Trail uh you're kind of stuck choosing between a third row and the better ride the problem with 22s is they've got like that much rubber on the side which doesn't make for the most cushy of rides not that this is a bad ride but certainly the overt tril has a much more should I say while we ride well I I mean I think especially over small bumps the 22s do cause kind of a little Jitter in the cabin and it's like you said that it's you're right it's not a bad ride but it's not quite as luxurious as in my opinion either the premium or the overt tril and certain trims of the GX do also come with EK kdss electronic kinetic Dynamic suspension system very good Tommy I'm impressed once again an acronym that I would have never remembered but basically it's a sway bar system that's gone from a hydraulically operated system to electronic so now the front and the rear sway bars can um disconnect independently of each other or reconnect depending on your on-road situation now we driven both in my opinion on Road there really isn't that big of a difference between the ekd SS cars and the the standard cars off-road there's a pretty noticeable difference if you're looking Offroad definitely want to find one with that eks that's like an over Trail um but look the ride you're right that even on the standard premium is going to be a little better cuz these 22s this is a big wheel it's a carriage wheel you know what I like I like the fact that I have a grab handle here I know we're shooting into the sun now and a grab handle here but you have the same sometimes they cheap out and only give you one grab handle or two grab grab handles on the passenger side but nothing on the driver's side you have both of them as well yeah that's awesome I you know I would say the the Driving Experience especially with this vertical windshield and how close you sit to it is like an ultra luxurious beautifully made FJ Cruiser you know with how upright that vertical is it almost is like Wrangler upright but unlike an FJ Cruiser you've got huge side windows and loads and loads and loads of Headroom I mean we're both over 6 ft and even with that huge sunroof it really feels like you got a lot of airiness around you oh the solar DL just fell off the windshield yeah oh my gosh so from a quietness standpoint watch out this giant dog over here there a huge dog is a huge dog um the cabin is extremely well insulated yeah even that solal falling off wasn't heard yeah yeah yeah I think it broke it no I always did that not valid if you stop it should will it reset itself oh there goes there go yeah we're good yeah I mean I broke it it fell off on its own what are you blaming me for I didn't kick it out the window you put it on the windshield though right the user error there Dad I'm kidding um but um yeah the quietness in here is awesome even at highway speeds super well insulated and the build quality that as you'd expect with the Lexus product off the hook it's such a well-made interior um if anything I would say it's too wellmade what do you mean too well made I mean I mean you know when something is so well made uh that it becomes a little boring oh well that's just the Land Rover guy talking there dad I mean sure if you want to be on a tow truck yeah that's going to be more interesting Driving Experience but um this is going to get you home all right that's coming from a land rer person want to hang right here and uh we'll see uh exactly how quick this is from 0 to 60 so let's stop down here and we'll uh we'll accelerate keep in mind we're in a mile above sea level I'm in sport S Plus okay okay you got that 10-speed automatic transmission I'm going to say 6 and2 seconds okay brake torqueing really good launch really good launch turbos were spooled up right away we're revving all the way up to six grand oh 7 and 7.07 Tommy now that's no roll out mile above sea level so definitely subtract a second a second at sea level yeah if you're one of those sea level types what I'm really impressed with Dad is um the torque I'm really really impressed with the torque at at low speed I mean Peak torque comes in at I think under 2,000 RPM this is one of kind of the the the things that bugs me about when folks are like well you know you got to have a V8 and an off-roader CU it's got that low end torque a lot of V8s don't make their Peak torque in over until over 4,000 this thing just about any gear downshift one or two cogs all right you know that sound we're hearing yeah I bet you that's augmented yeah I bet you that's not real yeah look it doesn't have the 46 could be made to sound a incredible I've heard them with an exhaust and they sound Awesome from the factory they sound like sewing machines they're not exactly as Dynamic sounding engine I don't think Alexus GX buyer is the same as a Mustang GT buyer I think most people who buy this you know on the list of things that are important to them I think you know engine note exhaust note is number 10 right I space you're right fuel economy MSRP reliability you know you can you can do that list and when you get very bottom then you put engine note mhm yeah no you're you're spot on there but we do have an Enthusiast Channel and there's a lot of folks that do care about exhaust notes even in their luxury so let's let's spend a little bit of time talking about what this competes against caution cross traffic yeah I saw that well I mean look that there's one primary competitor the elephant in the room the Honda Civic typar you're close no okay the Landrover Defender 110 yes of course that's the SUV uh that that um we've owned and it's a great vehicle and and dare I say that uh the boxy styling of this which it is boxy is in large part due to Jerry McGovern who is the chief designer for Land Rover who penned a Defender that people just fell in love with and a lot of companies are now going away from that kind of weird uh like you know intersecting lines of design to a much more cohesive much more Square JW design language and Lexus has done the same thing and you're right does compete with that I would also say compete with the new inos Grenadier which we just profiled last week perhaps a little I think there a lot yeah there's definitely going to be um um especially the overt Trail yeah maybe some Crossover with like Grand Cherokee L Grand Cherokee right in that that that region cuz now Grand Cherokees can be well over $70,000 or even you know Wagoner yeah maybe wager that's another three row that how about I mean officially dad like X5 Mercedes GLE you know you've got a huge range of luxury crossovers but this yeah but yeah you're right this takes it A step above that with um uh things and stuff about that with the capability I think that's time I did break it oh gee oh boy oh it's coming back okay right well we don't need it anymore we don't need it anymore yeah so if you wonder what I'm doing and you're listening to this I keep dropping the or the solo deal keeps popping off the windshield so yeah so there you know this is a hot segment I I I kind of feel like 2024 is the year of the three row uh people have decided that this is what they want there's also the rivan Tommy which I think also pricewise and you know obviously it's electric deism but I also think it competes against this so you know there's a whole slew of these like three row with no space behind the not the Suburban not the you know the bigger American Truck based SUVs but the you know the ones where you close it and there's you pick between third row uh kids or stuff no let's compare it to the defender cuz that really is three row luxury off-road mindset well first of all the defender comes in a lot more different body styles so two door there's you know the one0 the 110 and the 130 this would be a 130 competitor uh 110 is it 130 the three row 130 is too long though yeah it's going to be more of a 110 competitor the 110 is a two row this is a three row I think you can get a 110 three row too I'm not sure about that I'm pretty sure about that I think the 130 is a three somebody can Google it yeah but really it's 110 more 110 size 130 um I would say that the Landover rides a little better it's got four corner air suspension this is you know traditional yeah we're we're coil springs y um I think that the defender interior is a little bit more exciting I actually disagree I'm not I I think the quality in here is better like we mentioned but I like that design of the defender interior so the defender interior has this very ruggedized rubberized uh you know industrial interior where like the bolts of the screws are showing and it's very kind of minimalist I've kind of gotten over that I kind of feel like it's uh it was cool when it first came out and now it feels like it's getting a little dated but that's just me you know that this is personal preference and you could be different obviously I think the engine and the the driving dynamics of this are better than the defender well there's also a lot more engine choices than Defender yeah you got the four the six and the eight but comparing the inline six to this V6 I like the power delivery and just the immediate torque of this V6 a little bit more um I also I'm not see the problem I have with comparing it to the defender is I don't know how many units a Defender sells but I'm guessing Lexus is going to sell more yeah Le they're going to sell a ton of these yeah uh they sell a lot of Defenders though relative to to to it's you know to Land Rover yeah but but Lexus is probably going to sell more I just feel like they have a bigger footprint in America than Land Rover does especially now yeah no it's a good point um look that I think that this is a a really good car um I think it's a great I think they just they basically nailed it out of the park the the the complaints I have with that fuel economy is is poor like he said third let's go to a little Park we do the close space behind the third row is poor um second row Comfort is okay those are but those are my big complaints but the four-wheel drive system at least we're going to take it Offroad we're going to put on slip test that kind of thing but initial Impressions is really good power delivery excellent out exterior design is just amazing comfort is really good the refinement on the road apart from the ride with these 22s is really good they just nailed it well you know like the upside to this is It's relatively smallish for a three row relatively obviously you know there are smaller three rows I'm thinking of you Mercedes bclass remember that glb yeah that was that had a third row and of course I think the smallest one you can currently get is a Mitsubishi uh Outlander Outland tiny yeah that's got a third row yeah those are really small so when you in compar to those this is massive but in comparison to a Tahoe or Suburban uh or even you know uh one of the bigger German vehicles like the GLS it's it feels relatively relatively maneuverable I think if you're shopping for one of these like the overt tril is going to be my choice I would skip the overt Trail plus I would just get the standard overt Trail all right how about the Sequoia Tommy would you cuz that's a three roll and that's also in this price range yeah that's bigger it's physically a bigger vehicle but less leg room cuz you lose that you lose all that four to the battery seoa three row is challenged yeah um no but it's also I mean what's interesting is like the three row especially if you get some of the TRD sequa feels feels more off-road even though this probably has better capability and it's got the fulltime four-wheel drive system unlike the Sequoia this is a this is an immediate yes over seoa any day of the week for me um and how does it compare to the Land Cruiser we just don't know cuz we haven't driven the land Cru Cruiser yet no one has has media has driven it can I do an analogy for your generation oh boy these will sell like Zen right oh was that the like that's the face palm moment there Dad no well it's better than hot cakes cuz that's getting old well hot cakes is more my generation I prefer the 1850s to what we're dealing with in 2024 so I'd rather associate myself with those uh those era anyway I think they're going to sell every single one that they can make I think people are going to just love the square draw design language of it I know a lot of people who are already chopping at the bit to get the over Trail even even you know look at the handling look look at that maneuverability even over the Land Cruiser yeah that's good it's actually really good yeah it's not it's not wallowy it you know it actually cares really well yeah and then of course you know you're going to have the Land Cruiser which could also sort of kind of compete against this to has got a lot of off-roaders right now in the works yeah they're really killing it but the Lexus brings a level of refinement that I think we're not going to find in the plota especially interior quality is going to be much higher all right well let's uh park it here Dad yep and we'll uh close it up yeah we'll call her done before we go over to our interview with the Hot Pursuit folk uh so yeah so I think uh I can't wait um to actually get behind the wheel of the overt Trail off-road Tommy yeah right on road this is you know it's fine it's it's it's it's exactly what you would think if not better than you would think but I'm really curious to see how the off-road one will handle Colorado off-road cuz as you know we've recently had some issues with the Toyota product I won't go into it but if you want to go into alf.com you'll soon figure out what that was and um guys let's cut to the interview you did with um the uh um pot Pursuit folks and then we'll see you next time hey guys I've got a really special uh extra for our podcast this week and that is because I've been listening to one of my well what has become one of my favorite podcasts uh and that's Bloomberg's Hot Pursuit and I've actually got the team from Bloomberg's Hot Pursuit on a zoom call with me so welcome Hannah Welcome Matt thank you guys for taking the time uh to join me and to kind of talk about Hot Pursuit and let me ask you Matt how did it start tell me about the podcast and what you guys do on it well uh so I'm an anchor on Bloomberg television covering financial news and on Bloomberg Radio as well and for years and years I've tried to carve out a niche in the auto segment from kind of the business persp perspective obviously um so we talk about the stock and the bonds and uh the company um uh the companies around the world I've always listened to or read I should say Hannah's stuff because she writes for the luxury side of our business Bloomberg Pursuits um and she's driving all the coolest cars and riding all these awesome motorcycles and I uh wanted to do something some kind of side project about cars that wasn't focused on the business of it but more on just the pleasure of driving and um one of my producers said hey why don't you just do something with Hannah since you're always having her on your show as a guest and that's how that's how it started yeah and Hannah U you know what I love about your podcast and why I really enjoy when it pops up on my podcast feed is you guys have some really great chemistry so do you guys know each other personally how did you develop this kind of unique personality uh set where you know it's just fun to listen to you guys you know that's it's really funny that you say that because I would say we've known each other Matt for maybe close to eight or nine years we've sort of known of each other we've always been friendly but we haven't really spent a ton of time together until this podcast I think we kind of orbited each other and there was obviously mutual respect and I really give Matt a lot of credit because this podcast was Matt's idea and it came from his team but I don't know we I do really feel like we're very copae even though we have very different opinions about things sometimes it actually it's great and it's really it's fun we often disagree disagree we often disagree but in a good way so I mean I was reading Hannah when she was writing for Forbes back in the day and then I was excited when she came to Bloomberg but we didn't ever really hang out because we were on different floors and then we were in different cities so for me one of the best parts of doing the podcast together is just getting to know Hannah it's been a lot of fun likewise likewise it's there it's funny because you see I mean Bloomberg's such a big company and you talk to people all the time and Matt is like Matt's greatest talent and skill is that he's so likable everybody loves Matt wherever you go in the company so um you kind of just know people casually but um it's nice to actually spend quality time yeah it's fun because like you guys bring these two really unique perspectives to the car World which I really enjoy listening to so Hannah I kind of feel like you live the intersection of style and cars uh and Mt you kind of not just bring the business perspective but you kind of bring what we try to do which is like kind of the Everyman perspective so I love listening to uh you guys kind of talk about a car because it it comes from two different sides right uh one Matt you're kind of the more Everyman Approach at least in my mind and Hannah you kind of take it you kind of Come From Below and you kind of come from above and you get a really good sense of you know what that car is listening to both of you guys thanks for saying that that's probably accurate I I've been of being stuck up or uh you stuck up somebody has somebody has to talk about the unaffordable stuff taste someone has to have some taste around here right I mean sure if I have to be the bad guy I'll be the bad guy all right well let's talk about cars for a second because obviously people are interested in that so Hannah you drive a lot of really fun and crazy cars what's the best car you've driven in the last year the one that you like like this is one I would hard money I hate Matt Matt knows what I'm going to say and I hate to to really you know beat a dead horse but I would say the 911 St um it's it's obviously uh it's been criticize for you know the short gearbox and it it feels a bit analog and but I actually take those as good things and of course it's very expensive it's almost $300,000 and you know the allocations are difficult to get etc etc but if you're just talking about a car that is engaging and fun to drive and looks cool I I love D it I had so much fun in it um I drove it it through the Redwoods um up near Napa and it was so fun I mean if every car was that fun we'd all live in a happy world how about you what's your what's your best car well I'll just say um first of all on the St that I mean obviously it's gonna be amazing right but it's $300,000 I mean all 911s are amazing I've not driven a 911 that's disappointed me ever some are better than others some are better than others I I was lucky enough to buy one in 2014 I got a 91 991s that was used I found one a year old with like a thousand miles for 30% off uh which was which is great it's one of my favorite cars but they're just so expensive and it continues to ratchet higher and higher um you know one of the best cars I've driven the last year Roman was the Carrera T which is the supposed to be the affordable or at least the strip down version of the 9911 but when you1 when you option it up it's still $140,000 which is just to me it's just too expensive um if you have the money I I get it but I I just don't understand why Porsche charges so much for the cars but frankly if you look across um you know of any variety of vehicles they're all that expensive I think the best car that I've driven in the last year or the one I'm most exced excited about is the Chevy Silverado 2500 HD ZR2 with the Duramax um it's it's like a giant luxury truck that can do some off-roading and that thing is over a 100 Grand when you put it all together yeah I keep thinking to myself that like U trucks can't get any more expensive they inevitably do um so let's talk about the Porsche for a second so I was at that program where I got to drive those two Porsches that went up the volcano did you do that too Edith sure of course Edith and Doris edth and Doris Offroad one-offs yes yes I did I got to the SD I was pretty injured because apparently Roman Roma Duma drove one of those two and he's a very small Frenchman and I'm a very big check guy and so I drove that thing basically sitting with my butt you know half in the chair and half out of the chair so when I got to the St which they had there I was kind of grumpy about it but the the thought I had about like portion nowadays is it's all about fomo you know it's like it's like you know the 911 comes out and you're like oh I got to get one of those and then all of a sudden oh that's not good enough you got to get the GT car right and then oh that's not good enough you got to get the GT3 and then oh no you got to get the RS and then oh no you got to get the St and I kind of feel like BMW had this moment in the 80s where they went from being kind of the car that people knew about that was a really great driver's car to becoming kind of the car that like everybody lusted after and I feel like Porsche is having that moment now and I'm not really sure that's a good thing for the brand because I always felt like like you said Matt they were you know a car for the attainable every man and now they're not well I think it h it's it it happens I mean you're right even BMW BMWs in the early 2000s were I think sort of the topof the line you know if you talk about the M3 just as being an iconic car that every Banker in New York wanted at the time BMW was the car to have and now it's poor and it's not going to last forever ever everything goes in in a season and cycle and I think pora really is going to become like Ferrari in terms of um how it's valued and the margins and and how it's collected and uh that's why they're pushing this like you say this fomo culture which is I agree it's not good for the brand ultimately it ends up making people resent the brand and feel like they're being taken advantage of you know and nobody likes that feeling at all as a side note um we got an email from a listener last week Hannah um who is a big car collector out here on the east coast and he's got amazing Vehicles including like a 1930s Packard V12 so that kind of thing right um million-dollar cars and he uh told us the First new car that he's been interest interested in in 20 years was the new M2 and he ordered one and got one interesting yeah and it's a a great car I mean nobody's at the top forever it's only like no matter what it's only a matter of time things change where has Audi been the last few years basically nowhere but at some point we're going to start talking about Audi again you know things things change it's just Seasons yep yeah and uh you know we we don't um we don't live in that rarified air that much you know we're kind of down down more with the Corollas and Camry of the world uh uh and that's fine uh I think you know our our strength has always been trucks and man I know like you just said one of your favorite trucks is you're a big truck guy have have you driven the raptor r and the TRX have you been able to you know get those two what do you think yeah I well I mean they're awesome um I I drove the TRX when I first came back to the US uh two years ago and I was blown away because I hadn't d driven one of the new Rams you know with the new very luxurious interiors and obviously the power plant is insane I love a supercharger much more than I uh much more emotion I think for me with a supercharger than a tur than turbochargers um and then I was able to drive I owned a raptor in 2014 and I was able to drive the new Raptor with the EcoBoost first and I was frankly very disappointed I'm I'm not a fan of that uh Power Plant and then I drove the raptor r which is amazing you know it's a screamer um but for me I just I don't need that much power I mean I'll I'll have it for sure but I'm not going to BU buy it for a hundred and however many thousand dollars and uh in a big truck I just prefer the Duramax or the power stroke or the cumins I mean the diesel gives me a a very luxurious feeling it's got so much push um that I I don't need the the screaming high RPM uh uh horsepower in a big truck yeah I have a question about the Raptor Matt sorry to to break in here but um is the Raptor could you say that's Ford's Halo vehicle for sure I mean other than the GT right which um you know if you watch bring a trailer lately you just see so many GTS and a lot of them going for multiple hundreds of thousands or even a million bucks the the Raptor I think is really the Halo vehicle for their for their main audience um and it's it's a beast I I love I loved the week that I got to spend in the Raptor I loved the week I got to spend in the Bronco Raptor um but they're so expensive and they're so difficult to get that uh I think a lot of people and this is the point of a Halo vehicle are happy to settle for one step lower the problem for me is one step lower on the F-150 is a V6 I know you can get the 5 l but it's just not as good as you know the 6.2 L that you can get in a Chevy truck or the Hemi that you that you could get in the Rams um and I I'm a huge fan of the straight six the Hurricanes um that that Rams come out with now but I'm just not a fan of the the Ford V6 hey I want to ask you guys before we wrap this up real quickly uh obviously we're living in this huge change where we're going from well I thought we were going from internal combustion and electrification but now the winds are blowing definitely the other way um why is that why do people hate electric cars so much you know we've we've had we've owned four Teslas and depending on what you want to do with them they're very good vehicles uh and Tesla is not of course the only electric brand why is all this hate now on electric vehicles we do an electric vehicle review and I would say nine out of the 10 comments are are um just you know this is this this is horrible this is unamerican this is you know Will Never Last it's unreliable uh and I'm just I'm just wondering where all that's coming from because I like to look at a vehicle not based on my politics but based on you know how you use it and how you need it are you guys seeing the same thing out there yes yes majorly I think when you ask that question two things come to my mind the first is people are frustrated with the the charging Network and you know it is a real thing that even in Los Angeles which probably has the most Chargers of any area in the country often they are broken they don't work or you're waiting in line um you know last last week I drove to Las Vegas and I don't think there is an electric vehicle that could have made the drive without having to charge or maybe I could have arrived on fumes but then it's like you have to go straight to a charger it's it's stressful it's stressful yeah so that's a number one thing and then the other thing and Matt I know you can comment on both the bottom line is EVS have become political and I think that's too bad but it's just it's ex extremely true that they are political now and you're making a political statement with how you feel about EVs and whether or not you drive one I think yeah no I hate the politicization of EVs and I think that's just down to the fact that so many people just want to play in this polarized uh climate you know it's almost like uh choosing your favorite football team um and they don't inform themselves and they just rant on forums like I spend a lot of time in the Challenger Forum because I have a Scat Pack and of course it's a huge Le political Hot Potato there um but I think there are real uh there are real practical problems with EVS there are amazing Vehicles you know and since the Tesla came out it's been awesome in terms of the acceleration um we've all learned about you know torque goes uh just like an onoff switch but um the the battery degradation is a question that I think a lot of people are worried about you know if I buy a gas powered vehicle or a diesel vehicle it's not going to lose range over the course of five or six years whereas an electric vehicle will the infrastructure is awful I mean it's just horrendous and um also it just takes so long to charge if you have good infrastructure if you're going on a long trip so I you know I spent a week in the Kia ev9 a couple weeks ago and it was amazing my wife was like buy it right off the bat you know um so roomy so uh perfectly functional it's got all the luxury things that you would want or need and you can fit everything in it uh it's fun to drive it looks kind of cool but at the end of the day I'm just not willing to have a battery that's going to uh you know lose power and value and uh and a vehicle that I have to at least on trips charge um at some uh unreliable places it's just not going to happen yeah we did this thing where we tried to establish uh um kind of a Cannonball Run legal Cannonball Run so we did two runs from Disney to Disney so we went from Anaheim to Orlando um and on the second run I got to drive our Tesla back which is still 2500 2500 miles from Orlando and you're exactly right I was in St Louis I had to really go to the bathroom and you know Tesla does this cool thing where it shows you where to stop and for how long to stop you need to charge and it and it pulled me into this like Industrial Park in St Louis and the only thing that that was there to use as a bathroom was an indoor dog park so so I had to go to the indoor dog park and I really had to pee and they're like oh by the way if you want to come in here you got to fill out this form and and sign this form so you don't sue us I'm like for Fun's sake I just want to eat the bathroom I don't care if a dog takes a bat meat but that's the world we live in right now you know it's you're exactly right it's it's not there uh and it's it seems to be not getting better unfortunately which is also kind of mind uh mind blowing well I think hybrids are the way forward like hybrids is a great way I've always thought there's no replacement for displacement and obviously that statement can be true or not depending on what you want out of a car but uh an electric battery adding electric power is a great way to make a smaller more efficient engine more exciting to drive um also if you're worried about the environment you can drive on electric power almost all the time and only use um the gas engine occasionally I mean the rant the new Ram charger that Andre uh just did a video with to me is super exciting you know I don't know why BMW did away with the range extender in the i3s and the i8s like it made a lot of sense to me you know I know Matt loves hybrids and he this is his this is his soap box but I would gently point out that I had a hybrid Mercedes this week and we're going to talk about this later um that it was an AMG V8 hybrid and it got 15 miles per gallon in the city but was it fun to drive yes it was fun to drive but my point is just because it's a hybrid does not mean this is some wild ly efficient machine I mean 15 mil per gallon is horrible and I would say if you really want to be environmentally friendly just don't buy new things don't consume don't be a consumer use old things that's a great Point makes it a lot and I love it and obviously you know Hannah buys classic I I will say that my wife just finished a two-year lease with a Volvo uh XC90 T8 which has you know the little four cylinder and battery power at the end of our lease she put about 10 thou had put about 10,000 miles in total on the family hauler and we' filled it up maybe four times you know because almost all of the driving that she does is just around town and she comes home and plugs it right back in so it almost never needed gas I think that the AMG hybrid is a very different kind of hybrid than you know the Vol ad so yes admittedly so but you know that's where it's going like this Lexus GX behind me the hybrid version is more for power than it is for fuel economy same thing with the new Tacoma uh you know same thing with many of the new Toyotas not the Prius obviously and not the you know the more traditional Toyotas but yeah they're using it to get more power not necessarily more fuel economy well guys I I really want to thank you for coming on the show um and U I guess if if you want to learn more about this GX from my point of view head on over to Hot Pursuit because we're taping two of these uh where I get to now kind of answer some questions um whatever you guys want to throw at me awesome thanks so much for having us much Roman really a pleasure thank you guys really fun talking to [Music] you

Channel: TFLtalk

Views: 79,142

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Id: 0UmxICacONE

Length: 60min 19sec (3619 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024