2024 Lexus GX Off-Road Review: A Trail Slayer Straight Out the Box

Not a day goes by without me witnessing a jacked-up SUV or pickup rolling down the street with enormous tires, light bars, and all kinds of preposterous off-road gear. Living where The City ends and The Country begins treats me to a daily parade of just as many $80,000 Ford Broncos and Jeep Rubicons as old Fords and Chevys with bullet holes and jerry-rigged suspension lifts. It's a fine place to live.

The 2024 Lexus GX 550 goes about its business a bit differently. It's sharp-looking but not shouty like the Americans. In my tester's Nightfall Mica blue, it even flies under the radar. It's powerful but quiet. It's capable but humble. No trail-rated badges or brightly painted tow hooks here. At first glance, the GX is just another luxury SUV for suburban parents with decent paychecks and an image to upkeep. Y'know, the kind who are too fancy to be seen in a Tahoe but too smart to buy a Land Rover.

And actually, yes, that's exactly what the GX is. But it's also so much more than that. The Premium+ trim I tested lacked all the cosmetic and functional off-road goodies of the rugged Overtrail trim, yet it was an absolute banger on the trails. Do you really need all that stuff? Does it actually make the GX any better or more capable?

Here's what I think.

The first new-gen GX I ever laid eyes on was the one Lexus dropped off in my driveway. First impression: Wow, this thing looks even better in person than in photos. The Drive's truck editor Caleb Jacobs had the chance to drive a prototype in Japan last year, while Andrew Collins blasted his way through the Arizona desert in one this January. They both had the souped-up Overtrail+ models, so when Lexus rang up and offered me a test, I thought I would get the same model. Nope.

What I ended up getting was the Premium+ model, which is essentially the same core package as the base-model SUV but with a few extra comfort goodies inside. I had all-season tires instead of the 33-inch all-terrains, no fancy E-KDSS suspension, no additional ground clearance, no crawl control if the going got rough, and no multi-terrain monitor. I seriously questioned whether I should even take this off-road. I was in a pickle.

This normally