Before the Porsche Cayennes and the Range Rovers, the who’s who in India would swear by the Lexus. Built on the then Toyota Land Cruiser, the Lexus LX 470 was the most luxurious and reliable SUV money could buy. Now that the Lexus brand is officially set to land on Indian shores, the LX450d, the current Land Cruiser-based flagship SUV will certainly lead the India line-up. Here is all you need to know about the new Lexus 450d.
Build and styling
The Lexus LX 450 is the new Land Cruiser LC 200 underneath which means it has been built on the new platform that was developed for the new Tundra back in 2007. It is the same platform and build that has made the land cruiser a favourite of the NATO forces across the world for its durability and reliability.
In terms of styling, the Lexus likes a lot of funk, unlike its plaid past. The kinked rectangular front grille splashed across the fascia gets horizontal slats and is flanked by the swept back LED headlamps. The edginess of the design continues through the length making the otherwise simple Land Cruiser body shell look funky. The tail design gets its shares of angles as well.
Interior and equipment
Lexus is Toyota’s luxury brand and the 450d ensures you get a good lot of it. The interior is opulent and upholstered in leather. The dashboard houses a large horizontal screen on the top of the dashboard, atop the multi-button waterfall centre console. It gets separate zone climate control for the front as well as between the seating rows.
The front seats are power adjustable and the so is the panoramic sunroof. The auto-dimming wing mirrors are foldable and dip when the car is slotted in reverse. It gets parking sensors all-around with reverse parking camera as well. The rear seats, including those of the third row, recline for comfort.
The instrument console gets two analogue dials for the speedometer and the tachometer along with four small dials for temperature, fuel and other vitals. It also has a TFT multi-function screen sandwiched between the dials to read out all the information. The steering gets controls for the music as well as other functions like cruise control, Bluetooth telephony et al.
For safety, you have a cocoon of airbags along with driver aids like ABS, EBD, Electronic stability program replete with traction control, skid control et al. It also gets ISOFIX mounts for child seats standard.
Engine and gearbox
The Lexus LX 450d will be powered by the 4.5-litre V8 diesel engine that is offered with the Land Cruiser LC 200 in India. The old-school V8 develops 270bhp of power and 650Nm of torque and comes mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox that transmits the power to all four wheels through the transfer case. The four-wheel drive system gets crawl-control, hill descent and a host of other features including torque vectoring. The Lexus LX might also get the flagship 5.7-litre petrol V8 engine if it decides to compete with the top-of-the-line Range Rover Sports V8 Autobiography.
Price and Competition
With the Toyota Land Cruiser priced to compete with the Range Rover Sport, the Lexus will certainly sit higher than the Landy. The Lexus sits seven and we expect the Japanese to price it a tad under the Range Rover to cash on the gap between it and the Sport which means a sub Rs 2 crore price tag.
It will still have the Porsche SUV twins of the Macan and the Cayenne to deal with, but they sit on the sporty end of the spectrum while the Lexus is all about luxury.
