Bold does not necessarily mean beautiful.
Lexus’ local office came to the conclusion this week that its enormous LX SUV, which already makes quite a statement thanks to its typically-Lexus looks and humungous proportions, needed to get even bolder still. As a result, this week the LX range expands to include a new flagship, dubbed the LX570 S. As the name suggests, the ’S’ insinuates ‘sporty,’ as evidenced by the sharp new aesthetics that the LX570 S wears.
There’s a unique set of 21-inch alloy wheels fitted here, as part of the $6500 premium that the S costs over the LX570 (with Enhancement Pack, on which the LX570 S is based). There’s also a full bodykit, and a Spindle grille up front with an exclusive mesh pattern to mark the LX570 S out from vanilla variants. Up front, hidden behind the gloss-black alloys are a pair of performance dampers, that Lexus says improves body rigidity and steering stability, not that anyone’s going to be throwing this barge around corners anyway.
Step inside, and the LX570 S gets more goodies. The interior can be specced with semi-aniline leather in either Black or a rich Garnet red hue, while the interior trim is set off by a unique Shimamoku Grey. This is of course in addition to the standard features like the 12.3-inch high-definition infotainment screen with sat-nav, four-zone climate control, reverse camera with 180º field view, and 360º camera monitoring.
As a flagship, it also gets a variety of safety kit that Lexus reserves for only its poshest cars. Safety System + throws in things like pre-collision warning, lane departure warning, automatic high-beams, a heads-up display, rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring, and active cruise control. There are also 10-airbags in case the worst is unavoidable.
The LX570 S is very much an aesthetic upgrade over the standard car and as a result, there are no mechanical changes under the skin (sans those dampers). So the 5.7-litre naturally-aspirated V8 continues to make 270kW and 530Nm, which puts power down to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. This is a long-range cruiser too, with a 93-litre main fuel tank and 45-litre sub-tanks, making for a total fuel capacity of 138-litres. Before you balk at the idea of paying for that fuel at the pumps, at $168,089 (before ORCs), we have a feeling that those fuel tanks are only that massive because they know prospective owners won’t even bat an eye.
If you were to ask us, we’d steer clear of the LX570 and the LX570 S: The more affordable LX450d, which offers a 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel V8 engine, is far more versatile and to us, fits the character of the Lexus LX SUV better.
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