Lexus LX570 used car review - Drive

Yes, it's big, quiet inside and very well equipped like any half-decent luxury SUV, but this one is also stunningly good off-road despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of owners will ever use it for that. All of which leads us to the vexed question of what the LX570 is best at in the first place. The truth is it's a bit of both and while the price of a brand-new one might preclude its use off-road, once you're paying the second-hand price, maybe its off-road smarts start to mean a bit more. While the LandCruiser – on which the Lexus is so heavily based – stuck with a 4. 7 litre V8 in its top-spec trim level, Lexus went one up for 2008 and beyond. Lexus will no doubt insist that the big petrol V8 rather than a turbo-diesel was all about on-road performance and refinement, but that's only really half the story. In the USA, you see, where the Lexus brand is bigger than it is here, diesel engines simply aren't considered for any vehicle much smaller than about a five-tonne truck. With that in mind, you can expect an LX570 to slurp its way through plenty of fuel and while the six-speed automatic transmission made a difference, the official figure is still a pretty frightening number. Source: www.drive.com.au