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2019 Lexus GX 460 Drivers' Notes Review | An ancient, yet luxurious SUV

The 2019 Lexus GX 460 is an old-school SUV with luxury draped all over it. Body-on-frame SUVs are the exception these days, as unibody crossovers lead the way forward. There are plenty of great reasons for this, but the GX marches on as a unabashedly truck-like SUV. Nothing about the price screams truck, though. At $70,840 as-tested, anybody who buys a new GX 460 is going to be left with a sizable hole in their wallet. However, it’s not without a bevy of luxury features. Being the high-zoot “Luxury” trim level, ours comes standard with an adaptive suspension, semi-aniline leather interior, a power-folding third row, mahogany wood accents and three-zone climate control. That said, Lexus still managed to tack on a decent number of options. A $2,340 Driver Support package added the Mark Levinson audio system and a suite of driver assistance systems. Our tester also had a $1,970 rear seat entertainment system and a $1,950 Sport Design Package. The package includes 18-inch gunmetal wheels, heated second-row captainÂ’s chairs and a sizable list of exterior changes like front and rear bumper spoilers and scarlet taillights. The powertrain is also stuck in a older time period. Whereas most large crossovers now use downsized turbocharged engines, this Lexus sticks with a 4.6-liter V8 good for ... wait for it ... 301 horsepower. The V6-powered ES 350 makes 302. Worse, the GX gets poor fuel economy and doesnÂ’t exactly rocket up to speed with much excitement, either. At least it's proven from a reliability standpoint. Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore: We try to talk about a specific element of the vehicles we test in Drivers' Notes, but indulge me today. IÂ’m going to talk about the Lexus GX 460Â’s ethos. By that I mean itÂ’s an old-school SUV that looks and feels the part. Wrapped in LexusÂ’ sharp, spindly styling, itÂ’s classy yet also kind of hulking. The steering is light and the vague brakes have little bite at first and then a lot as the pedal travel increases, making for challenging inputs for the driver. Still, I like it. The GX 460 captures the ethos of an old-school SUV perfectly. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: For a three-row SUV, the GX feels pretty small inside. The second row is decent, but I know Greg had to do a little moving of seats in order to fit a rear-facing child seat back there.

Satisfaction with dealer service rises, Lexus and GMC are tops

During the economic downturn, many car dealerships counteracted their slowing income by focusing on things that would set them apart from competition - things like the quality of customer service they provide. When the economy picked up and more sales and service followed, many also first invested those funds back into the business, improving their dealership facilities and service centers.
It looks like those investments are paying off, as J.D. Power and Associates' latest Customer Service Index Study shows that overall consumer satisfaction with dealer service has increased to 797 (on a 1,000-point scale), up from 787 in 2012 and 29 points higher than the score in 2011. The study also finds that people are more satisfied with the service they get at dealerships compared to independent service providers, despite the much higher average out-of-pocket cost per visit ($118 vs. $44).
Note, however, that this study only looks at how people are treated by a dealer's service department during the first three years of ownership (the survey is based on responses from 91,000 owners and lessees of 2008 to 2012 model year vehicles), so we're talking about the experience had when bringing a car in for repair or maintenance work, most likely under warranty. In fact, maintenance work is increasing in share and accounted for 77 percent of service visits (up from 72 percent in 2012 and 63 percent in 2011). This helps explain why customer satisfaction has also risen, since a properly maintained car is one that's less likely to require a dealer visit for an unexpected repair.

Lexus IS commercial made with Instagram photos

Facebook was so 2010, so it's no surprise that automakers are taking advantage of newer social media applications for their marketing purposes. Most recently, Lexus invited more than 200 followers on Instagram ("Instagrammers"), along with their smartphones, to make a commercial of the 2014 Lexus IS using hundreds of their photos of the car strung together into a video.
Instagram, taking advantage of smartphone cameras, is an application that allows users to shoot, edit and share photos or video online with friends and strangers alike. Lexus's stop-motion Insta-commercial is unique as far as commercials go, with each photo in the sequence sporting a personal touch thanks to the app's photo editor. But, even more impressive is the ability of social media to bring people together for, and involve them in, a commercial shoot. All of which you can watch below. Stay tuned after the commercial to get a look behind the scenes at the making of it all.