The Toyota LandCruiser Prado has long been seen as the more woosy, less capable, more ‘soccer-mum’ sibling to the venerable Toyota LandCruiser*. So it’s more than a little surprising to see that Lexus has stepped away from their pure luxury variants and released the GX Off Road Concept – the Lexus GXOR.
You’ll have to excuse the overly cheesy music and very ‘Murica! ‘adventure’ in the video below, but have a go at the video Lexus have released.
There’s not a massive amount of information online about the concept, but we do get a hint at the engine. It’s a somewhat throaty V8 roar coming from what is essentially an overdressed Prado, leading us to believe it’s got the 4.6L 1UR-FSE donk. Insofar as the accessories are concerned, the GX Off Road Concept carries a lot of gear most of us Aussies would proudly run.
From the 160-watt solar panel, Alu-Box case and 50″ light bar up top, to the Safari Snorkel in the guard and a CBI custom stealth bumper housing a WARN 9.5 XPS winch. General Tire Grabber X3’s are wrapped around the 18″ Lexus rims, with ICON suspension and billet control arms holding the thing off the ground. Oh, and it’s even towing a Patriot X-1H custom camper around in the film clip, which is being pulled up by a REDARC Tow-Pro brake controller.
Unfortunately, that’s where the Aussie dreams stop, as Lexus Australia has said there are no plans to bring the GX Off Road Concept down under. Their teaser video is about as Australian as a concept video can get… aside of course, from the dodgy music, American Rockies, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side.
And Toyota wonders why we don’t really take the Prado seriously when it comes to off-road capability. We reckon if they brought a few of these puppies over, they’d be looked at a touch differently. What do you reckon? Enough ‘cred’ in this to take a Prado proper offroading?*
*No Prado owners were insulted in the writing of this news article. Well, maybe a few.
9 comments
Great article to start stirring the blood! As a proud Prado owner, the many trips our Prado has done in the Vic High Country, Simpson Desert and many of the un named tracks in between, I am very happy with the capability and performance. The vehicle is a lot of it, but driver skill and correct set up such as tyre pressures, line selection, etc also contributes. Lets keep enjoying our 4 wheel drives!
Good thing its not coming to oz, EPA wouldn’t let it in for a start and it would probably be $100000 anyway.
As a side note. Toyota’s biggest stuff up was calling the prado a landcruiser, its obviously more like a hilux in every way.What was wrong with 4 runners or the old surf as a name
Prado’s old and new are one of the most capable and highest selling 4WDs in Australia. When combined with a competent driver, not many can beat it.
Are you on drugs mate, seriously?
Seriously the Prado is more PRACTICAL and Capable offroad then the oversized LC200.
Larger fuel tank and more fuel efficiency gives it a longer range, along with more internal carrying capacity while still keeping it on legal weight. Offroad its much more cabable among trees due to its smaller size.
Have a chat with the guys at Expedition Overland- they were the ones putting this piece of kit together… they might give better info…
https://instagram.com/xoverland?igshid=wz3hunrpf85c
I won’t be reading anything written by this fella in the future. Carry on
It seems to me that you have probably never driven a Prado off road, up steep climbs and over rough outback tracks. It’s actually called a Land Cruiser Prado and it is indeed a very capable vehicle. I driven mine all over the Australian Outback and on 4WD Club trips. It’s never let me down, sure I would like more power, who wouldn’t but you do this vehicle an injustice. KB
They are great but the 4 cylinder let’s it down. Off road it perfect but fully loaded on the highway you just wish it had more guys. V6 diesel is needed for this to become the ultimate mid sizer.