Good bye E70, Hello Lexus GX460

[ukwildcat]

Well, if I didn't bore everyone the first time..

So I had a 2006 GX470. Nice car, comfortable. Boring, yes - I wrecked it several times (all cosmetic), mostly from falling asleep. No, not a joke. I fell asleep one time and it got to be real good friends with a guardrail. Not cheap to fix that thing, BTW.

You have read all the things already, of course. Dull. For old people, etc. Lights up like a christmas tree in the dark, which at first is really quite cool and then you realize it's not really so great for driving.

Someone put it well - a two-year old can use the NAV, yes. It works great, but it's as boring as the rest of the car.

I had a few problems with the suspension (grinding noise) but it never, ever broke - at least not that I remember. It is VERY TRUE that the Lexus dealer is WAY WAY nicer than any BMW dealership I ever saw. Service is good, except they decided to use a wet, dirty rag for my "complimentary car wash" every time.

Oh, and while I don't think you'll ever own a more RELIABLE car.. Do you still have to take it in every 5K miles? And pay $120 for an oil change? And what was my 30K service - $700 or something? 60K service was double that, I think. Takes premium gas, gets terrible gas mileage. Not worse than most vehicles in its class, mind you, but not great.

I waited and waited for what became the GX460. There were a few things I could never get over in the GX470 and the 460 did not improve on them. The first thing was the damn tailgate. Swings out to the wrong side. Yes, I finally figured out WHY, but still. It has split glass now which probably helps, but.. Why is the deck raised incredibly high, to the point of removing something like 20 cubic feet of storage space?

Third row in that vehicle is slightly more practical, but not comfortable. (It looks absolutely useless in the X5, I will say)

It has some nice options (tech stuff) to it, but I have to say.. It's a mild improvement over the 470, it goes backwards in some areas (ergonomics got worse, I noticed), it has A LOT of plastic in it now, and oh yeah.. It costs $10K more than it used to. It does have more features to it now, and it *IS* cheaper than a similarly equipped X5. But it is not nearly the same.

I did not even bother to test drive the GX460 to see how fantastic it was that they added a sixth gear.

Oh and hey - summer is coming up! Just think of how quickly it will turn your hands (and half the rest of you) blue from frostbite no matter what you set the temperature to! Or how the dash lights drown out the road at night!

Oh, and be REAL careful when taking a turn, or you'll flip that b(*#ch right over! Or feel like you're going to, anyway. It does off-road rather well.. Too bad it still feels a bit like that on the highway. It does not transmit the sensation of every bump straight to my fat a$$ like the X5 does, TRUE, but the X5 doesn't make me seasick driving to work, either.

I tried to sleep in it's "spacious" second row once - I prefer a coach seat crammed between two irritable British women on a 15.5 hour flight, thanks. Even the dogs didn't like it.

It did develop a very annoying rattle I never could find. And little pieces of things would come off, which I always thought was rather weird.

So far, I don't miss it. Maybe I'm lucky, though - nothing wrong with the X5 yet.

Oh.. The Mark Levinson sound system in the GX WAS better, though. It almost made up for having to feed it CDs to keep myself entertained.

[GAM3OVR]

The E70 is the most Unreliable X5, BMW has made to date. Look for the MotorTrend Article, X5 is the new Range Rover in terms of problems. Range Rover is above Lexus this year. Good choice.

[ChuckG]

A friend of mine was rear ended while driving his Porsche on the freeway. The Porsche was totaled and he ended up buying a Toyota. What he said about his new Toyota was "it has no soul".

Chuck

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by GAM3OVR

The E70 is the most Unreliable X5, BMW has made to date. Look for the MotorTrend Article, X5 is the new Range Rover in terms of problems. Range Rover is above Lexus this year. Good choice.

Hahaha. Two good jokes in there. Motortrend and Range Rover. Nuff said.

[CarsRmyVICE]

Originally Posted by GAM3OVR

Range Rover is above Lexus this year. Good choice.

No eye-f**king from the ladies though? So why buy a Lexus correct? Might as well go with a bulletproof Range Rover, they are as reliable as lassie in a barn fire.

OP- GL with the new truck, hope it serves you well.

[Fraser]

Originally Posted by kthankzbye

Lexus is very soft and comfty, kinda like driving on a cloud

Just cut to the chase and call them 'soggy'.

[xoutpostking]

Originally Posted by ChuckG

A friend of mine was rear ended while driving his Porsche on the freeway. The Porsche was totaled and he ended up buying a Toyota. What he said about his new Toyota was "it has no soul".

Chuck

So someone went from a Porsche to a Toyota...... Hmmmmm........ Did he lose his job or something?

[xoutpostking]

Originally Posted by brian5

That's one ugly looking SUV

The big mouth, buck tooth, and those eyes....... Makes it look real "special".

[ChuckG]

Originally Posted by xoutpostking

So someone went from a Porsche to a Toyota...... Hmmmmm........ Did he lose his job or something?

It was an old Porsche.

Chuck

[rick chi-town]

And so I was just trying to be "tactful" and sugar coat the Lexus... Man, you guys don't mess around, huh? Does anybody know Rufus? Maybe he'll really appreciate the Serta-like, milk truck ride of the Toyota truck, who knows. And I actually did believe they were at least fairly reliable... But not after reading some of these posts. But at least if it's not, they have a nice waiting room and a movie theatre.