Hidden Gem or Overhyped Hype？ Revealing the Truth About the 2024 Lexus TX 500h

This all new Lexus TX has been certainly generating a whole lot of buzz, but the reviews are all over the map. Some hail it as a game changer, while others find it a little underwhelming. There's a lot of talk about styling and features, but does anybody drive vehicles for YouTube anymore? This right here is an interesting little slot that allows air to cool the engine. Wow. This is the current Lexus Intelligent Access Key. You can put two, three bananas in there. The ride is, how do you describe it? On a smooth road, it's smooth, and the whole car is smooth. Yeah. Flip this down, you do have captain's chair armrest. I am going to zonk it. So what's the real deal? Well, we're diving into a week-long test to uncover the truth about the TX500h. Is it a hidden gem waiting to be discovered? Well, we're about to find out and separate the truth from the marketing hype and tell you exactly what you need to know before you spend your hard-earned cash. So what's it really like? Buckle up, my friends. Let's go for a drive. I'm your host, Brian Maxx, racer, lover of driving fast, fun things. And on this channel, you get reviews for drivers from drivers. This TX is all new from Lexus. Yes, it's based on the Toyota Grand Highlander, and I really didn't know what to expect. And when I saw this, well, the styling is certainly unique, and we don't need to belabor that point. You can see exactly what it looks like and form your own opinions. I don't have to tell you about the styling. Nonetheless, a lot of people have had a lot of things to say about this TX, but a lot of people don't actually drive it. So that's what we're going to do in this episode. And before we get into what it's like to drive, let's have a look at it in a little more depth. Yes, there's never been a Lexus TX before. And basically, this is Lexus's take on the Toyota Grand Highlander. In this 500h, there's a whole lot of hybrid going on. Power unit is based around a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. That is a hybrid. There's an electric motor at the rear axle, making this all-wheel drive. Total system output is 366 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 406 pounds of torque at 2,000 rpm. The transmission is thankfully a six-speed automatic. Four-wheel steering on this TX 500h, which is very helpful. McPherson struts at the front, multi-link at the rear. Because this one is an F Sport, it does have adaptive dampers. Four piston calipers at the front, single at the rear. This F Sport is rocking 22s. Towing capacity of this TX 500h is 5,000 pounds. And curb weight is just about 5,000 pounds as well. Did you know that about 80% of you are not subscribed? Yes, it's true. I checked the data, and 80% of you are not subscribed. So if you enjoy the content on this channel, do me a solid. Hit that subscribe button while you're at it. Be sure to like this video and share it. And if you don't mind, drop by our merch store. There's lots of great stuff for driving enthusiasts like us, including our very popular line of Save the Manuals merch. Now back to your regularly scheduled episode. This interior is all modern Lexus. Very well finished. Everything in here is either premium or durable. Love these seats. They're exceptionally comfortable. They're heated and ventilated as well. And the steering wheel is the right shape and the right size. The steering wheel is more suited to maybe some of the V8-powered Lexus cars than anything else. Great shape. Great size. Love it here. Works very, very well here. And on top of that, it encourages you to have your hands at nine and three where they belong. One of the things I love about these seats is that they're very comfortable, very supportive, and they're very well bolstered. Again, they're more suited to a sports sedan than a big, comfortable three-row SUV. But I love these seats. Very comfortable. And they just set me up perfectly behind the wheel. The second row, very spacious, as is the third row. They say that third row is adult-friendly, but I suppose if you're back in that third row, how comfortable it is depends on how friendly you are with your seatmate. But generally, I would leave that third row folded down. Lexus says this has enough cargo room for a month-long getaway. But let's be honest. That depends on how many pairs of shoes your wife declares to be essential. And since we're stopped, let's talk about these clever cup holders. They're easy to remove, easy to replace in case you don't need them. It's actually a very decent design, although I can't imagine what they would be like in this little mechanism after a few years living with this and having your vanilla latte spilled all over these things. Visibility is incredible, and it has to do with the tall glass in all directions. And on top of that, there is a front-facing camera. There is the camera mirror. There's a backup camera. This is very easy to live with. Even in a big city where I live, it's very easy to park. Four-wheel steering certainly helps with that. In terms of the infotainment system, it is Lexus's latest, as we've seen deployed over some of their newer models. Works just fine. I use it on CarPlay, and you can do that wired or wirelessly. But for me, just default to CarPlay makes my life easy. When I get into the Lexus UI, it could be a little bit better laid out. And of course, when you're on the move, you can't adjust certain parameters of the car. You have to be stopped. And I understand that because, of course, safety first. I really do love the sound system. It's Mark Levinson branded, but it is incredible. It sounds fantastic at all volumes. And if we weren't filming, I'd be playing some music pretty cranked right now. I think they say it's got 15 speakers, and that's more speakers than some people have friends. In terms of acceleration, this thing is real-world quick. They say it does 0-60 in a tick over 6 seconds, but it actually feels much quicker than that. I think part of it has to do with the way the electric motors build power. But in the real world, it is quick. It's quick off the line. It's quick getting up to highway speeds, and I'm definitely not complaining about it. This is one of these hybrid drivetrains that works really, really well in the real world. There is no downside to it at all. It can be efficient if you drive it properly, and it is very powerful and very helpful when you need to ask it to make some power. The best part of this drivetrain is the 6-speed automatic, and it just works like you expect it to. No need for a CVT here and the odd noises it causes the engine to make. No, it just works flawlessly, very unobtrusively as well. Shifts smoothly, and that engine does a great job of delivering power anytime you need it combined with the electric motors. I'm very, very impressed in how well resolved this drivetrain is. Sadly, I haven't even driven this in the rain. It hasn't been any snow during my time with this TX, which is a disappointment because I'm very curious to see how this all-wheel drive system with the electric motor in the back actually works in the real world. However, if getting off the line at full throttle is any indication, this system works trouble free, has no problem putting down all of its power and all of its torques to give you maximum acceleration. Traction is obviously there. This is a 5,000-pound SUV, and there's lots of tire here, but I'd love to have tried this in the snow to see how it works and how it distributes that power and torque. Dynamically, we have a bunch of considerations. One, there are F-Sport badges all over this crossover, and also it's a three-row crossover, so overall, it isn't quite that sporting, but it is very satisfying to drive on longer trips. It's easy to live with because it is so comfortable, and it's also very quiet in here. This rough road and these corners highlight that this is not a hardcore sports-oriented crossover. You've still got a little bit of secondary movement over some larger bumps, and we've even got sport mode engaged, and even in sport, the adaptive dampers are still a bit on the soft side. I'd rather this be the default mode and something a little bit more aggressive be the sport mode, but this is going to satisfy most three-row crossover buyers, that's for sure. Body roll is what you'd expect. Again, softly suspended, very comfortable. Not that hardcore, definitely not a canyon carver, but if you're hauling around a bunch of people, you definitely want something that will drive more comfortably, and that's what this is. It's so incredibly easy to live with. No matter where I've driven it, it's just easy living. The overall ride and handling package, given that it is comfort-oriented, makes you want to drive this on longer trips or even hop in it on a day-to-day basis because it is so comfortable and so easy to live with. The thing about the steering is that there is four-wheel steer going on, so at the back, you got a little bit of articulation, and it makes this TX a breeze to park, no trouble whatsoever. And overall, steering's just fine. There's not a lot of feel or feedback that comes through the steering wheel, and that is perfectly okay and to be expected with a big 5,000-pound crossover. Braking, on the other hand, is impressive. Brakes are very, very strong. Excellent feel and feedback from the brake pedal. And of course, this is a hybrid, so there is a little regenerative braking going on, and it has been over the years difficult to blend mechanical braking with the calipers and pads on the rotors and regenerative braking and getting the feel right, but this just feels absolutely normal, natural, and the brakes are perfect as far as I'm concerned. And just like in some recent tests, I've had the jump on the brakes in this TX and no trouble whatsoever. Actually, they're so powerful, and we are on winter tires. I didn't have to get into ABS to get this thing to slow down in an emergency. I'm very impressed with how strong these brakes are. I did mention that we were in sport drive mode, and we do have to talk about that. There is not much of a difference between any of the drive modes at all. There's not much to speak of. The only thing that I find is that when you do put it in sport mode, it changes some of the augmented sound. I think it's coming from the sound system. It makes it sound a little bit more sporting, but that's about it. There's no real difference in any of the dynamic characteristics, I suppose. If I spent a lot of time trying to discern the differences, they would be apparent, but they're so minimal it's not even worth discussing. In previous Lexus episodes, we have talked about this control pad and how it works to control the adaptive cruise. It's really unmarked. There are a couple of buttons here, and then once you touch it, then the display corresponds in the heads-up display, and you can kind of figure out what you're doing. You can also change the modes or the systems that this button will control. For example, you can go to sport mode and change the drive mode and that sort of thing, and change the display, and that's great, but I really don't like having to look at this and then figure out what's going on on the heads-up display. Because I wear polarized sunglasses, I can't see that display clearly when I'm wearing my polarized sunglasses. How do you spec yours? Well, mechanically, just like this is perfectly fine. Cosmetically, at least with this paint and these wheels, well, that's another thing. This gray paint is so painfully fashionable right now, as are black wheels. Yes, these are a little bit more intricate in terms of their finishing, but black wheels are so passe, as is gray paint. The paint color is called incognito, and of course it is. The interior is birch, as they call it in Lexus-speak, and it is stunning inside. Very, very well finished. Base price in the US is $69,350 as tested, $75,235. In Canada, base price is $84,200 as tested. This is $90,200 before freight and local taxes. So again, mechanically, this TX500H, absolutely love the mechanical specification, but in terms of finishing, definitely not this paint. My verdict? Well, let's start with fuel consumption, because this is a hybrid, and I haven't been driving it on the freeway very much, so I'm averaging about 20 miles per gallon, or about 12.5 liters per 100 kilometers. So, I am going on a bit of a road trip after I'm finished filming this episode, so if I do get markedly better fuel consumption, I'm gonna note it here. As for this TX500H, I didn't think I was gonna like it as much as I did, but there's a whole lot to like, and of course there's a whole lot of price attached to that as well. This is $75,000 US, or what, $90,000 Canadian. That's a pretty penny for a big crossover like this, but it is true to the Lexus name. It's extremely well-finished, it's extremely easy to live with on a day-to-day basis. Four-wheel steering certainly helps, and in terms of it being a hybrid, well, this is a hybrid that really works in the real world. It gives you all the power that you need, and it's fuel efficient at the same time. It is incredibly well-resolved as a drivetrain, and who knew that I would ever be impressed with a hybrid drivetrain, but here we are. Lexus and Toyota continue to impress with these things. It gives me all the performance that I want, and it's still efficient at the same time, but what is even more impressive is how this works on a day-to-day basis. It's beautifully finished inside. Love the finishing, love the way it works, love the way you can live with this thing, and on top of that, the sound system is absolutely magnificent. By no means is this a three-row penalty box. If you've got kids to haul around and have to drive one of these, well, it's not a penalty by any stretch of the imagination. Very luxurious, not very sporting, but a delight to drive nonetheless. Thanks for hanging out with me today and having a look at this all-new Lexus TX500h. Hope you liked this episode, and if you did, you're not new, you know what to do. Smash the subscribe button, turn on your notifications, be sure to like this video, always share this with your friends because sharing is caring. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments below. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, and if you want to support the channel, please hit up our merch store. Links here, links below. Lots of great stuff for driving enthusiasts like us, including our very popular line of Save the Manuals merch. Thanks again for watching. We'll see you again next time, and remember, cars don't understeer by themselves, not even Lexus TXs.