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2014 Lexus GX 460

The Toyota 4Runner has always held a special place in my heart for its boxy styling and off-road prowess, but until now, I never had the chance to drive its more luxurious cousin, the Lexus GX 460. Granted, the GX actually has more in common with the foreign-market Land Cruiser Prado, but all three SUVs ride on the same body-on-frame platform.
Originally an answer to the luxury SUV craze from the early 2000s, the GX hasn't changed all that much since its introduction more than a decade ago. It's a big SUV with plenty of space and crammed with just about all the luxuriousness Lexus could fit into a 12-year-old vehicle, but, more importantly, it still has the chops to go places many vehicles in its segment wouldn't dare venture. And just for good measure, Lexus tacked on its new signature spindle grille in what has to be its most pronounced appearance yet.
I've had a chance to drive most of the latest Lexus products (including the IS, ES and GS) to see just how competitive Toyota's luxury arm has gotten in recent years, but after spending a week with the 2014 GX 460, it's refreshing that, for now, Lexus has resisted the urge to follow some of its rivals in replacing rugged, body-on-frame SUVs with softer, car-based crossovers.

Lexus RC 350 F Sport ready to take on Europe's coupes

Rumbling into the slot between the Lexus RC 350 Sport Coupe and the RC F is this, the RC 350 F Sport. Debuting at the Geneva Motor Show next week, the intergalactic malevolence of that spindle grille is given further aggression with a mesh treatment and 19-inch F Sport mesh wheels in dark metallic. Traditionally, F Sport models have also brandished unique fascias, but the standard RC is so visually aggressive to begin with, it still ought to throw quite a scare into rivals like the BMW 4 Series M Sport.
Bigger identifiers come in the cabin and under the skin, foremost being the redrum-reminiscent Rioja Red leather treatment and Silver Performance trim, perforated leather wrapped 'round the steering wheel and a moving center ring in the dash cluster inspired by the LFA. When the coupe is put into Sport+ mode, the included adaptive damping will kick in, and buyers can optionally order the four-wheel steering system when the car goes on sale in the US this fall.
There's a press release with info and specs below, a high-res gallery above and a bright lights, big city introduction on March 4 in Geneva.

Lexus still planning seven-seat crossover

In case you're thinking, "But Lexus already has a seven-seat crossover in the GX 460," that's actually a proper SUV - the body-on-frame kind with the massive footprint and floaty handling. A report in Automotive News says that Lexus is trying to figure out how to produce a true crossover with space for seven humans, with the options narrowed down to growing the RX (pictured) or sorting out a brand new model.
How badly does the brand want it? Its chief told AN that another row is first on the list of dealer requests, that the offering could be worth 35,000 more sales per year and they don't care if it eats into five-seater RX sales - "We want it." But hey, when 40 percent of monthly sales are made up of the RX, and Lexus moved more than 103,000 of them in 2013, it's understandable that the company wouldn't mind risking a small hit for the chance to increase sales by a third of their current levels.
Toyota applied to trademark the name TX and that's already been mooted in reports as a replacement for the GX, said to end its life in 2016. The latest report, however, suggests that the GX might not go away since it's "highly profitable for the automaker, even at low volumes," and that "TX coding could merely be for a seven-seat variant of the RX 350." AN also wonders if this larger hauler would stay on the recently lengthened Toyota Highlander platform, which offers meager third-row seating, or switch to the rear-wheel-drive platform used by the IS and GS for tauter responsiveness. With Lexus saying it will be at least two years before it could be brought to market, we have a while to wait yet to find out.