2024 Lexus TX First Drive Review: The Grandest Highlander

Comparisons between the new 2024 Lexus TX to the Toyota Grand Highlander are inevitable. Without question, the TX is the most Toyota-y-looking Lexus there is, as it barely hides its Grand Highlander underpinnings. In fact, some say the T in TX actually stands for Toyota. [Ed. note: No, it doesn't. -CT] But is the TX good enough to overcome its obviously badge-engineered nature? And, more importantly, perhaps, will customers even care?

For a starting price of $56,400, the TX comes with three rows of seating—six or seven seats, depending on your second-row choice—and enough luxury to be worthy of its badge. It has the size, the space, and the premium interior to satisfy luxury buyers, as well as their families. So far, so good.

There's always a "but" though and the TX's is its powertrain. Despite its snazzier interior and upgraded accommodations, the TX still uses mostly the same powertrains as the Grand Highlander and, in the case of the entry-level TX, the regular Highlander. The only way to get a unique Lexus powertrain is to step all the way up to the top-spec TX 550h+ but Lexus hasn't revealed pricing for that model just yet. Customers who drive the TX will have to weigh its mostly sub-premium powertrains with its luxurious cabin and ride quality to see which is most important to them.

The Basics

Lexus has never made a TX before, so this is its first attempt at a non-truck-based full-size SUV. All of its previous three-row SUVs, such as the new LX 600, were built on Toyota Land Cruiser platforms, so they traded some interior space and practicality for rugged off-road capability. However, the TX is a family car, plain and simple. It's built on Toyota's TNGA-K platform, which underpins the Grand Highlander, and you can tell from the very first glance.

For the most part, the TX is a pretty typical-looking family bus, with all of the proportions of something that's designed to fit up to seven passengers. It's completely unoffensive looking, if a bit boring. However, the elephant in the TX's design room is its grille. Lexus has long been criticized for its "spindle grille" that looks like the Predator's exposed mandibles. But the TX switches things up by integrating the grille into the bodywork so it's one big body-colored piece, which makes it a bit off-putting at first. I'll admit that it looks better in person and darker colors certainly help to lessen the visual shock. But I reckon it's going to be a polarizing look for a lot of customers. The rest of the TX is pretty typical Lexus, though, with its swooshy headlights and rear LED light bar.

Don't expect any drastic changes to Lexus' interior formula inside the TX, though. Its steering wheel, gauge cluster, shift lever, and infotainment screen are all exactly the same as what you'd find in any other Lexus SUV, for better or worse. That familiarity might not be exciting but it's a quality interior that feels as bombproof as you'd expect from anything with a slanty "L" badge on its hood. Second-row captain's chairs are standard (a bench seat is optional) and so is the third-row, but if you get one of the hybrid models, you're stuck with captain's chairs. That's no problem, though, as all captain's chairs come standard with both heating and ventilation, even on the base model.

There are three different powertrain options available in the TX. It all starts with the TX 350, which comes with the same turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine from the Highlander putting out 275 horsepower and 317 lb-ft of torque. It hooks up to an eight-speed automatic transmission and sends power to the front wheels as standard, but all-wheel drive is available for an extra $1,600. There are also two hybrid models: the TX 500h F Sport and the TX 550h+. In the former, you'll find the same 2.4-liter engine but it gets help from two electric motors, one that helps send power to the front wheels through a six-speed auto and a second that powers the rear axle, making it all-wheel drive. Combined, it makes 366 hp and 406 lb-ft and it's the same hybrid setup you'll find in the Grand Highlander Hybrid Max. Oddly, the TX 500h only comes in F Sport guise and gets things like adaptive dampers and rear-wheel steering. No other TX gets the same F Sport treatment.

However, if you want a more special powertrain, you'll have to wait for the TX 550h+, which comes with a 3.5-liter V6 plug-in hybrid powertrain. Naturally, it's the most powerful TX of the bunch, with 404 total system hp, and it's also the only one with a pure electric range of 33 miles.

Driving the Lexus TX

Typical Lexus customers are going to mostly love the way the TX drives. It has that solid sure-footedness you expect from a Lexus, along with the same isolation from the outside world. Its suspension is well-damped, even on the standard non-adjustable dampers, and it never feels floaty. Sure, it's entirely numb and it tries its best to make sure no noise or vibration annoys its passengers, but its chassis and suspension are good enough that it always feels confident, even when you're pushing it hard.

While you won't see many TXs getting flogged around suburbia, I had to try it out in the name of good journalism, of course. Its steering is accurate, appropriately weighted for an SUV of its size, and has decent on-center feel. So despite being in a three-row luxury bus, I actually got into a pretty good groove on some of Austin's twistier roads. The TX 500h F Sport is the most fun to drive due to its rear-wheel steering, but just barely so. Don't get the F Sport model because you think it will suddenly become a sportier SUV because it won't. I asked Lexus if there will eventually be a 550h+ F Sport, with the same dampers and rear-wheel steer, and was met with the typical PR "We can't comment on future models."