Some vehicles make no sense to me.  Take the Lincoln Blackwood.  Not only a pickup-truck-as-luxury-vehicle, but one that had truncated utility because of a not-so-clever box cover.  Or consider the Cadillac Escalade EXT.  Spend over $52K and get a pickup bed in which you’re going to haul what?  Caviar?  Not surprisingly, the Blackwood has left the stage, but the Escalade EXT sells and sells and. . . .  But what the market wants the market gets, even if the market never plans to use it.

Which brings me to the Lexus GX 470.  A new entry into the sport utility segment.  Prior to its launch, Lexus had two SUVs.  There is the Land Cruiser-based LX 470, a $63,125 (MSRP) behemoth that is luxury deluxe with the possibility of going out on the Serengeti like nobody’s business as standard.  If you want to drive large, then it is the number for you.  And chances are, the most common rugged ride that the LX 470 will see is on Rodeo Drive.  Then there is the unibody RX300, which certainly created a new benchmark in that class.  Think what you will about the competitors, the RX300 pretty much drives ahead of the pack.  On road, of course.

So the Powers That Are at Lexus took a look at their offerings, took a look at what some of the competitors (especially, it seems, BMW with the X5 and Mercedes with the M-Class), and took aim right at the middle of their own mix and then created the GX 470.  In some regards, it is something of a younger brother to the LX 470, but like younger siblings, it is not necessarily smaller in all respects.  That is, it is actually 0.2 in. higher than the LX 470 (73 in. vs. 72.8 in.)—which isn’t much, of course, but if you’re the younger brother, there’s bragging rights to be considered, and in this case, it is more headroom.  As for the other aspects of room (e.g., rear leg, hip and shoulder), the LX takes it.

Like its body-on-frame brother, the GX has the same 4.7-liter 32-valve V8 used in the LX.  And it is chock-full of standard features, like airbags galore, a Torsen limited-slip differential, vehicle skid control, adaptive variable suspension, active traction control, wood, leather, an audio system that’s probably better than the one in your rec room. . . .  You get it.  It’s a Lexus, through and through.

Which brings me back to the part that doesn’t make sense.  Or at least doesn’t totally make sense in this case.  The GX 470 is engineered and built to go off-road.  Seriously off-road, not just over some gravel on the way up to a hilltop retreat in Marin County.  I’m talking about the sort of place where someone might be inclined to take a beat-up Jeep Wrangler or the like.  And the GX 470 can take it.  All the more remarkable is that it drives on that terrain like a Lexus.  And “drives like a Lexus” doesn’t mean that it cossets the driver in wallowing comfort.  It provides a feel of connection to the earth, some control over what’s going on.  To be sure, those leather-surfaced seats are certainly comfortable, but if you’re driving, you’re driving, in control, not out-of-touch.

And, yes, when you are on the highway, the vehicle makes use of those 235 horses in an appropriate manner.  You know you are driving a Lexus.  Smooth.

The puzzling part of this is that someone might actually avail themselves of the possibility of taking their Lexus onto a mountain trail that is more suited to goats than goat cheese.  (And taking into account that some of those who will do it probably know about as much as off-roading as I do about tying a tuxedo tie, Lexus engineers have included such capabilities as Hill-start Assist Control and Downhill Assist Control that facilitate the undertakings of even novice off-roaders—but which can be overridden by those in the know.)

At about $45K, this is nothing short of a remarkable vehicle.  Still, I wonder: a Lexus built to take on those rocks. . . .?