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2025 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail First Drive: The Flagship We’ve Been Waiting For
The idea of a “flagship” model in an automaker’s lineup can generally be distilled down to the following: Everything a brand has—tech, luxurious touches, style, capability—all crammed into a single offering and sold for a wad of cash. The good ones are lavish and full of every feature under the sun. The great ones, however, manage to take it a step further, channeling a brand ideal that might not always show on lesser models. For several decades, Lexus’ flagship was the LS, the luxury sedan that put Mercedes-Benz and the S-Class on notice when it arrived in 1989. These days, the mantle belongs to the Lexus LX SUV.
When we drove the LX 600, the full-size, body-on-frame SUV that Lexus launched in 2021, we walked away from it certain that the target buyer was more interested in luxury than off-road capability. Despite the TNGA-F underpinnings, shared with the global J300-series Toyota Land Cruiser, it lacked a certain ruggedness. (North America’s new Land Cruiser, designated J250, is smaller and boxier.) But when the LX 700h hybrid appeared last fall, its aggressive looks and impressive specs gave us renewed hope for a flagship that combined the 600’s elegance with the global Land Cruiser’s tough attitude.
The big difference-maker is a new Overtrail trim. Overtrail is an emerging Lexus subbrand that leans into the off-road capability of the brand’s two body-on-frame SUVs, the GX 550 and, now, the LX 700h. On the GX 550 Overtrail, we found the combination of technical features—locking rear diff, 33-inch A/T tires, and an electronic swaybar disconnect system paired with styling flourishes—to be an absolute home run combo.
With the LX 700h, the Overtrail proposition gets even sweeter. In addition to the Torsen-style locking center differential that’s standard on all versions of the LX 700h, the Overtrail gets locking rear and front differentials. Indeed, a triple-locked Land Cruiser is back for the first time since the late 1990s, albeit with a Lexus LX badge.
This class of Toyota SUV, going all the way back to the FJ40s of the 1960s, has enjoyed a reputation for overengineering and toughness. Here’s how that manifests in 2025: Typically, in hybrid powertrains such as the one found in the 700h, the electric motor integrated between the gas engine and the 10-speed transmission would typically also handle starting duties and charging functions. In most scenarios, it does; however, in this drivetrain, Lexus engineers also opted to install a regular starter motor and an alternator. These redundant components ensure that, even if the hybrid system were to fail deep into the outdoors, the car could still function normally under gas power and a traditional 12-volt charging system. That’s an expensive failsafe, unless the product you’re charging more than $100,000 for is famous not only for wild adventures but also for getting you back home afterwards. Ruggedness returned.
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Specs: 2024 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail
- Price: $115,350/$116,260 (base/as-tested)
- Powertrain: 3.4-liter twin-turbo hybrid V-6, 10-speed automatic transmission, two-speed transfer case, full-time four-wheel drive, lockable center, front, and rear differentials.
- Horsepower: 457 hp @ 5200 rpm
- Torque: 583 lb-ft @ 2400 rpm
- Layout: Four-door, 4, 5, or 7-passenger body-on-frame SUV
- Manufacturer-estimated fuel economy: 19 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, 20 mpg combined
- 0–60 mph: 6.4 seconds
- Competitors: Land Rover Defender OCTA, Mercedes-Benz G 550
The earthen body color wears well on the LX 700h Overtrail, complemented by the blacked-out window surrounds, roof trim, fender cladding, and front and rear fascia treatment. The beltline on the LX lacks the kick-up motif you see on the GX, and that’s the easiest visual differentiator between the two. The LX 700h is two inches longer than the GX 550, but it’s shorter by about the same amount—before you put the LX’s hydraulically adjustable suspension in its highest setting, which adds four extra inches of clearance. (The GX doesn’t get a height-adjustable system.) The two utes share the same 112.2-inch wheelbase thanks to their common TNGA-F platform that underpins seven vehicles in the Toyota and Lexus family. Cargo space is actually less than on the GX here as well, because of the space taken up by the hybrid battery in the trunk. For the 700h, Lexus engineers fitted a new cross-member for the spare tire that also helps with structural rigidity.
Lexus invited media out to California’s Napa Valley for a first taste of the LX 700h from behind the wheel. According to company engineers on site, the hybrid system (the same one you’d find in the Tundra or Sequoia but without i-Force MAX branding) is meant to add capability more than efficiency. A happy byproduct is marginally better fuel economy (+1 mpg combined) versus the LX 600 (19 mpg), but that electric motor really shines as a way to fill in torque between spurts of peak boost from the 3.4-liter twin-turbo V-6. On-road, if you switch the LX 700h into Sport mode, the throttle sharpens considerably thanks to the electric motor’s more immediate torque.
Off-road, that electric motor’s response and consistent thrust enable the driver to precisely navigate obstacles that would get hairy without a delicate touch. At a small off-road course carved into one of Napa Valley’s myriad vineyards, we scuttled our way over all manner of terrain, from severe side inclines to a “bridge” with extreme approach and departure angles, as well as a series of mini coffins that, if you did them right, would hang the right front wheel three feet in the air. With the center differential locked, the transfer case set to low range, and the height-adjustable suspension set to its highest mark, the LX 700h trundled over everything with aplomb.
In one sense, the LX 700h comes across as an analog monster benefiting from triple-locked diffs—just you and the throttle and brake pedal add up to total off-road command. But there is another, more tech-forward layer to this machine; Lexus’ Crawl Control (essentially an off-road cruise control) is brilliant. I ran the whole course manually to start but then circled back around to try this automated system without touching either pedal. Over a steep “bridge,” in the middle of one course, the Crawl system gradually fed in torque until I began to climb skyward, but then, as the nose crested the top, it backed off just as seamlessly. The precise in-and-out way that the system applies throttle is downright remarkable.
Instead of a big, chunky, mechanically-linked shift lever, the LX 700h employs a shift-by-wire system with an actuator that’s found in all manner of other Lexus products (but also lesser Toyota models). The shift-by-wire system enables features like more advanced automatic parking capability (computers can flip the gearbox between drive and reverse depending on what’s called for at the moment), but in a car that includes mechanically redundant systems, an electronic shifter feels inconsistent. When pressed, Lexus engineers were confident that because this system has been in use for more than a decade in other models in the family, it wouldn’t pose any threat of failure off the beaten path. Furrow your brow as necessary.
Save for the chauffeur’s special LX 700h Ultra Luxury, which has ridiculously lavish rear seats and can only hold four people (the most important of which are certainly not up front), the other four trims—Premium, Luxury, F Sport Handling, and Overtrail—will carry seven passengers as standard. The Overtrail offers a third-row delete option that reduces the sticker price by $1750, which is awesome. Especially so because the third row is terrible; the wheelbase just isn’t conducive to three comfy rows and an extra hybrid battery makes this meager space even more cramped.
The semi-aniline leather throughout feels soft but not flimsy. The buttons don’t feel milled from single pieces of material as they have on other top-tier Lexus models, like the LC 500, but they’re not flimsy, either. The user interface for the center stack still feels a hair behind the most futuristic cabins from Mercedes or Audi, but I don’t think Lexus has ever prioritized being at the bleeding edge of luxury infotainment tech. The important factor here, if Lexus wants to ensure the LX’s astounding resale value remains intact, is that the whole cabin holds up physically and still works technologically in ten years. I see no reason to be concerned on that front.
I think the Overtrail makes an open-and-shut case as the best version of this new LX 700h. Am I a Land Cruiser fanatic who can’t help but feel a soft spot for what’s now the only ticket to the 300-Series party here in North America? Sure.
My reasoning? When you compare that version to the few remaining factory-built, triple-locked luxury SUVs, even a $115K price tag seems like a deal. You can go to the Mercedes G-Class, long the gold standard in this “dirt-and-diamonds” segment, but then that demands a $150K base price for a vehicle with 170 lb-ft less torque and Kardashian connotations aplenty. (That is, if you can even get an allotment for one, which is no guarantee.) Land Rover’s Defender OCTA seems even more hardcore than the LX, but that one also starts at around $150K, and the interior is arguably not on par with the material quality you’ll get on the Lexus.
With the new powertrain, new platform, and new interior tech, the gas-only LX 600 doesn’t distinguish itself too much from the German competition, or, say, the Infiniti QX80. Remember: The old, outgoing LX 570 had an aura of rugged, anvil-esque reliability to prop it up, and with any all-new model that slate gets wiped clean.
This hybrid LX 700, with the Overtrail bits in particular, shifts the conversation to the here and now. It’s every bit as aspirational and desirable as the best Lexus GX (more so, really), will be lusted after by Toyota Land Cruiser fanatics, and it even manages to be the cost-effective play within the small segment of like-minded offerings. Thanks to the right combo of tech, overengineering, and style, Lexus has re-established the LX atop its food chain.
2025 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail
Highs: The factory-built triple-locked Land Cruiser—an unobtainable lust object here in North America for more than two decades—is back. Redundant engineering in service of reliability. Cost-effective relative to its counterparts.
Lows: Punishing third row—skip it if you can, you’ll even save a few bucks. You’re forgiven if taking a six-figure SUV through a rock garden makes you shudder. Not our favorite gear lever in the class.
Summary: Flagships have to be aspirational and evocative of the best of a brand. The LX 700h Overtrail will shoulder that mantle with ease.
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If I had to choose I’d take the Lexus GX instead. It’s a little less complicated but this makes me want the older V8 GX or LX more than anything.
We have 3 Lexus suvs. They are 15 years old and run flawlessly. But. This one is way to complicated, full of stuff I will never use or need, and costs as much as the summer cottage near the beach we bought two years ago. No thanks.