Drive Notes: 2024 Lexus TX

by Tim Healey

Published: January 30th, 2024

Welcome back to Drive Notes -- a recurring feature in which I give you a few brief notes on what I am driving or have driven recently.

Up today: The 2024 Lexus TX 350.

As usual, we'll do this pro and con style.

Pros

The infotainment system that Toyota/Lexus moved to recently is easy to use and easy to read. Toyota went from having one of the worst, most outdated systems to having one of the better ones.
There are cool little touches throughout, such as little lights in the gauge cluster that light up when you tap the brakes.
The large knobs for radio and HVAC are appreciated.
There is the usual level of Lexus comfort, except for one thing -- see the "cons" section.
It's roomy.
There a relatively decent amount of grunt from the 2.4-liter turbocharged four cylinder. You can feel the 317 lb-ft of torque.
While the handling is still on par for a large three-row, it's a bit better than I'd expect. The ride is nice but otherwise unremarkable.

Cons

Although the controls are laid out logically and Lexus uses touchscreen controls for a fair amount of functions, there was still a "busy" feel to the inside.
The engine was heard a bit more than is usual in Lexus products. It was far from obnoxious -- it was maybe a tad more noise than I've experienced in the aging GX -- but it was noticeable.
The start/stop button is in a weird place.
While there's decent grunt, the TX is also heavy and it feels like it.
With the third row up, there's little room for luggage or groceries.

This is a pretty solid effort and definitely a nice, luxurious take on the Toyota Grand Highlander. It's unremarkable but packaged well enough that Lexus will likely sell plenty.

[Images: Lexus]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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Comments

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2 of 38 comments

Chiefmonkey on Feb 14, 2024

Looks like Toyota has borrowed from the playbook of 1990's GM. This is badge engineering the old fashioned way!

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Chiefmonkey on Feb 15, 2024

Also, I really feel as though a brand with the heritage of Lexus should come up with better names for its vehicles than "TX."

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Recent Comments

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Tassos Under incompetent, affirmative action hire Mary Barra, GM has been shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis.Whether the Malibu cancellation has been one of these shootings is NOT obvious at all.GM should be run as a PROFITABLE BUSINESS and NOT as an outfit that satisfies everybody and his mother in law's pet preferences.IF the Malibu was UNPROFITABLE, it SHOULD be canceled.More generally, if its SEGMENT is Unprofitable, and HALF the makers cancel their midsize sedans, not only will it lead to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ones, but the survivors will obviously be more profitable if the LOSERS were kept being produced and the SMALL PIE of midsize sedans would yield slim pickings for every participant.SO NO, I APPROVE of the demise of the unprofitable Malibu, and hope Nissan does the same to the Altima, Hyundai with the SOnata, Mazda with the Mazda 6, and as many others as it takes to make the REMAINING players, like the Excellent, sporty Accord and the Bulletproof Reliable, cheap to maintain CAMRY, more profitable and affordable.
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