CFAI

Agree - no way should OP get a BMW. If going sporty route just get the Porsche and be done with it. Get the Macan. That way OP and GF can do occasional track days together. Dallas is only 3.5 hours (a hellish 3.5 on RT 35, but only 3.5 nonetheless) to COTA in Austin. Seems like a great way spend a weekend together, learn to track drive, and have a friendly competition to who see who is fastest.

SamLexRXGX

GX is a Luxury work horse in a truck platform. No other manufacturer come close for this price. There are plenty of modifications possible with GX. Toyota Prado(GX) is world famous for its reliability. You can do towing with style, offroad with out tired, still cruise in the high way smooth. All in one package. To save money you can buy a well maintained used GX. Boring has an advantage here cost wise.
End of the day its your money and spend on what you enjoy...

schwein

I would find an exhaust shop in town to do a custom cat-back exhaust, pick your muffler of choice for sound, I dont know of any headers you can get, maybe elsewhere in the world but that'll give you some more exhaust note. In terms of the suspension / fun factor I would try to find some 8.5 inch wide wheels that are not too gaudy as someone else posted here, then swap out the suspension with something from Eibach or another vendor with good support, by lifting int 1.5-2 inches you'll have room for some pretty good sized tires and will make the whole vehicle look much more beefy. try that, you could probably do the whole shabang for like $6,500, short money compared to buying a new vehicle.

John00

the gx is too slow, so when the fastest truck is brought up, its too ugly.
but you did mention a mod list, i think theres one here https://lexusgxor.com
it seems more mixed than i remember, but you can go through the list and see a bunch of things you can do

reggie1906

The GX460 was just named the most reliable car and such in America. I don't need it to be fast or sexy. I just need it to be reliable.

C7GS

I have a membership at ECR. Actually, the GF's Macan came with a free porsche track day at ECR. I told her to stay the hell away from my sanctuary :lol: I need to get back out there, but this was about 2 months ago:





I've driven COTA in my C7 Corvette. It was fun to do once, but unless you have a real high hp car you want to drive super hard without any car about flogging the chit out of it (engine and brakes), I prefer the local clubs. Those long straights and brutal braking zones are just more than I care to put my car through, and I dont need any more straights. I hit 153ish in the Vette. I hit about 120 or so at ECR. That's plenty for me.
COTA is also just a huge track. I feel like an ant on it. Plus way more walls, though it's still pretty safe, relative to most tracks. In the end, it was made for 900hp, super lightweight karts with tons of downforce. Club tracks were made for sports cars.

...plus I already pay for ECR. COTA is like $500 a day- maybe more IIRC.

Any recommended lifts? I probably want the least amount of lift (2.5?") with the firmest suspension. I dont really care how offroad capable it is. Track mentioned above actually has an offroad track now, but I doubt I'll go on it. Would be kinda cool though.
Will all same generation 4Runner lifts be compatible with the GX?

situman

Take the GX on a twisty mountain road. It's more fun than you think or know what it is capable of. It aint gonna handle like a BMW, but its fun to master a car not meant to be driven that way and its more fun to drive a slow car fast, no?

C7GS

Well, this worked out very strangely.
My GX got stolen!
Then I got covid on vacation and stuck in canada for 2 weeks. While I was there I bought a white 2016 with 70k miles. Looks like it was very well maintained.

I'll probably add some black or gunmetal wheels and knobby tires and call it good.

After deductible, I'm probably out $12-13k but I get 30k less miles and it's 4 years newer. Not exactly the upgrade I was looking for, but it's just best vehicle for my needs. It won't depreciate nearly as much as anything else, it's reliable- so I can have a very impractical car for my second car.

Anyone have suggestions for wheels/tires at stock height

MrTorgue

Get a pedal commander. It’s worth it and will improve the driving experience without dropping thousands of $$$ on what little performance mods we have for 460’s.

C7GS

It's really shocking that there are so many of these cars and no one makes any kind of performance parts for it. I'd love a small (5psi) supercharger. The GX with 400hp would be perfect.

MrTorgue

Almost all owners of these new are older folks and don’t care about such things. Why else did Toyota keep them the same for nearly a dozen years! LOL

I’d settle for a cam, intake manifold, exhaust manifold and a tune. That should get to 400 brake horsepower pretty easy.

CFAI

Not sure about older, but they are a dime a dozen up around Lakeway TX where I got ours used and they are def not driven by auto enthusiasts.

Seanzky

I'm a car guy and on the younger side of the demographics, but I understand exactly what MrTogue means. It's what actually drew me to a GX.

As for OP, that sucks that yours got stole but glad it worked out.

detrouge



ASE

Yes .. sell and support Elon Musk ... who is in the process of destroying Twitter because he thinks he bought a "Brand" versus a company where the talented employees (actually) represent the company valuation. He is an absolute moron. There are other EV options at this point ... so why support someone who's impulses represent both corporate and social irresponsibility ? He has absolutely no respect for anything that does not support his immature impulses. He deserves to destroy his (financially stupid) $44-Billion investment in Twitter. Beyond that ... Tesla does not have very good long-term reliability ratings ... so why go there for all reasons ?