Minneapolis Street Sighting: Lexus LX450

 With the rise of the luxury ulity market popularize by the introduction of the Range Rover, various luxury automakers felt that they should try to tap into this niche; ironically, Lexus was the first to do so with their entry, the Lexus LX450.  Introduced in 1996, to do battle with said Range Rover, it cost roughly the same--but had a wide dealer network, and it had Toyota's proven reliability.  But there was a slight problem with Lexus' first entry to this developing market.

Unfortunately, having the Land Cruiser and LX look identical is the same idea as having the Ford Explorer and its Mercury twin, the Mountaineer, and we all know how that turned out. Oddly enough, Toyota's penchant for reliability really must win buyers, because there was a sufficient business case for both. 

I never really understood the point of having this one and the Land Cruiser, since they're essentially the same vehicle; while I will admit that though the LX were a dumb execution on Toyota's part, the idea behind it, and the truck's marketing scheme was genius, because both the Land Cruiser and the Lexus LX are still in production today.

I love these; almost as much as Land Cruisers. Why not as much as the Land Cruiser? Its all in the name; LX450 just sounds.. okay I know what it stands for, Luxury 4WD with a 4.5L I6. Yes, that's all good and well, but it really doesn't look all that different from its Toyota cousin.

This one seems to have lead an alright life, and is now being used as someone's beater, judging by the various scrapes and dents and the slightly warped front bumper; that being said, the paint is in pretty good shape, and unlike most specimen, this particular LX exhibits no rust or paint fade.

While I only shot this for a novelty factor I'm guessing these might end up becoming fairly rare soon; I haven't seen many, even when they were new. I hope whoever owned this one washed it sometime recently so rust does not creep in.  I liked shooting this one, and it reminded me that I hadn't seen a first-generation LX in quite some time.