Cool, distinctive, interesting automotive builds are all over the place these days. Among them are several eye-catching off-roaders and overlanding vehicles. Beyond a showy display of one’s finances though, what’s it actually like to live with and drive such a contraption?
One man with a Lexus GX470 knows after stacking almost 60,000 miles on it with a lift kit, 33-inch all-terrain tires, a 4.7-liter V8, and several off-road-focused parts. He’s provided some insights that truly only come from everyday experience.
That man is Douglas Sonders of the BlackBird Moto YouTube channel. He typically spends time reviewing unique and interesting one-off builds like the ones mentioned at the outset of this piece. This time though, he critiques his very own SUV.
Again, this is a 2008 Lexus GX470. It came stock with the 263-horsepower, 323 lb-ft V8, though Sonders bought it with around 150,000 miles on the odometer already.
It also had a two-inch lift and some B.F.Goodrich KO2 all-terrain tires on it at that time. Now, it still has that same lift kit but sports new wheels and new Falken all-terrain tires. Sonders also added steel bumpers, a 15,000-pound winch, an ARB skid plate, and some rock sliders too.
There are a few luxury upgrades that help with overlanding and towing, too. They include high-performance fog lights along with airbag spring helpers for the rear coilover shocks. Sonders can inflate those bags via a built-in air valve that sits in the rear bumper.
On top of that, the interior now features a recently reupholstered set of seats, a long-range GRMS CB-style radio, a new steering wheel, and even a small flip-down table on the rear door. All of those mods make for more enjoyable off-roading but don’t forget one thing that makes this SUV even more appealing.
The engine is largely bulletproof. It’s the same one Toyota used for the 4Runner and that SUV didn’t get an update for over a decade. Beyond routine maintenance and important scheduled maintenance, it has no major known flaws.
The one issue with a vehicle like this is fuel economy. Sonders reports 14 to 15 mpg there which means that it’s worse in the city and likely even worse still off-road. Granted, off-road fuel economy isn’t a giant concern so long as one isn’t wheelin’ every day and everywhere they go.
In addition, he says that many of the mods he has now aren’t very useful to him currently. “I’ll be honest, I did all of these amazing off-road upgrades… and then I moved to New York City and it’s overkill,” he says. Perhaps that’s why the entire rig is now available for sale on Facebook. Sonders is asking $17,999. To be fair to him, the city is where most LX470s live anyway.
Based on sales of similar vehicles on Cars and Bids and Bring A Trailer, that seems like a reasonable price given the age, mileage, upgrades, and condition. Those in the market for an adventure vehicle now have just a bit more insight into what living with one is like.
If you like this one you can give it a new life back in the wilderness where it belongs!
But this topic brings us to a question: Sonders clearly realized that his rig is so overbuilt for what he needs now that he’s in the city. But plenty of folks in the city drive SUVs and trucks every day despite the compromises associated with them. So the question is: Do you own a car that has way more capability than you need? And how do you square in your mind that you’re making compromises for capability you’re not really using? No judgment here, of course, but I’m curious.
Images: Douglas Sonders; Blackbird Moto/YouTube
I would hesitate to say yes. My car can do 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and has AWD. My truck can go almost anyplace it can physically fit. Do I need AWD and 400 HP to idle along in stoplight traffic? No. Do I go out to the ranch every weekend and need to cross streams, rutted out logging roads, and boulder-strewn trails anymore? No.
But that doesn’t mean I should give them up when I can still do those things with a couple of minutes of packing and picking a spot on a map.
My hesitation to say yes means no. Just to clarify.
My drive it most days is a Mazda CX-5, which spends the winter on Blizzaks and goes off road in the summer so it gets better used than many 4x4s. My pickup is under utilized but also spends more time parked than driving. On the other hand when I do use it I usually have something long enough to fill the 8′ box or a trailer.
Nope. Currently 4 of 13 on the road. 04 avalanche lives with a 22 foot trailer on it for the 2-3 times a month I need to tow something,$500 87 chevy r20 8′ bed for when the others are packed and I need a pickup ($230/year full coverage, thank you hagerty) daily driver work truck 2000 xj cherokee, and 04 kia optima rotbox. Only change I’d make is I wish I still had the 98 outback instead of the kia, but when you remove the back seats and put in a sheet of plywood, it has truckability.
My daily is an F150 with an 8′ bed. I do not carry massive weight every time I drive it. I have only towed with it a couple times in my several years of ownership.
But over 50%(random guess of course) of my drives involve cargo that is too large to fit in my station wagon. I also haul major weight with it not frequently, but frequently enough that it would be a major pain(and expense) to go rent a U-haul pickup every time. In fact, I will be building a greenhouse and hauling about a ton of rock with it next week.
A lot of you guys(who don’t own pickups I assume) say dumb stuff like ‘towing is the only use case for a fullsize pickup’ because I guess you missed the bed?
Anyways, no, I do not own a vehicle with seriously unjustified capability. I also have a Jeep that will majorly fulfill the offroad capacity need that the F150 can’t.
“ My Maserati does one-eighty-five
I lost my license, now I don’t drive
I have a limo, ride in the back
I lock the doors in case I’m attacked”
New York City in the 1970s and 80s, the off-road capabilities would’ve come in ever so handy. I lived in the East Village and there was a 2 1/2 foot deep pothole outside of my apartment and when it rained it would fill with water and people would try to drive through it at 50 miles an hour.
This question should be banned from all automotive enthusiast discourse.
For all anyone here needs to know, I haul 4000 lb in the bed of my truck at all times, I drive my Viper at 205 mph daily, and I carry 7 passengers 100% of the time in my van.
And if I don’t do those things, it’s no business of anyone else’s. We’re all here because cars mean more to us than merely a way to fulfill basic necessities.
I think it’s an interesting question, and one worth discussing. I do think that people are approximately 36.7X too prone to judge others on their vehicle choices and perceived overbuying, but it is a real problem to an extent, and it is interesting to observe the phenomenon and how it has changed over time. For example, the massive proliferation of AWD(and ‘awd’) in the last 30 years.
I get the point about criticizing others’ decisions regarding vehicle capability. But asking me to contemplate and/or criticize my own vehicular choices? Why is that a taboo question?
because he doesn’t want to face the reality of his choices. that his vehicles took an immense amount of fossil fuel to produce. that it takes an immense amount of fossil fuel to operate. that the size of his vehicle puts his neighbors in danger.
Wow. Mean and wrong at the same time.
Laughable. One airline flight or one hour of a coal plant running in China emits more CO2 than my vehicles will in their lifetime, so please spare me the holier than thou.
I’m certain you never eat beef, never fly, never drive at all (a bike is much cleaner after all), never turn your thermostat below 85 in the summer, etc.
very interesting choices of comparison. an industrial coal plant which produces like a billion kwh a year to citizens or a commercial airplane which can transport hundreds of people saving an immense amount of emissions if they were to drive.
imo a better comparison would be with suburbanites to city dwellers. an average city dweller produces 4-5 tons less co2 than your average suburbanite. you cant just blame corporations because theyre making things that we buy every day. we can make changes with our consumptions.
My point is that any changes I or even all of us make individually are drowned out by the choices of corporations and foreign governments.
Every light vehicle in the US combines for 1-2% of global emissions. Trying to shame people over their minuscule part in that is ridiculous.
the most polluting corporations and foreign govts are in fossil fuel. transportation is the largest consumer of fossil fuel in america. it’s a good place to start.
driving our huge trucks to buy an industrial produced double smash burger with a large sugar drink; wearing our trendy fast fashion clothes; back to our 4000sq ft mansion for 3 people and then having the audacity to blame corporations and foreign govts is just so funny and so sad.
One seems to lead to another….see reply just below yours for example.
The allocation of one’s resources is still worth thinking about, even if vehicle emissions and related topics are not under consideration. For example: As much as I’d love to have a really badass vehicle (or three), I can’t justify putting my money there these days. My kids’ college expenses and my 401k eat a bunch of my income. My ratty Boxster and ratty endurance racing neon will have to scratch the itch…for the time being.
I’m not saying I need the capabilities of the Cadillac Blackwing I just bought, but I sure do enjoy them.
I have a Mazda3 hatchback and 2008 Tacoma. I threw a set of crossbars on the 3 and use it all the time to haul ladders with me for work. Might that be easier in my truck? Probably, but surprisingly not by a lot.
I went onto a job site recently in Florida (oh joy) with a 6 and 8 foot ladder strapped to the 3. Had a bunch of guys come up and start laughing and giving each other shit about how I drove 700 something miles like this while they all drove their big jacked up trucks and didn’t even bring their own tools with them.
I have always liked doing more with less so this is in line with my personality, but most people I feel don’t ever want to test those limits to see what a few extra minutes with a tie down can really give them.
Of course. I could just ride my bike, hire a car or get an Uber.
Nope. 2016 Honda Odyssey and a 2023 ioniq 5. No showboating, just practical transportation. Having sense and 2 kids will do that to you.
I drive the perfect car: a Nissan Altima. Too bad it lacks the perfect hardware, the Jatco Xtronic CVT… one could say I don’t have enough car, then.
I’d imagine that the vast majority of people driving today have more car than they can handle.
If we had cars that were closer to what we actually needed, we’d be driving a Honda Fit.
Not a car, but a motorcycle. ZX-14R.
I had no idea such a thing existed.
My research showed me it’s exactly what the name suggests. Wow.
No. I got something that meets my needs exactly, and for some reason people think I’m the crazy one for not having “more”.
Absolutely; my Honda VFR800 ‘Interceptor’ will do 0-impounded and licence suspension in 6 seconds, and it’s an 18-year old sport tourer. Anyone with a modern litrebike can walk all over that.
Yes. The Scout that’s in my profile pic. It came to me with a 4″ lift and brand-new 32″ Mud-Terrains, but the body was in fantastic shape for the East Coast so I’ve left it the way I got it. I’ve since swapped out the rear bumper for one a friend and I built to carry a swing-out tire carrier and carry my Hi-Lift, but I’ve removed the swingarm. I added a matching steel front bumper with a very small pre-runner style bar and foglights. WAY too much lift for the driving I do, and having lost my first Scout to adventures in mud and on the beach, this one isn’t going to see off-road use unless I win the lottery.
“Do You Own A Car That Has Way More Capability Than You Actually Need?”
Not really. But for a 2-person household, we have 6 vehicles, and that’s probably more than we actually need.
I think that all depends on the fleet.
If it’s a lot of barely running shit boxes, you probably have the right size.
If it’s a bunch of British and Italian cars from multiple eras, you may need something reliable as a backup.
The fleet:
My daily driver: 2010 midsize 2wd GMC Canyon regular cab 5-speed hand crank windows and manual locks.
My collector car: 1979 El Camino with IROC 305 TPI
Our 4wd winter emergency and emergency backup vehicle: 2003 GMC Envoy SLT (backup due to 10 mpg)
Wife’s daily driver: 2015 Cruze RS
Wife’s collector car: 1977 MGB convertible (runs well enough to take it to local drive-in restaurants and ice cream shops in the summers, but would I call it reliable?)
Our retirement road-trip vehicle: 2024 Trax LS
Yup. My 1999 Lexus RX300. No lift kit but required for an extra battery for the ARB refrigerator. (Chilled wine y’all). Custom rack for the Baroud expedition tent and now an addition to the rack for the Joolca en-suite. Taking it to ALDI’s for groceries is totally ridiculous. But it is summer here in the tundra and the Del Sol is fun and gets 40mpg. However it is strange to count the bolts on the wheels of the ubiquitous pickup trucks at a stop light
Kinda. . .my 1/2 is a bit more truck then I need. I don’t tow that much weight, but the weight of my truck eliminates the need for trailer brakes, which my trailer doesn’t have. I do use the bed often (garbage day, project materials, hunting and fishing equipment, etc. . .truck stuff I prefer not to have inside or doesn’t fit. Reference Jason’s article on the subject.). But I got a good deal on it back in 2016 and millage was only 1-2 mpg off a mid-size at the time and the interior size is great for trips. Plus I had a car back then.
Now no car (sold it during pandemic. . .as it was not used and the transision to WFH) I do miss the car when I have to go into the city or out of town.
So overkill for work and the run around, minor overkill for all the other stuff. But being able to “legally” load up the trailer is a definite plus. Car prices are still too high for me to get another. The numbers just don’t add up to making it worth it with vehicle cost, insurance, registration, inspections, etc. Plus, our roads aren’t great 4-6 months out of the year, even with good snow tires my car had trouble with our hill and our driveway, so i would be reliagted to the garage more often then not, eliminating the pay back. Though, if I see the right Miata. . .
Currently no. One four door sedan and a four door CUV. Both electric. They are perfect for our family of 3, soon to be 4.
I did briefly have a vehicle that was overkill. I bought a full sized truck as a tow/hauling rig to clear tons of trash off some land I bought. I put that truck up for sale after the last trash haul was dropped off at the landfill. From that day until it sold, it was way overkill for anything I would use it for. You would be surprised how hard it is to sell a fleet spec, regular cab, long bed, V8, 4×4 truck.
Wow. I feel like that’s what many people claim they want in a pickup. I’d think that would sell easily.
Yup. Evidently we are all weirdos here. My kind of people
Yes –
My Mercedes-Benz can go over 130mph, seats 4 and has @ 330+ mile range.
I have only ever needed it to go 100mph a few times – and 95% of the time, I don’t need more than one seat, or for it to go over 125 miles in a day.
95% of the time I’d be better off with a nice little two seat EV roadster – something along the lines of a Miata, Suzuki Cappuccino or even a Vanderhall.
No. For the first time in my life, I’ve actually got a tow pig that isn’t over capacity when I’m hauling baleage. Jk, 24k wagons are a few pound over the 12k rating on my K2500. I really want to buy a GMT400 dually but haven’t found the right one yet.
Yes. My BMW 128 currently has four seats, and 95% of the time I only require one. Hell, I live in a city and, most of the time, could quite happily get by with a Daihatsu Midget II.
“The one issue with a vehicle like this is fuel economy. Sonders reports 14 to 15 mpg there which means that it’s worse in the city and likely even worse still off-road. Granted, off-road fuel economy isn’t a giant concern so long as one isn’t wheelin’ every day and everywhere they go.”
Counterpoint: It is in that vehicle is consuming two or five times as much fuel as is needed to do the job of transporting one guy and maybe some groceries safely around town in climate controlled comfort.
There are consequences beyond the out of pocket expense of the fuel: Direct emissions, dwindling supply, energy used and emissions generated to drill, refine and transport the fuel and everyone’s favorite, paying for a bloated military because oil is a global commodity and energy supplies must be secured.
Agreed, that “isn’t a giant concern” bit is laughable. It’s a remarkably stupid choice for a city car.
No. My Jeep Wrangler has open diffs, 33″ tall tires, a very short wheelbase, and can’t tow much. It’s a bit of a goldilocks situation off-road, as it’s capable enough to get me through a myriad of trails without getting hung up and stuck, or, conversely, making every obstacle boring like 37″s would. The 2000lb towing capacity means that I’m restricted to small utility trailers and nothing more than a 14′ aluminum boat, lest there be a tail-wags-the-dog situation.
For my use, it’s pretty perfect. It has the exact same footprint as a current-gen Toyota Corolla. I have a ton of ground clearance though, and with the flat load floor and ability to pull a trailer that I otherwise wouldn’t with a compact sedan, it does fine for 99% of what I haul.
I was about to type the same thing (just 2 door Bronco, instead). Easy to park, can handle offroad and crap roads with ease, can tow/haul bikes (and kayaks), great turning radius, plenty of power, removable roof and simple to maintain. Gas mileage, well, yeah…….
2-doors are superior!