2004 Lexus LX470

Automotive Industries,  August, 2004  by John Peter

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

One of the perks of this job is getting to drive a lot of cars that I will never be able to afford. The Lexus LX470 is a very well built, very big SUV. But at more than $70,000, it's well out of my price range, unless Lexus could find a way to install a kitchen and bathroom.

Though it doesn't have those amenities, the LX470 does have a lot of toys to play with and I get a lot of pleasure out of showing the latest technologies to my friends and family.

My favorite Lexus toy is the voice command navigation system. Push a button on the steering wheel, give one of the preprogrammed commands and a nice lady's voice repeats your command and performs it.

Simple enough, right?

After testing the system with stellar results, I was eager to demonstrate it for my 16-year-old, though I didn't realize that I hadn't quite memorized the specific commands necessary to make the thing work.

Driving home from a high school chorus show, I turned in Dan and said, "Check this out."

The navigation system was set in a split-screen format. I hit the steering wheel button and clearly commanded, "Single screen."

The pleasant lady's voice came back with, "Showing ski resorts." This didn't change the screen because, quite frankly, there aren't any ski resorts in Garden City, Mich.

We chuckled, and I hit the button again and repeated, "Single screen." The computer replied with, "Screen off," and shut down the system. We both started laughing.

I hit the button again and said, "Screen on."

The computer replied with, "Screen off."

Dan, now laughing hysterically, said, "Let me try it," and said, very clearly, "Screen on."

The computer replied, "Showing parking icons."

We laughed the rest of the way home.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group