The brawny Lexus LX470 was introduced in 1998, and since then has had a couple of minor updates. Now these latest photos capture a future LX470 that is restyled and updated inside and out.

Caught during secret testing in southern Europe, the crew of engineers from Japan and Belgium had along with the prototype the current Toyota Landcruiser as well as a Mercedes ML for comparison.

At the front, the new Lexus revises the grille to have only 3 central horizontal bars instead of 4, and also integrates the headlights into a single unit instead of the two light clusters on each side used before. The front bumper is all new, but carries over the general shape with twin horizontal slots and a tapered solid area in the middle. Rear styling is almost unchanged, but has restyled taillights.

The interior is completely new, and features a very large screen for the navigation system surrounded by push buttons located both at the sides of the screen and below it. Styling of the passenger compartment looks even more luxurious than before, including wood trim even around the push buttons on the steering wheel.

The new Lexus LX470 should be ready for release some time in 2007.

Christa Lehmann/ Hidden Image