Many of the main design elements of the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser and Lexus GX are shared by their windshields, which look noticeably flat and steep. Although that does make these cars look more retro-cool, flat windshields are more likely to crack than curved ones. I told the head engineer for the GX about it, and he doesn’t seem to care. Last week, a lot of car journalists test-drove the new GX in Arizona. When the ban on driving impressions ends on February 1, you can expect a lot of first-drive reviews, including mine. For now, you’ll have to put up with my narrow and intense interest in this car. Like the question, I asked Koji Tsukasaki, Chief Engineer of the Lexus GX: Doesn’t Lexus care that the glass is so hard that it breaks people? When Tsukasaki-san talked through a translator, he played down the worry while pointing out that the A-pillars—the metal parts on either side of the windshield—are stronger and made of ultra-high-tensile steel. According to Tsukasaki-san, “wind noise was a big issue,” which means that the wiper placement was meant to fix the problem. There are two reasons why I’m giving you this little piece of advice. First, everyone knows that the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota FJ Cruiser, which have windshields that are known for being very flat, break a lot of glass throughout their lives. People are repeating and criticizing this for as long as you Google it. So, when we first saw pictures of the new Toyota Land Cruiser and this Lexus with its Brinks truck-style front glass, I thought that the engineers must have thought about this. Also, the fact that Tsukasaki-san didn’t seem to care about cracking was interesting. The second reason is that Lexus has said it’s not a problem. This way, I will have something to turn to when someone asks, “Won’t that windshield crack every year?” That’s all there is to it now. “No,” says the chief engineer!
