I’ve owned multiples of both. On the surface I’ll tell you that I absolutely hate the barn door on the GX and I love the split gate/tail gate on the LC/LX more than any other setup. That’s 100% emotional, when in reality, after using both for many years, it’s not nearly that polarizing. Here are my thoughts.
GX barn door
Cons-For starters it opens the wrong way, it’s designed for the Japanese market and because of that it puts you out in traffic when opening it on the street side. I feel like I am always on the wrong side of the vehicle when I need to get into it as well, this can be trained out by remembering to be on the drivers side when you need to access the cargo area, I still haven’t remembered lol. The door is kind of heavy but that’s only a detriment when on a side hill angled down, at least it has the option to lock it open. Rear visibility isn’t as good as it could be due to the bottom of the rear glass being pretty high up on the door.
Pros-The rear glass pops open allowing access to the cargo area without having to open the door, that said it’s kind of high up and limits your ability to reach in. It allows for the use of 270 awning should that appeal to you. You have decent storage inside of the door.
Conclusion-As much as I love to hate it, in reality it’s not nearly as bad as I make it out to be. It’s certainly not my first choice and maybe not even my second (regular hatch is better imho) but it’s better than ambulance doors in my opinion. People are always wowed by it as if they’ve never seen a rear door open in such a manner lol (I guess everyone forgot about the station wagons we had growing up?!).
LC/LX split hatch/lift-gate and tail-gate
Cons-It somewhat limits your access to the back of the cargo area nearest the rear seats when the tail gate is down. It requires you to perform two maneuvers instead of one to fully open and access your cargo area. The wiper is fixed and always in your peripheral. The rear window is fixed and cannot be opened.
Pros-You have a freaking tail gate on a SUV, how cool is that?! It makes for a great spot to sit, prepare food, work on/assemble things and you have some extra storage inside of the tail gate. It’s unique to the platform and somewhat iconic. You can open the upper hatch and access or load items with the tail gate still closed providing security to keep your gear/items from falling out. It creates the perfect height barrier to flush mount drawers behind the tail gate and possibly create a sleeping platform.
Conclusion-In theory and purely based on emotion I think it’s the best layout possible for a SUV. But in reality it’s possible that the lift hatch with roll down window found on the 4Runner might be the best all around option. If you think you’ll utilize the tail gate often then it’s a no brainer, but if not it loses a lot of its allure. I love it but I really don’t utilize the tail gate as much as I anticipated.
I apologize if this break down didn’t help you any in regards to choosing one, but these are my honest opinions and findings on the subject. In all honesty there really isn’t a bad way to go here because each rear hatch/door design offers it own set of benefits, you just have to decide which is better for your needs/use/personality/quirks.
