Tribeca

In your transfer case: high is for normal driving. You use it just about all of the time. Low is not used very often and for some, maybe never. Low is for difficult situations where traction is exceptionally difficult such as off-road in sand, seriously difficult mud, or in loads of snow. Low provides you with more control over your wheel (tire) speed. Also, you would use low if you are on a steep decent that is iced or very slippery and you wish to use downhill hill decent control. The downhill assist function only works in low gear. The nice thing about downhill assist is that you can keep your car in its normal drive gear "D" and the downhill assist will keep the car at a safe speed without you needing to use the brakes or accelerator. All you do is steer. In nasty situations it is amazing (I use it to head down my 15% 800 foot driveway when we have icing conditions).

Neutral is just like in your transmission, the gears are NOT engaged and you will not go anywhere. Neutral is just the spot between high and low so the gears can disengage before they engage in the new gear. Your transmission has the same.

I suggest reading the manual that came with the car. You should also try out everything so you have first hand experience on what all of the features do. There are many driveline features and all kinds of combinations.

By the way, you can only switch the transfer case from high to low or back when the transmission is in Park or Neutral.

I find it hard to believe an auto dealer would think you put the transfer case in neutral to drive the car. That's very sad!

Enjoy.

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

I just got a 2004 GX470 (love it!) but I have no idea how the 4wd controls work.

For normal city/highway driving, should the 4WD control be at High or Neutral? I had different answers from the folks at the dealershipOne person from the dealership said that it should be on "N" (neutral) but the owner's manual says that at neutral no power is delivered to the wheels and the vehicle must be stopped. I plan on calling the Lexus maintenance dept but I wanted to see what everyone else on here says.

Thanks so much!