Lexus ES End of the line for luxury saloon
We’re feeling particularly chilled out after a few months of commuting in Lexus’s latest luxury saloon
RUNNING A CAR that gets only three stars in the rigorous What Car? road test could be viewed as a bit of a gamble. While our test team acknowledges there’s a lot to like about the Lexus ES, the Japanese hybrid luxury saloon is beaten hands down for driver appeal by the rival BMW 5 Series and can get in a bit of a flap when it’s away from its natural environment, cruising along a motorway.
This was evident whenever I took the ES along a country road; every time I planted my right foot to accelerate up a hill or overtake a slower car, the CVT automatic gearbox let the engine howl with displeasure, ruining the usually serene driving experience. Using Sport mode only exacerbated the problem, and the steering wheel-mounted shift paddles didn’t help much, because they made the gearbox hold onto each ‘gear’ for only a short while.
However, most of the time the ES proved to be a hugely comfortable and relaxing car to drive, especially on my motorway-heavy daily commute. In fact, I nicknamed it my zen car; commuting around the M25 in it was the automotive equivalent of yoga, because even the rumble-strip-like concrete sections of that road’s surface couldn’t penetrate the ES’S ultradeep soundproofing and disturb my chilledout state of mind.
My range-topping Takumi-spec ES came with pretty much every creature comfort you could wish for, too: a heated, electrically adjustable steering wheel, all-round heated seats and a cooling function for the front seats, plus the latest driver assistance systems, including sophisticated adaptive cruise control, a 360deg surround-view camera and automatic emergency braking with a rear cross-traffic/pedestrian alert system.
On top of that, it has lots of little touches that make it easy to live with. These are from the Japanese notion of omotenashi: looking after people’s needs, even before they arise. So the driver and front passenger can both access the centre console storage bin easily because it’s double-hinged, and if you have the rear window blind down and select reverse gear, the blind automatically rises out of the way. These might sound like little things, but they really do help to alleviate stress. And with masses of leg and head room plus well-padded back seats, when I took my parents for days out, they felt like they were being driven in a limousine.
Another strength is the low running costs, especially as a company car. My ES averaged nearly 50mpg during its time with me; that’s on a par with the latest BMW 520d, but because the ES has a petrol engine, it isn’t subject to the 4% diesel surcharge on benefit-in-kind company car tax that affects the BMW.
Not everything about the ES was a nice surprise, though. My car developed an intermittent fault with the radio listing screen; if I scrolled up and down through stations, it would sometimes jump up or down by one or two and display the wrong station. It was the first time I’d had a car with an infotainment problem, and it came as a surprise from a brand that’s usually at the top of the What Car? reliability league tables.
However, if you’re after a luxury car with an extremely well-appointed and supremely comfortable interior and you want the added benefit of lower emissions and ownership costs than a diesel, there’s a lot to like about the ES. Yes, it could do with a proper automatic gearbox like its rivals have, but if you’re happy to make leisurely rather than rip-snorting progress, or most of your miles are on the motorway, where it will cruise effortlessly at 70mph, the ES can help make light work of what might otherwise be a gruelling commute.
LOGBOOK
Lexus ES 300h Takumi
Mileage 11,574
List price £45,665
Target Price £44,435
Price as tested £45,650
Test economy 49.3mpg
Of cial economy 51.4mpg (combined)
Dealer price now £33,905
Private price now £30,138
Trade-in price now £29,403
Running costs (excluding depreciation) Fuel £687, service £265