Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
The all-new 2019 Lexus ES outshines the competition in every way
If you don’t feel like buying an all-new, 2019 Lexus ES, maybe you could steal one.
Really. It’s that good.
Longer, wider, lower, stronger, and more powerful than its predecessor, the ES remains true to its moniker—elegant sedan—but adds another adjective, athletic.
It’s faster and gets better gas mileage, too.
Competing in a tony field that includes the BMW 5-series, Audi A6, Mercedes Benz E-Class and Cadillac CTS, the Lexus ES, which starts at $39,500, has carved out its own niche by being substantially less expensive and generally more reliable than its rivals.
The knock on the ES has been that it favored comfort over performance. Built on the same architecture that undergirds the new Toyota Camry and Avalon, the ES, like its cousins, gained improved handling.
A ES 350 F Sport model features adaptive variable suspension and more precise steering to create handling characteristics similar to the Germans.
Just for grins, we priced out an F Sport with all the goodies, including a premium Mark Levinson audio and navigation package ($3,000), 10.2-inch heads-up display ($500), premium, triple-beam headlamps ($1,515), parking assist ($1,065), a kick sensor to open the trunk ($550) and wireless charger ($75), and came up with a sticker of $53,110, delivered.
A similarly equipped Beamer or Audi would top $70,000, and the E-Class would zoom past $100,000. Can you say value leader?
In that category, the only real challenger to the Lexus ES is the Genesis G80, which starts at $41,750 and tops out at $59,500. It’s a generously equipped and refined car which will need a decade to earn Lexus’ reputation for reliability and longer to gain the Germans’ cachet.
Great figure, but, oh, that nose
The new ES is 2.6 inches longer, 0.2 inch lower and 1.8 inch wider. A longer wheel base and wider tracks resulted in a car with sleeker lines and a more muscular stance. From almost every angle, the 2019 Lexus ES has eye-catching appeal. Almost.
Apparently, Lexus researchers found folks who actually like a front end reminiscent of a wide-mouth bass closing in on a giant dragonfly. I’m neutral on that one, but if you know someone who likes Lexus’ big spindle grilles, please send them my way.
I have a few questions.
In the lap of luxury
The cabin of the new Lexus LS is spacious, comfortable, well-appointed, flawlessly screwed together.
The look and feel of quality is everywhere. Along with the standard Striated Black trim, the ES offers three kinds of wood trim: Linear Dark Mocha, Linear Espresso and Matte Bamboo. There’s also an all-new metallic trim that comes standard on the F SPORT model called Hadori Aluminum, inspired by an ancient sword polishing process.
Lexus designers follow a concept called “Seat in Control,” a simple idea that says, from the moment you get in, all the controls you need are within reach and all the information you want is in plain view.
Armrests slide comfortably under your elbows and buttons can be pushed without taking your hands off the wheel. In the ES, the idea is taken a step further by placing all the main information displays within the driver’s line of sight.
This includes an ultra-sharp LCD instrument panel that features a large analog tachometer, digital speedometer and easy-to-read multi-information display.
Standard models use a 7-inch screen while the F-SPORT display measures 8-inches and features a movable center ring like one used in the LC. Hit a button on the steering wheel and the ring slides over to open more space for a display on the left side of the screen.
If Lexus would just do away with its confounding touch-pad approach to input, the interior would be another award-winner.
Glued up, screwed down
For the Lexus ES to evolve from a machine known primarily for comfort and quietness into one capable of dynamic handling mean starting with a new chassis, the GA-K. It’s an exceptionally rigid front-wheel drive chassis made from several grades of high-strength steel.
It is made stronger by using far more structural adhesives than before, all tightened down with laser screw welds. A total of 785 inches of adhesive is used, more than twice the amount (324 in.) used previously. Laser screw welding, a construction method shared with the LS sedan, is used in 120 locations.
Sound deadening now covers 93 percent of the floor plan, up from 68. Underbody covers front and rear and performance dampers further dampen noise, vibration and harshness.
Indeed, the thing is as quiet as a grove of dreaming pecan trees.
A stiffer chassis allowed engineers to realign critical suspension parts for improved straight-line stability.
Steering changes are interesting. Lexus engineers moved the motor for electric power steering from the column to the rack, which provides more precise feedback. They then deadened it for standard models—because some Lexus buyers apparently don’t like “sporty steering”—but sharpened it for F Sport models.
The F Sport also gets adaptive variable shocks. Sensors monitor linear and vertical g loads, speed, steering angle, yaw rate, master cylinder pressure, the engine control computer, and the skid control computer to help the system make up to 650 adjustments.
On the coveted Red River Bottoms Run, our tester, a ES 350 hybrid, was smooth, quiet, and well-planted. It displayed above-average handling limits and exceptional acceleration.
Engine refinements
Toyota’s 3.5-L V-6 is ubiquitous across product lines, but the new Lexus ES version gets some important tweaks. New high-pressure fuel injectors pump fuel directly into combustion chambers while a low-pressure one puts fuel into the intake ports. That, teamed with variable-valve timing, allows the engine to operate in the traditional Otto cycle during sporty driving or the more efficient Atkinson cycle when cruising down the highway.
Upgraded internal parts pushed the redline from 6,200 rpm to 6,600. Add it all up, and the new ES gets 34 more horsepower, to 302, and 19 more lb-ft of torque, to 267.
Paired with a new 8-speed transmission, the car delivers an estimated 22 mpg city, 33 highway, 26 combined. The line on last year’s model was 21/30/24. Lexus estimates 0-60 in 6.6 seconds, a half-second improvement.
Hybrid models add about $1,800 to the cost. Fuel economy for the 2019 Lexus ES hybrid is estimated at 44 city, 45 highway and 44 combined, an increase of 4-5 mpg across the board.
Think about that. For roughly the same price of an entry-level luxury, 5-seat SUV, you can get a sedan that is quieter, rides better, and gets double the fuel economy. On regular gas.
Think about that.
Seven flavors
The 2019 Lexus ES comes in seven models. There’s the base ES 350. The ES 350 luxury, which adds leather and wood accents and some nice ambient lighting, starts at $42,155. For $1,000 more, the ES 350 Ultra luxury adds leather seating, power front seats and sunshades for the three rear windows.
Hybrids come in the same three time lines, base, luxury and ultra luxury. The F Sport, with adaptive variable suspension, steering tweak, 19-inch wheels and bolstered seats, starts at $44,035.
Bottom line: Lexus hit this one out of the park,