SW03ES Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 Well I had a couple hours to kill today so I stopped by and saw my guy at the Lexus dealer and checked out the new ES. Now, first of all I have not driven it yet. They got 5 today and they sold the last one right before I got there and the demo was booked all day so I couldn't drive one. I did however get to play around in a sold one for about a half hour parked right next to mine so I could make some great comparisons. Sorry, no pics but I'll take the camera when I go back to drive one. Now, first I will discuss my positive feelings and then my negative feelings. It was a black with ivory fully loaded Ultra. Postives: I really like the new exterior. I think, so far, this is the most "evolutionary" of the L-finesse restyles, although I have yet to see the LS460 in person. The car is MUCH more attractive in person than in pictures, and really looks good. The new wheels are very sharp in the graphite finish and aren't *too* dark like some of these graphite wheels can be. The car seems much lower and wider than the previous version and looses the "on lifts" appearance it had at certain angles. I also much prefer the Lexus symbol in the grille. The dual exhausts are very sporty. Trunk space seems about the same, maybe a little smaller. Door openings are plenty large and getting inside and out is much easier for the rear passengers. The new seats are fantastic and feel very solid with the excellent semi-analine leather and the thigh bolsters on the driver seat are great. Thats another enhancement, there's 2-3 inches more rear legroom that mostly comes from the front seats being smaller than on the previous car, it feels more open back there too mainly because of the panoramic roof. Would be handy in my profession. The new feature set is great, EVERYTHING I miss from the LS is on this new ES. The power tilt telescoping wheel, full info center, the new nav screen is beautiful, ultrasonic backup, rearview camera, smart entry, the new LEDlighting is cool, and the floorpan is much flater and more angular than before, more like a BMW. Now, onto the things I don't like. The big one is the interior as a whole. While the features are excellent, the style and material content of this interior is a big step backwards from the previous car. The plastics aren't as soft or heavily padded and areas that were finished in wood are now finished in ugly, Chrysler looking plastic that has a very unnatural looking grain including around the guage cluster and the center console. The oval air vent design is still very odd, and the dash pad material also has a very unnatural looking grain and looks rough instead of smooth like leather. The style of the interior also seems off, the dash is much higher than the previous car as are the door panels making it feel narrower and making visibility seem lower. The gauges, while side by side tach/speedo and cool when lit up (a'la Acura RL) look plasticky and cheap when they're turned off and I really miss the "invisible when off" guages effect. From a styling and proportion standpoint, the feeling is not unlike sitting in a circa 2000 Ford Taurus. Very dissapointed in the interior. So, I think overall the car looks great from the outside and I'm sure it drives great, but I absolutely will not be trading my 03 in on one. I'll keep it until I can get an LS. So, sadly, I think the new ES has to be my least favorite of the remodeled cars simply because of the interior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexusfreak Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 I wasen't overwelmed with the interior either when I saw the car at the Auto show. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexus411 Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 When you drive it everything else seems irravelent. Defintely one of Lexus' best offerings in years... I have not had 1 customer yet that hasn't seen and driven the car not left excited... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 1, 2006 Author Share Posted May 1, 2006 He's going to call me when he has one availiable I can drive. Still though, I'm used to a quality driving experience, and one of the main things I enjoy about my ES is how luxurious the interior is. The interior of the new one just doesn't do anything for me. I think its the plasticky dash I really do... I like the interior of the IS and the GS better, but the IS is too small and the GS isn't isolated enough for me. So, I'll wait for the LS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviej Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 as much as I would like to go look, I need not tease myself. I am still too much satisfied with my current ES. The new tires made it new all over again. I like my wood interior, soft leather and the car is me. Steve, it is funny you mentioned a Taurus. That was my first impression when I saw the pictures posted up in the initial thread. Kind of hard to remove first impressions. As much as I love bright new shiny things, I have to keep telling myself "no more car payment" in a year. So the bright shiny thing in my future is a cottage at the beach on Cape Cod. steviej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexusfreak Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Well said steviej! B) Your Cottage plans sound awesome too bud! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Yeah I kinda like not having a car payment too lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexusfreak Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Yeah I kinda like not having a car payment too lol It is a nice feeling. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rx330driver Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 i must say, if that was my future car, i would be disapointed to know that lexus gave some guy the keys to play around with...lol ;) ill have to see it in person, the pictures of the interior arent THAT bad and i guess i love both the IS and the GS dash, but they are just too similar looking. they went with something new here-ish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexusfreak Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 i must say, if that was my future car, i would be disapointed to know that lexus gave some guy the keys to play around with...lol ;) Lol Rx! I hear ya. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 LOL, if I weren't such a good customer they wouldn't have done it. It was in the showroom anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amf1932 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Well I had a couple hours to kill today so I stopped by and saw my guy at the Lexus dealer and checked out the new ES. Now, first of all I have not driven it yet. They got 5 today and they sold the last one right before I got there and the demo was booked all day so I couldn't drive one. I did however get to play around in a sold one for about a half hour parked right next to mine so I could make some great comparisons. Sorry, no pics but I'll take the camera when I go back to drive one. Now, first I will discuss my positive feelings and then my negative feelings. It was a black with ivory fully loaded Ultra. Postives: I really like the new exterior. I think, so far, this is the most "evolutionary" of the L-finesse restyles, although I have yet to see the LS460 in person. The car is MUCH more attractive in person than in pictures, and really looks good. The new wheels are very sharp in the graphite finish and aren't *too* dark like some of these graphite wheels can be. The car seems much lower and wider than the previous version and looses the "on lifts" appearance it had at certain angles. I also much prefer the Lexus symbol in the grille. The dual exhausts are very sporty. Trunk space seems about the same, maybe a little smaller. Door openings are plenty large and getting inside and out is much easier for the rear passengers. The new seats are fantastic and feel very solid with the excellent semi-analine leather and the thigh bolsters on the driver seat are great. Thats another enhancement, there's 2-3 inches more rear legroom that mostly comes from the front seats being smaller than on the previous car, it feels more open back there too mainly because of the panoramic roof. Would be handy in my profession. The new feature set is great, EVERYTHING I miss from the LS is on this new ES. The power tilt telescoping wheel, full info center, the new nav screen is beautiful, ultrasonic backup, rearview camera, smart entry, the new LEDlighting is cool, and the floorpan is much flater and more angular than before, more like a BMW. Now, onto the things I don't like. The big one is the interior as a whole. While the features are excellent, the style and material content of this interior is a big step backwards from the previous car. The plastics aren't as soft or heavily padded and areas that were finished in wood are now finished in ugly, Chrysler looking plastic that has a very unnatural looking grain including around the guage cluster and the center console. The oval air vent design is still very odd, and the dash pad material also has a very unnatural looking grain and looks rough instead of smooth like leather. The style of the interior also seems off, the dash is much higher than the previous car as are the door panels making it feel narrower and making visibility seem lower. The gauges, while side by side tach/speedo and cool when lit up (a'la Acura RL) look plasticky and cheap when they're turned off and I really miss the "invisible when off" guages effect. From a styling and proportion standpoint, the feeling is not unlike sitting in a circa 2000 Ford Taurus. Very dissapointed in the interior. So, I think overall the car looks great from the outside and I'm sure it drives great, but I absolutely will not be trading my 03 in on one. I'll keep it until I can get an LS. So, sadly, I think the new ES has to be my least favorite of the remodeled cars simply because of the interior. Well today I had the opportunity to drive the ES350. I arranged this test drive with the retention manager at my Lexus dealer. I can't say that it was an ideal test because I would have liked being alone in the car to be able to fully concentrate on the performance. My route was the city streets.....not a highway. Aside from being much quicker then my '03ES, the transmission responded beautifully and smoothly. No dragging sensation, and mainly the shift points were as good as can be expected. Downshifts were excellent at normal and above normal street speeds. As I said, I didn't have the opportunity to drive it on the road. The latest transmission reprogramming that I had done on my '03 helped, but the shift speeds were, and still are abnormally higher then necessary. This was done to try to correct an inherent flaw in the transmission design. This, and this alone would make me consider trading in my '03ES for the ES350. The icing on the cake is the "tiptronic" type of manual shifting that this new 6 speed unit employs. I love that feature. I agree with Steve about the interior of the car......I still like the '02 thru '06 ES's better since they have a much more luxurious feel, and they seem much more spacious in the driver and passenger area. As with a new model car, you have to pay very close to the sticker price, so as of this writing I'm going to sit back and relax until I can make a much more favorable deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amf1932 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 BTW: It seems the Ultra-Luxury Package is not being offered on the East Coast! Also, You can't get the Mark Levinson Audio in any other package but the Ultra-Luxury Package. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 The UL package is being offered on the east coast, my dealer had 3. LOL, there was a guy there when I was there looking at one. He said he wanted to pay $40,000 for the UL car and thats all he'd pay. I thought the salesman was remarkably respectful when he told him that he'd have to wait at least 10 months before they would even be able to think about that ($3900 off MSRP). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sv7887 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Now, onto the things I don't like. The big one is the interior as a whole. While the features are excellent, the style and material content of this interior is a big step backwards from the previous car. The plastics aren't as soft or heavily padded and areas that were finished in wood are now finished in ugly, Chrysler looking plastic that has a very unnatural looking grain including around the guage cluster and the center console. The oval air vent design is still very odd, and the dash pad material also has a very unnatural looking grain and looks rough instead of smooth like leather. The style of the interior also seems off, the dash is much higher than the previous car as are the door panels making it feel narrower and making visibility seem lower. The gauges, while side by side tach/speedo and cool when lit up (a'la Acura RL) look plasticky and cheap when they're turned off and I really miss the "invisible when off" guages effect. From a styling and proportion standpoint, the feeling is not unlike sitting in a circa 2000 Ford Taurus. Very dissapointed in the interior. So, I think overall the car looks great from the outside and I'm sure it drives great, but I absolutely will not be trading my 03 in on one. I'll keep it until I can get an LS. So, sadly, I think the new ES has to be my least favorite of the remodeled cars simply because of the interior. Great writeup. I think the interior of the last gen ES was fantastic. Everything gelled perfectly in that car. I had the pleasure of having an ES330 as a loaner and I really loved the cabin. The center cluster was especially appealing. The exterior was okay, but looked pretty nice in the color you've got. The new car's interior reminds me of the original Lexus interiors. Not a lot of wood at all, and quite plain. I'll hold judgement on the car's exterior until I see it in person. On a side note, save the LS460 I've been kinda disappointed by the L-Finesse styling theme. I'll have to wait to see what they do on the SC before making a final opinion on that. A lot of the original Lexus designs were timeless: The original LS/ES/SC all had great designs. You see a lot of these older cars these days and they still look attractive. If Lexus built a "modern" version of the original ES300 I'd buy it in ten seconds. Just imagine a freshened ES300 (Circa 1992-2000) with a 2002-2006 ES330 interior. I think it would look great. -Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 I've actually heard on the grapevine that the SC is going to be discontinued... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amf1932 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 The UL package is being offered on the east coast, my dealer had 3. LOL, there was a guy there when I was there looking at one. He said he wanted to pay $40,000 for the UL car and thats all he'd pay. I thought the salesman was remarkably respectful when he told him that he'd have to wait at least 10 months before they would even be able to think about that ($3900 off MSRP). It might be true about the UL package being offered on the East coast, but if you put an East coast zip code on the Lexus 'build your own' website they don't give you this option?? My NYC dealer mentioned that they'll get the UL package........so why this discrepancy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 It does when I put my zip in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amf1932 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 It does when I put my zip in... I put in what I think your zip code would be (20877), and I don't see the UL package listed. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviej Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 I put in 02066 (Boston area) and got 6 Premium packages "plus extras" ranging from $3,365 to $7,174. what's in the UL package? steviej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW03ES Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 20878 ;) Shouldn't make a difference though. I'll be damned, it was on there 4 days ago! The UL package adds the panoramic roof, special wheels, and semi-analine interior trim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indiasfinest Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 I've actually heard on the grapevine that the SC is going to be discontinued... unless they replace is with another coupe/convertible, it would not be a very smart choice for lexus, all they would have is 4 doors then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviej Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 unless they replace is with another coupe/convertible, it would not be a very smart choice for lexus, all they would have is 4 doors then. rumor has it, the IS will be offered in a two door convertible version. steviej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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