ff_

I don't know what it is, but man, our ES 330 sure cleans up well. The paint, trim, and windows always have such a nice, smooth finish on them. I think that I've waxed the car twice in the past year, and it still looks like brand new.

Oh, and I sat in the new ES350 this past weekend, and I will say that they've really cheaped out on the leather. The ES330 has nice, thick leather, while the new car now has the flimsy stuff you'd expect to see in a Toyota. Given that the new car is of [seemingly] lower quality, higher price, and with smaller interior dimensions, I'd say that buying the previous generation ES when I did was a pretty good move.

XeroK00L

I totally agree. The leather in the ES350 no longer has that "buttery feel" in my ES300. The padding in the armrest is thinner and definitely not as comfortable as the one in the ES300. Along with much less use of wood, a harsher ride and higher road noise (from lower-profile tires I suppose), the ES350 is one generation I'll gladly skip.

Lexus really forgets what the ES is for. With the IS and GS taking the sporty side of the entry and midsize of the lineup, the ES should concentrate on being totally luxury-oriented like the ES300/330 was. The ES350 tries to be a bit of everything but ultimately fails to excel at anything.

BTW shouldn't this thread be in the ES forum?

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

yea the interior build materials fell kind of short, if you sit in the IS it seems like they put a lot more effort into it build quality wise, even tho the price isnt that much different

Threxx

Previously the ES and RX were always very similar in their materials and build quality, IMO.

I hope this isn't a sign to come for the all new RX - that it's going to be cheapened similarly...

ff_

I don't hang out on that board, because I haven't seen any evidence that people want to talk about the current or previous generation ES. So I put it here, open for discussion about any Lexus model.

LexBob2

Don't forget, the ES350 is Lexus' entry level volume model. One of its main goals is to sell a lot of cars, and then hope buyers move up to GS, LS etc. So far, it's doing that pretty well. Jan-May '07 = 33K sold +32%. For comparison GS350 = 8K sold -15%. How many buyers move up to GS/LS remains to be seen, but if they keep selling enough ES's a decent % will move up and they'll keep owners in the family.

ba-b4

My dad has the previous gen ES and it definately is more luxurious than the current model. We had a new ES as a service loaner for the day. I think one of the selling points of the last gen ES is that it used the same leather as in the last gen LS. I doubt that's the case with the current gen. Even though they say the ES is supposed to be more luxury oriented than the IS. I'd say my IS350 feels more luxurious than the current ES but not as much as my dad's last gen ES.

ff_

I think the new ES looks more "luxury" than the IS (which has a more "sporty" interior), but the IS certainly seems to use better materials. The leather in the IS, for instance, is much nicer.

Threxx

That's not a valid comparison at all. The ES was brand new - thus the gains were when comparing the end of the ES330's cycle to the beginning of the ES350's cycle. The GS on the other hand... you're comparing the beginning of its cycle to a year later on down the road, when generally one would expect it to begin losing some popularity even if it did gain a little extra power.

LexBob2

Good point, but I didn't mean to compare the % vs. last year, just the total number of cars sold May-June '07 for the ES and GS models. The ES being entry level should sell a lot of units. It's already over 1 year old and still selling well.

Nextourer

that's because the IS has "Premium Leather" while the ES has "standard" leather. The Premium leather is an option.


In Canada, in order to get the premium leather on the ES, we have to shell out for the top-of-the-line model. In the IS, we can get the buttery soft premium leather for $10k less than the ES. We also have the option of standard leather (cloth is standard on the IS for us) for the IS but it doesn't feel all that great and the extra money for the premium leather is definitely worth it.

Mr. Jones

I didn't realize the ES330 used wood.

XeroK00L

I hope you're joking but even then it's not funny.

ff_

It's actually wood-ette.

XeroK00L

Are you serious? I'm quite positive the ES330 uses real wood. In fact, I don't think there's been any Lexus that ever used fake wood.