mspearl95

I dunno about the Avalon being 'more' luxurious, but i just built one on the toyota website, and a fully loaded Avalon is a pretty darn nice car! It'd be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison. Mb a test-drive is in order. :-)

Toys4RJill

I learned about the Avalon mostly from some reviews, my opinion and some of the comments on here. The Avalon has a few features not available on the ES such as wireless charging , rear heated seats etc. It also uses standard leather vs the fake stuff on the ES. Some say the ride of the ES is more firm. Next the year the ES will be built in the same plant as the Avalon but I am not sure if that matters to you are not.

I like the Avalon better than the ES, that is the first time I have liked the Toyota over the Lexus, but at least this time the ES is not based on the Camry.

mspearl95

are all Avalons US built?

LexRuger

Kentucky
http://www.toyota.com/avalonexperien...ntucky-home-2/

mspearl95

well i guess that is one drawback, for me anyway. I do like paddle shifters tho, and the rear heated seat option.

ha guess this thread isn't about Avalons tho. :-)

amphipri0n

The ES is quiet, has more than enough power and is a very comfortable cruiser. While it is not a canyon carver like the GS can be, it is far from Lincoln Towncar handling. I've taken the car up and down northern Californa's mountain roads for weekend trips to the lake several times now and it can easily handle the twists and turns at moderately aggressive speeds. It is a markedly different car in this regard than the ES 2 generations ago which I remember being floaty.

Some other considerations you may want to think about is that living in MN, you may find the option of AWD on the GS a huge plus. On the other hand, if you're used to the FWD Accord, then driving a RWD or AWD will require some, (not much) retraining when driving through the twisties.

I cross shopped the 2013 GS last year and took it out for a spin when it was first introduced, I also noticed cabin engine roar, but it wasn't the deal killer for me. It sounds like that maybe a concern for you. Part of the list of changes for the 2014 GS includes a rework of the engine noise coming into the interior. You may want to make sure you test drive the '14 GS (I've not seen nor set foot in it) before you make your final decision as it comes with a nice set of updates.

TomMartin

Thanks for the input...if we purchase a GS we will get AWD...FWD has worked well for us in MN winters...but I don't want to return to RWD in the winter. I have had three Toyota Land Cruisers since 1991 and they are AWD...no particular issue switching from the FWD Accord to the LC in daily driving. I am pretty confident either the FWD ES or the AWD GS would work fine for our winter driving. Thw AWD would be an extra bonus and would no doubt be excellent in the winter.

Glad to hear your thoughts that the ES*does not wear on you like a "floater"...my wishes are not extreme...just a bit of firmness on an occasional cloverleaf or twisty backroad. SOunds like the ES*would be OK for that well the GS*would "excel" at that. Thanks...Tom

LexBob2

There are some professional reviews out there on both the GS and ES that might shed some light on the differences as they see them.

As mentioned you can't beat seat time in each to determine which is best for you. Around here, probably in MN too, AWD is the only way the dealers stock the GS..

SW17LS

I have seen nothing that says anything such as this about the 2014 GS.

To the OP: I responded to your thread in the GS forum with my thoughts as someone who drove the ES for 10 years and upgraded to the GS, but in response to this issue if you don't like the intake noise generated by the sound generator on the GS you can always simply swap the intake tube with one from the previous generation GS. That deletes the sound generator.

I thought about it when I first got the GS but I've since grown to like it,

For sure but there are big discounts on the remaining 2013s too.

I will add though, that the only thing I miss about the ES is the back seat. Now that I have the GS I'll never drive an ES again.

wasjr

Having driven a loaner GS I would agree that the GS has a more luxurious "feel" to it than the ES. In fact, one of my best friends just went from a 11 ES to a 13 GS. He shopped the 13 ES and GS and made the comment that the 13 ES did not have the feel of his 11 ES. Having said that, I am very satisfied with the handling of the ES. While I cannot tell much difference in Normal and Sport modes, we were on country winding roads this weekend and the ES handled the road very well. While I enjoyed driving the GS, the ES suits our needs.

oneor11

For what it's worth, I'll throw in my 2 cents on the road noise on my 2013 ES. I am coming from a 2004 Honda Accord EX and I find the road noise on the 2013 ES terrible. I don't hear the engine much, but I can hear the road at cruising speed (50 - 90 mph)- so much so that I have to turn up my radio. It's much noisier than my 2004 Accord.

It could be a factor of my wheels. I got the 18" wheel package and my tires are those Bridgestones. Folks with the 17" package mention how quiet and soft the ride is.

I've driven a couple of older model ESs in the past and they seemed very quiet with a floaty ride. My ES is loud with a much tighter suspension it seems. I can feel the bumps for sure. I'm okay with that. I just don't like the noise.

For what it's worth, I test drove the 2014 Honda Accord V6 Touring with all the bells and whistles and found it to be a pretty awesome value for the price. And the voice recognition was superb. It still had that tight, European, feel-the-bumps kind of ride that Honda is known for though. But it was quiet. Ultimately I decided not to go with it because:

1. It did not have ventilated seats (little did I know how much the ventilated seats in the ES would suck)

2. It had this ultra incredible camera on the right side view mirror that totally eliminated blind spots. But there was absolutely no blind spot monitoring on the left, not even a little light. The sales guy told me, "that's because blind spots only exist on the right side." That's when I promptly dismissed him.

3. The sales experience sucked. I don't like to be BSed around when I don't have a lot of time.

4. The cruise control monitoring system worked too well. The braking was harsh when the car came into distance of another car, and the fact that the car braked at all instead of coasting given the distance cushion was disappointing. It wouldn't have been a feature I would have used given the implementation. So then I thought, "Should I pay for the tech if it's not effective?"

So I went to Lexus, was given a bottle of water and a taco while I rested a bit in a leather couch while watching CNN, and the deal was done in less than two hours.

lesz

I strongly suspect that there is, in fact, a noise difference dependent on which wheels you have.

My 2013 ES has the 17 inch wheels (and Michelin tires), and it is at least as quiet as was my 2006 ES. Virtually no wind noise or engine noise can be heard inside the cabin, even at high speeds. Road noise from the tires is at an extremely low level unless driving is being done on a very rough-surfaced road, and, even then, it is still relatively quiet. When I took my first test drive in the 2013, one of the first things that I was looking for was isolation in the cabin from road, wind, and engine noise, and I was pleased to note, again, that it was at least as good as that with the 06 and probably at least a bit better with regard to engine noise.

SW17LS

The issue is the 18" wheels...

mspearl95

This is what iv'e noticed too. The amount of road noise is directly dependent on the condition of the road surface. Well- trodden, uneven roads definitely generate more noise, whereas a freshly paved stretch of asphalt generates virtually no noise at all. My car has the 18in wheels with bridgestone tires, and the loaner I am currently driving has the 17s/michelin, and I cant really tell a difference in the noise level at all. Wind noise is basically non- existent, and the only time I hear the engine is when I floor it. The only difference I can see between the 17 and 18" rims is the ride over bumps... the 18s tend to be slightly rougher.

larrytstar

It's not the wheels, it's the tires.