steviet

IHi guys, my ‘00 ES is still running well at 280000km. Good on fuel, hasnt broken down in the last 60000km, only needing consumables. However, I may need to get rid of her due to an impending new arrival.

My 18 month old daughter is in a rear facing seat and will remain so as long as possible. This seat only just fits behind my (drivers) seat. Our other baby seat will go behind the passenger seat when baby#2 arrives but there’ll be almost no legroom for the front passenger and not much space between them.

Id like to upgrade to a 5th gen ES, or an LS430. Do these cars have significantly more space in the back than my ES? Ideally I’d like space between the seats to put a passenger and not have to put the front passenger seat so far forward it becomes unusable.....

riknchar

If your budget will allow, you might want to consider an LS460L (long wheel base model). These cars have cavernous back seats! Grown ups can easily cross their legs in the back seat without touching the seat ahead of them. Prices have fallen on the 2007-2010 models to the point that they are pretty decent values.

BCT

I kinda doubt anyone here is going to be able to give you a meaningful answer unless someone own those 3 cars and able to measure the space in the back.

A quick Google search:
2000 ES300
https://www.edmunds.com/lexus/es-300...eatures-specs/

2004 LS430
https://www.edmunds.com/lexus/ls-430...eatures-specs/

Congrats on the baby!

ebxgsxr

well, i can tell you this......my wife had an 04 ES330. she wanted something bigger. the ES330 did fine with a carseat in the back. but going to the 05 LS430 there is a lot more room compared to the ES. as for the newer ES, i can give no feedback on that.

z17112

The LS430 has more fore/aft back seat room than a Crown Victoria or Town Car.

Trilkb

The down side of the ls430 is the middle back seat. I'm 6’3, tons of room in a regular seat, but the middle one jams my head into the roof. The 430 gets extremely claustrophobic in that seat lol.

steviet

That’s not so much of an issue for me, I’m only 5foot9 and the only people likely to use the middle rear seat between the baby seats are my wife and mother, neither of whom are over 5 foot 4. Think I’ll have to take a run out to the used car places for a test fit

Johnhav430

My wife has a full-sized SUV and I don't know what it is about rear-facing but it doesn't bode well for front passengers. We put my son (only child in the rear right. I always wondered that if he were in the rear left (say we had 2 or 3 kids), how would the driver even be able to drive--my suspicion is they have to adjust the seating around the baby seat. Once it turns around everything is fine.

Our pediatrician is well trained (ah no need to post his creds lol but arguably he is in the top or the 3rd best depending on the field, child's hosp in the nation) and he doesn't agree with the swedes, he said turn the child around as soon as the law allows (NJ and PA are not the same and he's going to have a lot of patients from both these states) and let them see the world. Everyone has an opinion I suppose...

So to answer the front-facing is fine in the LS430, but I would suspect the rear facing is not. Also, I don't remember why but my 2008 (ok busted child seats have a 6 yr. life but this was given to us as a hand me down and was top of the line at the time) doesn't play nicely with the LATCH in the LS430, so I had to use the belt system. Newer car would be better, my .02.

Johnhav430

Can you imagine the brand new LS500 is considerably smaller inside? lol Not only does it look like a Mazda 6, it "is" the same size inside lol

Legender

Scroll down in this thread as it has a picture that might help.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ls-thread.html

ipstat

Don"t have an ES, so can't comment on that but our LS fits carseat pretty well on passenger side for toddler. Would assume infant would fit in other side.

BCT

Rear facing car seat takes surprisingly a lot of room. I had a Sequoia when the kid was small. iirc, we had to put the rear facing in the middle, with the top of the car seat almost touching both of the front seats. If we put the car seat on the left or right, the front passenger will have very little room. Of course this is depending on the car seat itself, some models is just bigger than others.

vredniykot

caesosa

Sedans tend to have more back room space than SUV’s. We had a 15’ Rx350 and the rear facing egg car seat limited the space for the front passenger. The same on the GX460 we had afterwards. Amazingly, not an issue on the LS430, plenty of room to spare.
Newer cars... hmm... I mean yes, they are “safer” but that has caused the interiors to be more crammed (pillars are wider, door spacing, etc etc) so it is a tough argument, however, only when comparing apples to apples. If you are comparing an LS430 that is built like a tank to a 2018 Passat, I think there is an argument to be made, but and ls430 to a newer Ls... probably safer newer. Do keep in mind, safety has taken a turn to accident prevention these days with all the nannies; it’s not for everyone but to each their own. I am ok with driving the old land yacht.

and yes, replacing into a smaller car seat is probably cheaper than changing cars.

BigBoomer

I'm 6'4" and have to have the drivers seat all the way back to be comfy.
However, I can still sit behind the drivers seat without moving it where on all previous cars, including the S-Class, only shorties could sit behind me.
I think you'll be fine with the LS.

The only plus for SUV type vehicles is that ya don't have to bend whilst fiddling with the kids harnesses.
A friend just swapped her Jag XJ for a Range Rover because she was getting backache from doing that.