2023 Lexus ES | The Best and Last Updates

The 2023 Lexus ES 300h or hybrid F-sport. This is one of three different drivetrain options for the Lexus ES. So in this video we're going to be discussing how the hybrid drivetrain affects this vehicle and whether the F-sport performance trim level is worth the extra money. Let's talk about the interior space first. In the past Lexus has struggled to distinguish the ES from its luster Toyota Stablemates, specifically the Camry or Avalon. For this generation of ES that is no longer a problem. The level of refinement, the design, the material choices are all substantially elevated versus the Toyota Stablemate products. Just look at the door cards. You have a good use of leather and aluminum, an interesting design. There's far greater attention to the reduction of NVH that makes its way into the cabin. It's a much quieter space. I actually think the design of this interior space and its focus on physical controls in some ways elevates it over many of its competitors. It's a very refined and expensive feeling cabin. All of these switch gear has a high level of tactility to it, whether it be the drive mode controls, the physical HVAC controls, or the audio controls. When it comes to the F-sport trim level the big differences from an exterior perspective is some changes to bright work and on the interior side of things you get some different elements specifically these F-sport monogrammed seats. They're slightly more aggressively bolstered. They're heated and cooled. They are surprisingly comfortable and honestly they do a very good job on long drives. The big change from prior year ESs is the addition of Toyota Connected as the infotainment software. Gone is the touchpad and quite frankly frustrating infotainment system of the past and in its place is Toyota Connected. We've done a very long video on Toyota Connected where we discuss the philosophy and some of the back-end software of the program, so I suggest you watch that video. The cliff notes are it is essentially an in-house infotainment system that they designed here in the United States. It has a very good native navigation system and the audio configuration is excellent. However, if you don't want to use their software, wireless Apple CarPlay or wired Apple CarPlay works along with Android Auto. One thing I will bring up with our specific tester, this car is over $50,000 and it does not have the Mark Levinson audio system optioned in. If you are already going to be spending $50,000, I highly suggest you spend the extra $1,000 to add the Mark Levinson. This bass audio system does this cabin no justice and given how quiet this car is, I highly suggest you option it. When it comes to overall usability and just ergonomics, this is a true four-door. This car does take advantage of front-wheel drive architecture because the rear seats are very comfortable. It is a longer wheelbase car. Full-size adults will fit back there and the trunk is genuinely very, very large. The one con, however, is the rear seats do not fold down, which does limit some of the cargo options you may have. With that said, let's head into the shop and put this thing up on the lift. Jack, we're underneath one of our best cars of 2022, except it's 2023, and we're giving this vehicle another look for a multitude of reasons, but primarily they made some major updates to the interior, which you talked about, and we're driving the first of its kind for us, the F-Sport trim level, so break it down. So there are three separate drive trains you can get on the ES. You can get this as a four-cylinder all-wheel drive non-hybrid. You can get this 2.5-liter four-cylinder with the ubiquitous Toyota hybrid system. It's not a pure EV. It doesn't allow you to go in full EV mode, and then you can get this with the eight-speed automatic front-wheel drive V6. One joy of VES, from a running cost perspective, is every single drive train will happily run on 87 octane. That's a big deal, especially for a premium car, and you'll notice the newer Lexus products, the turbo ones, they do require premium fuel, so this is kind of sneaking in between the Toyota and Lexus lineup in terms of usability. When you mentioned that you can't run in pure EV mode, that's kind of a misnomer. It's not like the plug-in hybrid where you can just do all your driving to a certain range. It will go in EV mode at lower speeds in certain conditions where you'll notice the gasoline. But it won't do like 25 or 40 miles an hour. It's just there to give you that tried and true boosted fuel economy, more so in like rolling stop traffic. It'll be in EV mode only, but other than that, really, when we look at TNGAK, which is, you know, beaten to death, it's on the Camry, the old Avalon, the Venza, the NX, it's used in all these cars, and your argument is it looks cheap underneath compared to the German cars, right? There's no aluminum anywhere here. You can see the subframes are all stamped steel. Everything's steel here, and you wonder why is this on a premium car? We questioned this on the NX. The NX did not feel like a premium, like luxury vehicle, but then you drive this, not so much on the F-Sport model, but on the regular car, and you're like, what did they do here? How did they transform a car that has these kind of more budget roots, and then they make it feel so good on certain models, but not on others? It's all of the NVH material, body sealers, some of the material in the doors that further reduces that NVH, that those materials are not found in a Camry or Avalon, and for some reason they couldn't do it or decided not to do it in the NX and RX to this level. This is a quieter vehicle than both the Lexus NX and RX. What's specific to the F-Sport, which I haven't touched on, are the bigger wheels, the AVS dampers. They are their adjustable dampers. To be honest, while there is a good range of adjustability between normal and sport, it never goes as soft as the pure comfort dampers or the regular fixed dampers in the luxury or ultra luxury variants of ES. And that's a weird one because the dampers in this car, the non-F-Sport, the regular shocks that are not adjustable, it's a rare case where they're actually better, and it's because of their shock choice with the way that they've been valved, the way that they're designed. This is a car that makes no sense for the ES. I think it looks cooler in some cases, but it does not serve any functional purpose other than aesthetics, and it makes the ride quality worse in most cases. This car, when fully optioned out, is in the 50s, compared to which German and even Korean counterparts all look and honestly drive more expensive. They're more premium cars. I would argue with you that they don't feel any better as like a luxury barge. They might have better performance and handling characteristics, but at this category of car, that's not what you buy this for. And that's my big argument for it and against it. The other part is, you know, if you get in an accident with this thing, you know, the parts availability for this are going to be far better than trying to replace an aluminum subframe, aluminum control arms, aluminum everything on some of the more premium cars. So in many regards, while yes, it doesn't have the cool vector, it doesn't have the dynamics, this is again built around something, the older Lexus mentality of run it forever. So with that, Mark, let's go take this for a quick drive. All right, Mark, put this in a nursing home mode. It's an Eco. Would you dig up my corpse so we could go drive this thing? About to win at bingo. Now I put this into assisted living, we're in Sport Plus. It's, as I said to you, it's pretty stiff for like an ES. It's not stiff as like an actual car, but compared to how couch-like the non-AVS or variable damper ES is, this is much stiffer. Let's talk about this quickly because we haven't been in an F-Sport version of this. Why would you choose the F-Sport version? Let's just be brutally honest. You wouldn't. I mean, the seats and all that ---- look cool. The gate, you get them, the motorized gates go, actually it doesn't move anymore, does it? No, it does. So you get that old F-Sport gauge cluster, which is like a throwback to the LFA, you get some of that, but in this car... Yeah, I think LFA when I'm in this thing. But you know, that's where this ---- comes from. This is like a last generation Lexus product before they move into what we've seen in the NX and the RX. I would take this over an NX or an RX any day of the week. I don't think those are particularly competitive products, but if you are in the correct mindset, you're the right demographic, like on the way to the nursing home, or you drive a lot of miles and all you want to be is comfortable, this is one of the best midsize luxury sedans on the market. And I can't say that about the RX or the NX. Yeah, and we said this was, well, I know I forced you into saying it, but I thought this was the best entry-level luxury car for what you get. But the F-Sport, I would just say, don't. Unless that's all you could get and there was no inventory of anything else. It doesn't go as soft as the standard damper. It drives nowhere near as well as the luxury, the ultra luxury trim level. That's why you buy this car, is to get that elevated level of ride quality and refinement and quietness. So this kind of eliminates the ride part, which is stupid. Because in terms of driving it hard, tell me about it. Oh, it's horrible. It's a big couch. It feels front-wheel drive. It doesn't turn in particularly well. It's too soft. It's not what this car is meant to do. The drivetrain, though, I think Toyota, and I've said this in the past, the hybrid drivetrain in this suits it really, really well. Its mission is eat up miles, last a long time and not cost you anything. It gets 37 miles per gallon, which is really impressive for something this big. It gets better fuel economy than the Mazda 3 long-termer I have, which is an all-wheel drive turbo. But still, I mean, this is very, very efficient and it's quiet on the highway. And the drivetrain is unintrusive. I like that part of it. It's just kind of expensive. This is 50-ish thousand dollars. If you well-equipped one with Destination, you're in the mid-50s, which, you know, at that price, you can get an Audi S4. You're knocking on the door of the M340i with the fabled B58. Please tell me more about the B58 again. I think as a luxury sports sedan, the reason why you're buying a sedan over an SUV is you don't like the compromises for an SUV. You don't like the big boxiness. You don't like how high it is. If you want a sedan to handle it all or be remotely fun to drive, I would take the Audi or the BMW every single day of the week over this. Okay, so this is where the argument's going to get. The problem, there's two sides of this story. You are like, I want fun. You only live once. I don't want to be in a boring car. Well, I get that. You are not ever going to have to do anything to this. This is one of the last cars on the planet where you can get a traditional V6 and a traditional automatic. You can get all physical controls for seat heater, seat cooler, steering wheel heater, HVAC. You have a physical shifter, no digital ----. And they've improved the infotainment. They give you all the technology you need to drive this for 20 years. And I'm not arguing that. You could legitimately drive this car 20 years. But for 20 years, you would just be like waiting for the sweet embrace of death. I don't think it's that bad. You'll just fall asleep, drive off the road and end up in the curb. I don't think it's that bad. I think the majority of people on their real world commute. Wow, I have a digital gauge cluster, Mark, just like an LFA. That's the most exciting part about driving this car. Jack, you just are never going to understand quality and value. Look, when Franz and Hans built my B58 in Germany, or they built my S4, I can throw the B58 around sideways and still get in the low 30 miles per gallon. And in the Audi, I get to experience true luxury. I get massaging seats that are guaranteed to break once my lease is up. But I have my lease for my three to five years and I move on to the next car. So I guess that's where you have to leave this. I mean, and you know me, I like fun cars. I don't want to own a boring car. I really don't. But at the same time, the more you sit in this car, the more you start to think about it and how much more you appreciate nursing home, bingo, assisted living. I guess we're just not going to get, we're not going to be on the same page with this thing. No, I'm going to fall asleep before we get back to the shop. So, all right, Mark, let's head in the final months. The ES. This car embodies everything that's right and wrong with Lexus. To Jack's point, if you have the money and you have any type of youthful ambitions, you're going to choose the German counterparts because there's some passion or pretend passion to driving them. The reality is we complain constantly that cars have gotten more complicated. They've gotten unobtainable. They're worthless and disposable. And while the ES and Lexus know that this generation of car was too boring and didn't have enough tech and they had to get rid of it for something more forward. This represents the last of its kind and a last of its generation for a brand that's known for dependability, reliability, and essentially no bullshit. The ES as a whole is one of the better riding cars. It's one of the more comfortable cars. It's one of the more simple cars to use on the interior with the updates to the center stack. And Toyota Connected, they've added a good infotainment and kept everything else physical like the older car. It's just one of the better machines, the better luxury appliances that you will ever be able to purchase in 2023. The V6 and its automatic transmission will take you into the next 20 years. And the hybrid system will take you into the next 10 years with little fuss, maybe even 15 on the existing battery pack. And that to me is one of the most refreshing parts of this car. And you can count on one hand how many vehicles like this exist in this current market. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next video.