I will go against what you said their colin
Yes its a FWD but the drive was smoother than my GS.. had more goodies than my GS too.. Just the style was not as good.. but it had the same styling as a baby LS400.
It certainly more comfortable than an IS200 as I was driving a IS200 for a while owning my ES300/Windom.
So it does have the class. Not sure what the latest model is like