dutchie01

Im afraid there is no longer the luxury of what engine in what car choice as there used to be in the past. Skunkworks delivered beautifully crazy machines, salesdepartments asked for specific engines that were developed and built, marketing asked for halo machines and got them without any problem. All gone. 2021 and WLTP is now driving product development with 95 grams as the benchmark. Electrification is the holy grail and very soon the UX will arrive as full EV. In case of the ES it simply was the ES300H engine or nothing. The only reason why Toyota used the BMW engine in the Supra is cost as developing an inline 6 would cost them over 1 billion, money that would not come back to them. Btw the ES is now the ONLY lexus saloon with a healthy salesrecord( +19%). The IS is well past its sell by date and hoping on a replacement ( 25% down), the LS is turning into a flop with sales half of last year, the LC is wel down... It is the SUV sales that keep the brand going, the UX, NX, RX, RXL and soon a model above that. I think the future competition for Lexus ( so not toyota) will come from China. Chinese manufacturers are already leading in EV development and on the last Chinese motorshow some truly beautiful cars were on display. One day these will hit our markets. opinions?

Check the manual?? Been some time since i last saw it but i can remember there was a separate book for the satnav only. Was this some 300 pages? Could be 400 not sure.. If you have to study a manual the size of a phonebook to operate a satnav there must be something seriously wrong here. I always found the infotainment system of Lexus THE weakest link of the entire car and that was in 2015 when i got mine ( the IS250 2nd gen was ok as the touchscreen was more or less on par with the competition of 10 years ago). However the IS300H system drove me crazy. Counterintuitive, labyrinthal submenus, impossible to operate while driving, graphics from first gen pacman and utterly unreliable in what it needs to do bring you from A to B. It frequently told me to leave the highway only to enter it immediately again. To me it is a total mystery that such a system is found in a Lexus, any Lexus. Any cheap runabout nowadays is better has apple carplay let alone the luxury competition with digital dashboards. Maybe it is better for the nerve to just accept and ignore the state of things and use your phone or buy the cheapest tomtom. Works fine and one can operate it without a 5 year study of Japanese IT.

Global forecast 2019 for the ES 300H is only 15% of total ES sales. Have not seen detailed US figures yet

Some background info on the performance of the new ES model. Global ES sales end March 2019 are up 25% compared to last year and in its biggest market the States it is the best selling saloon almost reaching NX volume. The RX remains the number one best seller. So far the car seems to receive a warm welcome in the markets.

New review out from Savagegeese.com on the ES350. I think this one exactly catches the spirit, the dna of the car. The best review i have seen so far, yes very critical but pinpointing what the ES is about.

that interior is fantastic and when you are inside you wont see the exterior! I think the interior is enough to sell the car ( in China).

Funny this as i was picked up from a hotel in a blacked out mercedes van recently. Sliding door and with a very luxurious interior, captainseats and all. I remember thinking - who needs a SUV when you can get this? And now Lexus introduces their version. Great if you live in an urban environment and are chaufeured around all of the time. Seems like a silent capsule that transports you around town. Seems wealthy Chinese cant get enough of them!

I dont think the motoring press is that important as the vast majority of car buyers do so without ever reading or viewing a review. Car enthusiasts like us ( we are on this blog so care about cars) will have their favourites, mine is Harry Metcalfe, but they write for an inner circle. to be able to sell a car nowadays it needs to look sporty, needs to be marketed as sporty and needs to be set up so it can "attack "the bloody nurburgring. 19'wheels seem standard now with wide 255/35 tyres to match, stiff springs so you wont get lean when taking that corner at 200mph. The car designers are pushed in this direction as well otherwise the car will not sell. Comfort and every day balanced chassis seem secondary. In the end you get cars that look sporty but in heart are not, prime example is the IS300H Fsport, a great cruiser but not a sporty vehicle by any means. Maybe this will turn around over time with citroen, volvo and mercedes marketing cars as "comfortable" nowadays. Time will tell. With regard to Lexus and the competition, well, just maybe, could it be that they are just better than Lexus?

The net is closing, according to the German Press there is now a majority for a maximum speed on the autobahn. The environmental and traffic safety clubs are leading but are now backed by the police unions and the general public opinion. Apparently people do feel " attacked " by fast travelling cars and it seems it will be a matter of time before a country wide limit will be enforced. Until now the car lobby was sucessfull in keeping the situation as it is but the situation apparently changes rapidly.

I dont think this will be about max speed only. The technology is now there to be used so it will be upon us faster than we all think. Vmax is only part of it. You can count on automaticreduction of speed to the set max speed on that particular road, propably will start at schools/hospitals as that will be more accepted by the public but why not use it in reduced speed zones at highways on ringroads etc, then in inner cities ( that you can only enter driving a full EV!). How about taxing? will be easy to implement a tax by use system or roadpricing whereby tariffs can be altered depending on time of use. i.e. on busy times twice the price!

Head impact zone enlargement for pedestrians and cyclists -safety glass in case of a crash (cars and vans) - don''t want to pay single penny for this.. you cross my way without way of right you die! Look where you going, especially if it involves crossing the road.. simple Vulnerable road user detection and warning on the front and side of the vehicle (trucks and buses) - don't make yourself vulnerable. Why choose to be Vulnerable and then blame others?  Keep it friendly we will not accept insults no matter different your thinking is to another member.

Times are indeed changing.. There will be massive changes in the motorindustry in the next 3 years all caused by WLTP and EU regulations. By 2021 the average output of all cars sold by a manufacturer may not exceed 95 grams. This is laid down in EU laws and will be monitored. When over the company will be fined. These fines are serious stuff and it is whispered that the VAG group could face 1.5 billion as it is not expected they will make the average of 95. Sounds easy want 95 or below? just build small cars and presto! But no, these minis cannot be engineered below the threshold, so the more you sell the faster you will reach the dreaded fines.. Basically the only way to get below 95 is electrification and especially plug ins or EV,s. So that will happen. Expect the C1ś, Aygoś, Pandas, Ups etc to disappear from the market, Expect the big engines to disappear as well unless it is a niche model with that sells in extremely slow numbers. Expect EV to hit the market in vast numbers, these will be pushed into the market if needed below cost, all to sink below the 95 average threshold. Times, they are changing...

get yourself a good healthy Saab and surf to www.hirsch-performance.ch this was the official house tuner of the Saab company and when using them the works warranty remained intact! Rock solid reliable, from light tuning to just mad with whistling wastegate when lifting off. Great fun ( shame the chassis could not always cope with the power haha)

The GS was axed because sales in the saloon market are melting away so apparently Toyota decided they could no longer be profitable with 2 saloons ( GS and ES) in a globally shrinking market. They upped the ES and made that the replacement of both GS ( which is more expensive to produce than the ES).and ES. A pure and in my idea logic business decision. I am not trying to justify anything but without the US market there would not be any salooncar between the IS and LS at all. Lexus UK expects to sell around 1000 ES cars in 2019 and if they reach that goal i guess it will be seen as a success. Growth will have to come from the new UX that expects to sell 6000 units pa and is likely to draw new customers to the brand. If the UX is a success the ES will be good for 5% of total Lexus UK sales.

I do think the ES300H is designed to be a relaxed cruiser, to waft through traffic with excellent fuel consumption and in silence. It will find some happy owners for sure. Some of them interested in cars and maybe on this forum but i think most will be non car guys going for the individual taste, the beeing different. This model has nothing to do with competing with a 5 series or even a 3 series. ES300H forecast for 2019 is 1000 cars only. BM sells that in ONE day. You want to drive something exclusive, away from the crowd and want to do this in luxury with full safetykit and great consumption this could be the car for you. Want to drive a car to the limits look somewhere else, it is as simple as that.

Really? Why isnt it good to drive?

I currently drive a new Volvo V60 T5 with 250hp and 350Nm. It is FWD but no torque steer, nu pulling to the left or right under full throttle, no skating , just nothing... I am telling this as technology has moved on over the years. if one hasnt driven a FWD car for a long time it could well be possible to adjust ones opinion. Before the Volvo i had an IS300H for 3 years and that car felt a step up to the IS250 i drove for 4 years. It was more refined, had faster acceleration and enough pull, a better chassis and was roomier with better consumption. So, i found the predecessor to the 250 a big improvement. I really would like to have a go in the ES to see if that generation is another step up. Judging by some reviews it could well be. Until i have driven one i leave the conclusions to people that know best!

in the end of the day your logic is nonsense. You seem to live in a bubble completely not in touch with reality. The saloon segment is dying regardless of what engine you put in. Guess howm many XJs Jaguar sold in 1998? - 14500. And last year just one thousand. And this is a car available with various engines. From an economical standpoint i can see Jaguar doing a Lexus, Replace the XJ and XF by 1 car only.

Well Bob, that is not an easy position you seem to be in. If it was your neighbours no problem but your parents in law makes this an interesting case. Beeing non German in a German family will maybe play a role. It are the unwritten rules of a certain class that dictate the choice of clothes, houses, choice of restaurants and.. cars. Small cars like a Mini are ok if your are under 30, a decent 3 series or C class until 40 and then a Merc E or 5 series is propably needed, but.. in the right color, grey or dark blue. Going against these unwritten rules will place you outside the bubble and set you apart. What your father in law told you are really what he is afraid of the other people he knows will think ( they wont say it loud i guess). I am convinced he will accept the LS if it was your second car, a hobby vehicle. Maybe you can convince him by comparing the LS to the S class Merc. Show some clips telling the history and engineering behind it. Tell him the Lexus beats the Merc and drives circles around a 5 series. Ask him out to join you on a testdrive.If he is Ok with your choice it will make your life much easier. (and if he keeps resisting just buy it anyway!)

I dont often visit big cities but today i did. Walked on the pavement in a very busy road and oh dear, the smell of exhaust fumes was just terrible. It blocked my nose hurt my throath and i just wanted to get away from it. This is a street where people live, children grow up. i cant wait until the moment all inner cities will be electric only this just cannot be accepted anymore. want a big engine, fine store it somewhere and drive it in the weekend like people now gave horses as a hobby. For daily commute it is time to move on

If you can get a decent one for a couple of hundred quid why not start a collection, buy and never sell......

all passenger cars combined and 2.4% pollution, that doesnt sound right to me... i did not do any factchecking but i thought all cars did some 20% of carbondioxide and some 50 or 70% of nox?

Diesel is dead. Only company using them in future will be Caterpillar.