Is it possible the the ES250 is based on a world market Camry and not the one for North America?

 

ES250 wasn't even that bad, it was based on a rock solid Camry platform, had a V6 engine, and you could option it out with leather, moonroof and a bunch of other stuff that was pretty bling for the standards of its time.

I consider the GX to be the worst Lexus. I cant believe such a wobblepluck is even allowed on the roads these days.

 

Look up Camry Prominent/Vista. Same was true for many early Lexus models the SC400/Toyota Soarer probably most well known for this.

 

Yes, Camry Prominent.

 

The North American market seems to get the worst/ugliest versions of the Camry. These look much classier but they still don't have the more upscale interior of the ES250.

 

It was their best shot at 3-series in Toyota's product portfolio, they had to act fast. It was unorthodox product for Toyota at that time anyway so Lexus went on and capitalized it. It was the very first Lexus with cool factor. Definitely a direction changer when it comes to a ride for Lexus as well. Good things came out of it.

The worst Lexus product has to be CT or HS but I want to add XV40 to that list as well. XV30 has set the benchmark so high in refinement that there was nowhere to go but down, XV40 had better looks but nothing more than that. They fixed it with XV60 but then dropped in exterior department again The worst Lexus SUV has to be the NX. It's rebadge on whole another level but you can tell it's still a rebadge, it drives exactly like new RAV4, smells like new RAV4 and inside has new outfit but of same quality as new RAV4.

 

No. The ES250 was taken directly from the then-U.S.-market Camry. In fact, that was one thing that (initially) limited its sales....the public perception that, despite some body and interior differences, it was too close to the American Camry.

 

I don't know how you can look at the Prominent and say that, the ES250 shares way more with the Prominent than the U.S. spec Camry. Either way the ES250 is a unique model to Lexus you can't make an ES250 out of any other model by simply bolting parts on.

 

I said it was taken from the platform. I didn't say it was identical. But its sales in the U.S. were hampered somewhat by the public perception that it was....or at least too close. And, except for the steering wheel and amount of wood trim, the interiors were also very similar.

IMO we're getting a little off-topic, though, which is "worst" Lexus ever built. I don't think that ANY ES version, even the original 250, could qualify for that title.......IMO, Lexus has done much worse with some other models.

 

Thats not correct. The ES250 was derived from the Camry Prominent as Lexus2000 posted above, it itself was obviously derived from the basis of the US Camry but the ES250 was much more a rebadged version of that than it was the US Camry,

 

Either way, I don't agree that it was the worst Lexus produced, as some here apparently do.

 

So GX is so bad I totally forgot about it lol. It's ugly and the interior is overloaded with plastic.

 

Lol, at least the NX looks neat with the right options. I agree that the interior is rough around the edges, the center console design is yack. Looks like an extraterrestrial made of solid grey plastic. I suppose Lexus designers wanted to bring back the alien head center console from the 5th gen ES.

 

Btw I'm sure we can all agree that Lexus hasn't made many bad cars! Most have been boring appliances, but very few were truly bad cars. Can't say the same for most other luxury marques.

 

Alien head?! hahaha I've never heard that one before. I've always referred to it as the Tombstone center stack.