Lexus loaner experience/ES250 review
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2008
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From: California
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 17,128
Likes: 522
From: Knoxville, TN
I
Engine and transmission wise.......oh man. The whiplash going from even the 4.6 to this 2.0 is horrible, for the car to accelerate like I normally would like to during calm driving I need to bring it up to 4200-5000 rpm. I usually slowly swell rpms from idle to around 2200 max to glide my way to desired speeds, this thing can't do that or you will take FOREVER to get to even 40 and just anger everyone else in the general vicinity of the car who are also trying to get on 270. Speaking of, the on ramp power is so low I was shocked! This vehicle massively fails one aspect of being a luxury car in that it has no sense of effortless ease, I had to yield to everything else and really plan my movements. On the plus side the transmission was more than happy to hold rpms around 3000-3500 most of the time in sport mode and is very downshift happy at least, in that mode the car is bearable but in any other it's totally unacceptable. Shifting behavior is usually good, sometimes it lurches/thumps into gears or hangs shifts but that's to be expected and it again is not nearly as bad in sport mode. The engine is loud and very buzzy, this is compounded by the fact it needs 4k+ to have any chance of moving a larger car like an ES with any sense of urgency/smoothness. This also kills MPGs to worse than my 460 on the exact same drive.
Never buy this car with the 4 cyl engine. Get the 3.5 unless the AWD is a hard must have, that's the only reason I could ever think to get this version. That said I can't see this car ever being worth 43k, maybe like 30k or so would be more fair for what you are getting since you aren't getting much car here past the build quality and interior space being decent.
Anyhow now that I have burnt up 30 min writing this and watching some news I'm heading out to my shop for the day, I'll link up some pictures and see if it allows me to upload videos. If not I'll get those up later
Engine and transmission wise.......oh man. The whiplash going from even the 4.6 to this 2.0 is horrible, for the car to accelerate like I normally would like to during calm driving I need to bring it up to 4200-5000 rpm. I usually slowly swell rpms from idle to around 2200 max to glide my way to desired speeds, this thing can't do that or you will take FOREVER to get to even 40 and just anger everyone else in the general vicinity of the car who are also trying to get on 270. Speaking of, the on ramp power is so low I was shocked! This vehicle massively fails one aspect of being a luxury car in that it has no sense of effortless ease, I had to yield to everything else and really plan my movements. On the plus side the transmission was more than happy to hold rpms around 3000-3500 most of the time in sport mode and is very downshift happy at least, in that mode the car is bearable but in any other it's totally unacceptable. Shifting behavior is usually good, sometimes it lurches/thumps into gears or hangs shifts but that's to be expected and it again is not nearly as bad in sport mode. The engine is loud and very buzzy, this is compounded by the fact it needs 4k+ to have any chance of moving a larger car like an ES with any sense of urgency/smoothness. This also kills MPGs to worse than my 460 on the exact same drive.
Never buy this car with the 4 cyl engine. Get the 3.5 unless the AWD is a hard must have, that's the only reason I could ever think to get this version. That said I can't see this car ever being worth 43k, maybe like 30k or so would be more fair for what you are getting since you aren't getting much car here past the build quality and interior space being decent.
Anyhow now that I have burnt up 30 min writing this and watching some news I'm heading out to my shop for the day, I'll link up some pictures and see if it allows me to upload videos. If not I'll get those up later
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 17,128
Likes: 522
From: Knoxville, TN
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Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 9,612
Likes: 4,800
From: GA
I drove an ES 250 AWD as a loaner right before taking delivery of my 2021 IS 350. And, I will say, it was okay. I didn't notice the door-closing cheapness you pointed out, thankfully. That's something I think Lexus can work on on many of their models. The German and Korean competitors seem to have more solid-feeling door-close action. Even for my IS, which has an okay door-close, I think I prefer how our G20 330i's door closes. But back to the ES. The 250 drivetrain is not enough for this segment. It works, but the engine has to rev out a lot more than, say, the 3.5-liter in my IS or in an ES 350. It felt very Camry-adjacent. However, it definitely was fine for a quick jog to my apartment and back to the dealer. I could see how someone who is a Lexus loyalist would not complain about the engine. And that brings me to the other thing about this car - it's still an ES. Just like every current-gen ES I've driven, it's quiet, fairly roomy, and easy enough to get around in. Sporty is not on the menu, nor should it be. It's still a far better-judged car than the previous-gen ES, even with this slower configuration. Give me the ES 350 all day, or maybe the 300h. This one is the worst of the bunch, but I still dig the ES's interior and overall driving feel.
So I agree with you, but I don't think it's an awful mess of a car. Just, there are much better options even within the ES lineup. Maybe my standards of ride quality are a bit lower than yours - I drive an IS almost every day, and it doesn't exactly float over the pavement. But, it does inherit the same dampers from this very ES (if not quite as softly-tuned), making it ride much better than my 2016 IS did.
So I agree with you, but I don't think it's an awful mess of a car. Just, there are much better options even within the ES lineup. Maybe my standards of ride quality are a bit lower than yours - I drive an IS almost every day, and it doesn't exactly float over the pavement. But, it does inherit the same dampers from this very ES (if not quite as softly-tuned), making it ride much better than my 2016 IS did.
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