I had a 2013 ES 300h and a 2017 ES300h . Drove both with not one problem. If was to buy a sedan over a SUV would buy the current ES300h in a heartbeat. Had one for a loaner and got 43 mpg on a 56 mile trip.

https://studyfinds.org/best-luxury-sedans-2023/

 

Interesting list but I'm happy to see the ES up on top. I fail to see how people will often list the Tesla Model 3 as a "luxury car". Other that having a luxury price, they are not at all what I would class as luxurious or posh. Undeniably fast, they remain poorly assembled, ranked quite low in most reliability listings, have spartan interiors of synthetic materials, and do not ride or feel like a luxury auto. Overall it's NOT a luxury car.

 

Could not agree with you anymore. It is not a luxury vehicle. Extremely boring exterior and even more interior. Shoody workmanship and dependability proven. It is what happens when a tech company thinks they can build an automobile. They are 28th out of 32 in relaibilty by J D Power surveying the owners. Consumer Reports ranks their flagship vehicle the Model S as one of the ten least reliable vevicles.

 

No Tesla is an actual luxury car, and I've owned two of them. They are quick, fun, and have some good tech (mostly powertrain & phone app) but it's dumped into a shoddily built car around the good parts. I can assure you I had loads of repairs so I would never advise a Lexus owner to make the switch. If you perhaps had a 10 year old Mercedes that needed lots of repairs, or you drive a BMW just to show off to your friends, then a Tesla might be right for you.

My ESh, I've had for almost a year and 12K miles, it's been totally flawless. I averaged 5 service visits per year with my Teslas, the main reason I dumped them.

 

But what exactly about them makes it a luxury car? Clearly it’s not materials, quality (“shoddily built”) or the ownership experience. Sure, driving fun or tech are positive attributes, but just using that standard loads of cars could be classed as luxury. Price alone should never be the standard.

To me, at least, in order to be a luxury car, it must at least be well built and assembled of at least better than a average materials, be quite and comfortable, be reliable (even a lot actual luxury cars have trouble here, at least lately), and be pleasant to drive. Pleasant to drive does not mean it needs awesome 0-60 times but should be fun as you define it, smooth in operation (Lexus is hurting itself here with less than smooth 4-cylinders), and not suffer from ridiculous tech for tech sake nonsense. Additionally when problems do arise, and after all they are machines, there should be a reliable dealer/service network that promptly handles the problem.

 

Teslas are not luxury cars. They are the most unreliable cars on the market today driven by show-off people.

 

Weird that they applaud the ES for its AWD (which is only available with the puniest engine), and the Mark Levinson stereo (which I almost never see on cars delivered to my local dealer these days)

 

How can you put a BMW 7 series in the same class as a Lexus ES? The BMW can cost almost 2 times the ES! The 7 series should be compared to an LS.

Nice that she put the ES #1 but different groups/magazines listed their top car. She shouldn't have ranked them.


...and of course members of this forum would agree with the #1 ranking...

 

13 times more when you consider maintenance and repairs

 

How sad is it for a seven series owner to read this paying twice as much with a lot less dependable vehicle and the highest maintenance cost for a luxury vehicle compared to the lowest cost for maintenance but it is a Bimmer!! The seven series also is the fastest depreciation vehicle.

 

Did the article says that the cars are listed in order of ranking, or any particular order at all? If so, I missed it.

 

It appears the author did the ranking (#1 thru #5) and used these 5 as the top 5 based on different groups/magazines...totally subjective. Had she left out the #1 thru #5, then it might be an alright survey pointing out that different groups/magazines rank these cars as tops.

I don't own any of these cars but just wanted to point out that each group/magazine ranked that car tops...yet the different cars shouldn't be in the same category.

 

OK, but that doesn't address my question. Does the fact that the ES is listed first mean that it's the highest ranking of the 5? Or are the cars listed in no particular order? I wouldn't assume the former unless the article specifically says so.

 

Not that sad lol. I'd reckon most buyers of new 7 series aren't concerned with dependability, maintenance costs, or depreciation, if I had to guess.

 

I re-read the article and it doesn't really say if it's a ranking of 1-5 or just a list of 5 luxury cars that got good overall reviews from the different sources.

The authors bio says Saloni Ordea "is a creative and self-motivated content and copywriter with a comprehensive background of 3 years of writing and publishing buzz-worthy articles." So she probably puts together lists like this on a variety of topics.