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The picture showed a trapdoor on the right front fender. That would not work for a car parked in my garage. Does the plug-in connector location follow which side the steering wheel is on? I guess my '24 ES350 will probably prove to be worth keeping, but I would be willing to kick a tire on Gen8 once one is on the lot.
Testing is done at their new private Shimoyama track. They don’t need to take them on public roads.
Once they have done the announcement, they will take a few on public roads to do any last minute tuning. As there are a few months before the first production runs are finalised.
"The development of the new ES was centered at the Toyota Technical Center Shimoyama (TTC-S), where teams from planning, design, engineering, and evaluation collaborated under one roof. By continuously refining through trial and error, we systematically addressed and overcame a variety of challenges. "
Well, as I feared, at least from the images available so far, this screams Toyota, and does little, in my mind at least, of conveying luxury.
The rear is okay, the sides far too busy, and the front like a flattened RX. Of course, these may not be the best images so far so I may feel better about it later or in person.
The death of the V6 should surprise no one who had watched the global auto industry evolving. I hope that they have worked hard to eliminate the coarseness in the their current four bangers under load, but am not too optimistic on that point. The CVT will generate a lot of negative reviews from the automotive press. Are these really all NA with no turbos on offer? Seems odd, and will not give very good acceleration numbers. Perhaps actual US spec models will have some differences?
I’m sure it will be pretty comfortable (but thinner seats?) and I hope the suspension is less stiff. I just don’t know if this is going to sell well in the States, especially compared to the richer look of Genesis, for example.
Time will tell and we will learn more on the coming weeks.
The exterior doesn’t look bad in the images, though I find the current generation more elegant.
The interior, however, is a definite no go for me; and knowing that it features the e-latch door opening system, it’s an instant dealbreaker. Let's start a 9th generation ES thread.
