Traded my '11 HS250h. This one sure is sweet; twice the power of the HS, twice as quiet, much smoother ride, and LOTS more room inside.

Stats:

Nebula Gray, Nav, Perf Leather, Luxury pkg, Blind Spot Monitor, HIDs, Rear Sunshade, Park assist, Leather shift ****, Bamboo & Leather steering wheel, Rain-Sensing Wipers with Deicer, and Accessory pkg.

[Uploaded some better pics on 8/18/12.]

 

Congrats and welcome to the 13 ES club. I picked mine up last Friday! Enjoy!

 

Wow, congrtas to you, very sharp looking. Love the wheels and the interior is the the bomb, what kind of deal did you get??

 

Black is definitely the best interior color IMO.

Enjoy!

 

Well if you do the math, I paid sticker price...whether you calculate retail-to-retail or wholesale-to-wholesale. I paid a little over $46k for my loaded 2011 HS250h one year ago; the dealer allowed me $30k on the trade-in for the ES. The HS was perfect, and had less than 5k miles, but was technically 2 years old. And as most people know, the HS model has been retired, and thus is an albatross that I chose to trade-in before it lost even more value. I just wrote a check for the difference; maybe I could have gotten a better deal, but (a) it's a brand new model, (b) the dealer only had 2 of these, (c) this was the only ES with leather & nav, and (d) I don't have time to haggle over prices -- or try to sell a car myself.

I'm hoping the ES will depreciate less than the sad little HS did (and will continue to do). In the real world out there, if the public is not seeing an HS in advertising, they're even less likely to buy one on the used lot. Most people have never even seen one on the road; I know becuz I was asked constantly what the **** I was driving.

Long-winded answer to a simple question...sorry.

 

Off hand, I'd say you did well and I certainly agree with your thinking.

 

Looks like you made a good choice. Congrats!

 

I love that black interior! Congrats on the new ES.

 

nice colour choices as well..i really like the outside colour. You should also take some interior pics BUT @ night. I like how Lexus finally removed the "lexus" emblem. I think just the "L" logo says it all. Plus its a cost saver in some way.

 

are you getting the as advertised 40/39 mpg?

 

I actually can't get used to the way the cars look without the "lexus" emblem...looks unbalanced to me, like the emblem is missing...

 

I have driven about 150 miles since I bought the car 6 days ago...all in town.

The first two days I really punched the accelerator, just to see what power this baby has. Mileage average on the dash read 36 mpg.

As of last Friday, I began driving carefully, soft-pedaling everything. Did not change any settings, didn't set it to "ECO" mode, just left it in normal. Dash shows 41.1 mpg -- which is pretty amazing. I admit that just out of habit I always consciously coast when I can, because I know the payoff will come when I check the mileage. After owning a Camry Hybrid, a Prius, and the HS250, you just do as much free-wheeling as you can get away with -- second nature.

As I learned with my HS250, it's better not to keep the mpg readout visible; it's distracting and, if you're like me, it becomes a challenge to see how high I can get the mileage to go. Like a video game. And that can be dangerous; I need to pay attention to traffic, not a tiny gauge on the dash. It's much more enjoyable to leave the mpg hidden from view, just drive normally but with a light touch on the pedals. And then check once in awhile to see how you're doing. When I saw the 41.1 tonight, I was SUPER pleased.

As is often said in the car mags and in Club Lexus Forums, your mileage may vary.

p.s. Just took a pic of MPG gauge this morning 8/22; sorry it's so fuzzy, but now showing 41.5 mpg

 

I noticed the "Lexus" badge missing on my HS...and I like it; it's a classy move. After all, you don't see "Rolls-Royce" emblazoned on the back of their cars; it's just on the radiator emblem in small letters. Even Hyundai has stopped printing their name on cars...just their distinctive "H".

I guess I don't care if people know what brand I'm driving. If they recog the L, then they're observant and smart.

 

could you confirm the mpg with actual gallons filled with miles traveled as well. But from my IS350 mpg meter I found it to be accurate with actual gallons filled and miles travelled. So I would expect this to be the same as well. Very impressive, probably the first hybrid I was really interested in.

 

Congratulations that car is beautiful!