DEARBRON, MICH. – I came to one of Detroit’s oldest suburbs to get a look at the 2013 Lexus ES 350. A quick test drive was included in the deal as well.
This is the sixth generation of the Lexus ES 350 which first went on sale in 1989. The car has always been conservatively styled, even for Lexus, thus it has always attracted an older driver.
But all that’s going to change. Lexus wants to expand the customer base for the ES 350 and the road to more buyers runs smack dab through design. The 2013 ES 350 is much more stylish than the car that it will replace.
The luxury sedan is sportier, it has Lexus’ new spindle grille and it has flared wheel wells to make it look wider. Its wheel base is two inches longer and the overall length is one-inch longer. The car is lower, looks wider and it has shorter overhangs.
That spindle grille gave the 2013 ES 350 an aggressive stance. The front air intake and the rear spoiler put the car in motion even when it was parked. LED running lights have also been added to create a really distinctive face for the new ES 350. And dual exhausts imply performance.
The car had three driving modes: normal, eco and sport. I thought cornering was pretty sharp. A new set up of opposing coil springs kept that car centered in the turns and recovery, straightening out when done with the turn, was quick and very stable.
Although the engine has been revised, it is basically a carryover from the last generation ES 350. Under the hood will be a 3.5-liter V6 that makes 268 horsepower and 248 pound-feet of torque. It will be mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
That’s my only quibble with this car – so far. These-days 300 horsepower V6s are not uncommon. Thus, the 2013 ES 350 may lag in the horsepower race. Still, on a short test drive, this engine was quiet, packed more than enough punch for city or suburban driving and got up to speed quite nicely on the expressway.
What’s more, for the first time the ES lineup will include a hybrid, the ES 300h. I plan to test drive it later. But in general the hybrid will be powered by a four-cylinder engine in combination with an electric motor and it gets 40 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway. For that matter, the 2013 Lexus ES 350 will get an estimated 21 mpg in the city, 31 on the highway or a combined 24 mpg.
But what impressed me the most with the new ES 350 was the interior. Gone is the massive center stack that used to define the interior of most Lexus vehicles. Like the new Lexus GS it has been replaced by a horizontal set up that is aesthetically simple and driver friendly.
The new ES 350 was very functional. It had four inches more leg room in the rear seat. Power front seats could be lowered an inch more than the seats in the old model. And I was surprised to see that the front passenger seat had three memory settings.
The ES 350 featured Enform, Lexus’ new set up that lets the car’s audio system use Smartphone apps like Bing, Facebook and Pandora. The system can also be used with voice commands.
Prices for the 2013 Lexus ES 350 start at $36,100. That makes the car almost 2 percent cheaper than the model it replaces.
Frank Washington is editor of AboutThatCar.com.
