Perhaps the last of the 3.5 liter V-6's Toyota is putting in a simple FWD configuration.


Perhaps the last of the 3.5 liter V-6's Toyota is putting in a simple FWD configuration.
The shape reminds me of a shark. A friendly one at that.
I like the toned-down chrome and touches such as the black spoiler and shiney black outside mirror housings. Nice wheels, too! The seats are well-bolstered with functional lumbar support. Dials/switches/steering wheel controls are intuitive enough for a non-technophile to figure out the first day. I LOVE the 17-speaker Mark Levinson Stereo...crisp highs, full mid-range, and a nicer sub-woofer than I've ever had in a car. It's better than the Harmon-Kardon stereos (which I like) in my other two cars (Mini Countrymand and Subaru Forester), and it seems decades ahead of the Bose I heard as the top-level upgrade in a Mazda CX-50.
Road and wind noise is almost non-existent. The suspension is soft but not floaty. Even in the Sport Mode stiffer setting, it's not harsh by any means...even with 19 inch wheels with relatively short side-walls. There is no wallow as in my 2024 Forster Sport, but it could never match the Sport Mode in my AWD 2020 Countryman John Cooper Works...but that's not the point of the ES. The ES has just over 300 HP as does my Mini, but the power is delivered in a much different format. The ES V-6 is sedate enough...until you floor it...and if in Sport+ mode it is surprisingly quick for a heavy car. The Turbo kick of the Mini is addictive, but at a cost of premium fuel and more drama. I was surprised at the growl I heard from the ES under full urging...again, not the Mini bark, but the ES engine was pleasant to hear. A nice surprise!
The only negative is the small rotors and therefore not very inspiring braking abilities. Sure, a hard stop or two wouldn't heat-load the system so much that it wouldn't perform, but I'm used to 360 mm front and 330 mm rear rotors on the lighter Mini that can make your uvula touch the back of your front teeth several hard stops in a row without significant fade...and that's with stock pads. There's plenty of room for larger brakes on this car. It's the only thing that I'll complain about, even though they are good enough for the purposes the car was designed for. OK, I'll admit the Mini brakes are so big it's very hard to modulate the stop so that the passengers don't all do a synchroniized forward head nod every time we come to a dead halt...so maybe the ES rotors/brakes are fine just the way they are: more civilized.
I love the room the ES provides. The trunk seems very large, and the adult in the back seat had zero complaints.
The leather is nice. The heated steering wheel was a nice surprise. Headlights are very good, triple-beam LEDs light up the road plus a bit more. Hands-free trunk kick activation is convenient, power rear shade is a bit gimmicky, but it's functional and I could see some people appreciating it. The rear pedestrian and cross-traffic alert/braking works as advertised. The paint is excellent (Cloudburst Gray). I didn't know how much I'd like the head's up display...very convenient and easy to read.
A Honda Accord that my daughter inherited is the only vehicle I've kept more than a decade. I suspect the Lexus ES 350 F-Sport will be the second vehicle that exceeds 10 years in my hands. It's versatile. well-balanced, and relatively simple enough that I can still do most of the service work on myself.
It's a keeper. With the 3500.00 Leasing cash, I chose to go with a one-payment lease. I was able to negotiate a slight discount as well. Total expenditure up front plus the guaranteed buyout at lease end keeps me several thousand below MSRP. That's hard to do in today's marketplace. I'm glad I took the leap!