A New, Old Lexus

The Lexus ES may be all-new from the ground up, but it’s very much a Lexus of the old school.

- Daryl Lee

If you’ve driven one of Lexus’ newer offerings, you might be confused as to what constitutes a ‘real’ Lexus these days. You could still get the original Lexus, the LS, a big grand tourer like the LC, the NX compact SUV and even the UX, its new subcompact crossover. Back in the day, a Lexus was big, comfortable and exceptionally well made. If you bought a Lexus, you absolutely knew what you were getting. In most cases, that involved getting a full-sized saloon. Especially, if you were around for the carmaker’s inception in the late 1980s, you didn’t have much of a choice because the entire range then used to consist of big saloons.

But one thing that’s fairly new to the Lexus brand is angular styling, and something that was once unthinkable for Japan’s first luxury carmaker: sportiness. Yes, even the LS has gone sporty, somewhat abandoning the boxy, upright styling that so defined its predecessors, plus dallying with such witchcraft as a lively, playful chassis and body control. Needless to say, not everybody was enthused by this change, as anecdotal evidence gleaned from a Japanese journalist revealed people over there absolutely hated the LS’ newfound sportiness.

The cure for all that surely must be the new ES, because it couldn’t be more different from any other modern Lexus if it tried. For starters, the ES is still front-wheel-driven, a trait it shared with nothing in the Lexus lineup for two decades until the CT came along in 2010.