If you want a luxury sedan that'll outlive your mortgage and still feel special at 200,000 miles, the 2019-2025 ES is the one to buy, owners report zero drama, 50+ mpg from the hybrid, and an interior that hasn't aged a day. It's the last ES with the smooth V6, and the last one that feels like a proper Lexus before the brand lost the plot. The 2026 redesign strips out the V6, replaces buttons with touch-capacitive surfaces, and swaps hand-stitched luxury for Tesla minimalism that screams 'cost-cutting.' Nobody's driven one yet, so the hate is all aesthetic, but when a brand kills its best engine, ditches the iconic L logo for spelled-out branding, and makes the interior look like a rental car, that's a red flag. Buy the outgoing generation while you still can, it's the last ES that knows what it is.
Toyota's lifted hybrid sedan splits the difference between Camry and Lexus ES, delivering 40+ MPG and a genuinely upscale interior at a discount, dealers are knocking $7,000+ off sticker because nobody knows what to make of it. The powertrain is strong, the ride is smooth, and one owner walked away from a gooseneck truck collision with just a sore shoulder. The persistent flaw is wind noise from the A-pillar that dealers acknowledge but won't fix, calling it a design quirk rather than a defect. If highway hum doesn't bother you and you want Lexus comfort without the Lexus price, this is a smart buy. If you're noise-sensitive, the ES350h costs more but stays quiet.