By Steven D. Gatt, Automotive Editor
In an effort to boost sales in a sagging luxury car market, Lexus has teamed up with Coach luggage to add even more luxury to the ES 300.
The ES 300, Lexus' entry level sedan, is well styled and especially aggresive for the luxury market. In particular, I like the assertive front-end including the sharp headlights. In addition to the body styling, the wheels added to the bold design of the ES 300.
The Coach package includes a gamut of additional features: Coach leather trimmed seats and head rests, wood door trim, specially designed center armrest, remote six compact disc player, power sliding moonroof, unique wheels, Coach Edition badges and special colors only available on Coach cars. Our car was Opal White Pearl a very rich, deep looking white.
Our Lexus ES 300 had excellent fit and finish with no interior rattles from the dash; even over rough roads. The interior was comfortable for four adult passengers but the back seat is a little tight in the legroom department.
Other interior appointments include a Bose audio system, combined with the CD player the system really sounds nice. A fold down rear armrest with pass through for long items from the trunk is another good feature. Lexus features an excellent dash design with easy to read gauges and well-placed controls. The dash is thin from the windshield to the steering wheel making visibility easy. Another convenient feature is the miniature sun visor between the rear-view mirror and the headliner: it is very useful just after dawn and at sunset.
The ES 300 features a 188 hp, 24-valve V6 engine. When up to freeway speed the engine is smooth and quite, however, it is a little rough and loud in route to those 65 - 70 mph. The V6 could use more power. EPA mileage figures are 20 city, 29 highway. I achieved 24 mpg during my week of testing.
As you may remember, I tested a similarly optioned ES 300 last year and liked it as well. The new Coach features make this model even better. Also this ES 300 feels tighter, as if it were screwed together better. One would expect that the addition of Coach to the ES 300 would make it more expensive. Actually it does not. Our price as tested was lower this year than last at only $36,488.
Going Coach class is no longer a bad thing with Lexus.