Lexus' workmanlike ES gets image makeover

LOS ANGELES — The Lexus ES has always played second fiddle to the LS sedan. When they were introduced nearly 30 years ago, one was hailed as a bold new flagship to take on the Germans. The other was a dressed-up Toyota Camry.

Since then, the bland ES has dutifully fulfilled its role as the volume entry for the Lexus brand, challenging rivals on value and reliability while remaining in the shadow of its stablemates, including the more sporting GS and IS.

Now, with car sales falling across all segments in the U.S. and luxury sedans scrambling to differentiate themselves from competitors, Lexus' "executive sedan" is finally getting its star turn.

A ground-up redesign for 2019, featured at the Beijing auto show in April, prompted showgoers to dub it a "baby LS," noting the styling similarities to the sibling that was redesigned last year and has tripled in sales since going on sale in February.

The ES now looks like a proper rear-wheel-drive sport sedan with a V-8, even though it isn't. It still drives just the front wheels with a V-6 on a platform shared with the redesigned Toyota Avalon hitting showrooms this month. But that may be enough for the ES to stay on top of the midsize luxury segment above the pricier Mercedes-Benz E class and BMW 5 series, and the similarly priced Acura TLX. The introduction of an ES F Sport, which adds more aggressive styling cues and some handling enhancements, is a direct nod at those rivals.

"Luxury is a foregone conclusion. You have to have that just to even get started," said Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Cox Automotive. "The one that has luxury and some kind of a sport look, pedigree, specs they can quote, is the one that you should buy. They all want to have a performance bent."

Sales of the ES fell 12 percent to 51,398 vehicles last year, but it led the segment. So far this year, sales of the fresher E class and the 5 series have topped the ES, which is now in the sixth year of its life cycle.

Brauer also sees some "baby GS" in the redesigned ES, which may be deliberate because there are rumors that Lexus is considering a consolidation of its sedans and may need something to take the GS' place.

Cooper Ericksen, vice president of marketing at Lexus, said there's no announcement on the future of the GS yet. "We're weighing all our options on our future product cadence," he told Automotive News on the sidelines of an event here that paralleled the Beijing unveiling of the ES.

At the same time, Ericksen said Lexus is going after a younger male buyer with the first F Sport variant of the ES while trying to keep its core audience happy with an overhaul of the platform, styling, interior and tech.

"The new area is really the F Sport," Ericksen said. "It's a new dimension that we didn't have." One of the goals of the sportier model is to push the median age of ES buyers from the 60-year-old demographic to 50 and younger.

The sedan's overall mission, however, remains the same: to be a volume leader and a conquest play. Ericksen said 43 percent of buyers come from other brands.

The similarity to the LS is no accident. Lexus is moving all of its sedans to a more aggressive design language. The ES brings that design to the masses. "It's not a baby this or a baby that," Ericksen said. "It's taking something that is unique to us and very cool and making it more accessible."

Lexus executives also said the ES has many distinct features from its platform-mate, the Avalon, beyond the styling. It has a stiffer structure, richer paint and its own suspension tuning.

Brauer said the Lexus marque always has been enough to distinguish the ES from Toyota models. The 2019 redesign pushes that even further, he said.

"I think it's an attractive car now, and I don't know if I would have even said that about any previous ES," he said.

As for its performance chops vs. German rivals, Brauer thinks the hard-core performance crowd is the minority. "Plenty of people would like to have an appealing-looking car, but they don't really need the high performance."

A group of Lexus dealers attending the event here agreed that the ES takes a big step forward in terms of looks and appeal, especially in the F Sport trim.

"I love the aggressive styling. I love the sportiness of it," said Chris McCarty, general manager of Longo Lexus in El Monte, Calif. He expects buyers to embrace the new styling.

"It is a baby LS, but they can afford it," he said in an interview.

McCarty said the GS still fills a role for the buyer who wants rwd and more sport-sedan chops but that the ES F Sport may steal some of them. GS sales have fallen from a high of 75 a month at his dealership, one of the highest-volume stores in the country, to about 15.

For now, the ES gets to be the star.