2007 Lexus Es350 Base Sedan 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Lexus exec says he still fields complaints about the spindle grille

When Lexus debuted its spindle grille on the GS sedan and trademarked the design back in 2012, it was a sure sign the look was here to stay. It started making its way through the lineup, and now five model years later, it's on all Lexus vehicles. The one thing everyone can all agree on is, it's bold. And Lexus has doubled down on the design with the LF-1 Limitless Concept on display at the Detroit Auto Show. Some people surely think nothing of the grille. Others have equated it to a cartoon character, a beard trimmer, or a baleen whale scooping up krill. In one harsh, perhaps apocryphal criticism, a design professor is said to have likened the spindle to the mouth of the titular hunter-alien in the "Predator" movies. In a much more admiring spacefaring comparison, our Antti Kautonen said the grille of the LF-1 Limited Concept mimics a "Star Wars" ship's shift into hyperspace. That's a fitting analogy for the stunning and futuristic LF-1, which might be the single most dramatically styled vehicle at the North American International Auto Show. A couple of years ago, Toyota chief designer — and head of Lexus — Tokuo Fukuichi defended the spindle in a Reuters interview, saying "sexy" was a goal of the design, and dismissing complaints by saying, "Even polarizing designs, you get used to them after a while." That defense was "a while" — three years — after the new look caused an uproar at a 2012 Toyota stockholders' meeting, where some shareholders complained. Now it has been a while longer, and a Lexus executive says the spindle grille has continued to divide Lexus customers. Jeff Bracken, Lexus group vice president and general manager, told Carbuzz on the sidelines of the Detroit show last week that longtime repeat customers still can't get their heads around whatever it is the car seems to be getting its mouth around. "I'll be very transparent. It's our signature grille. Some of our models have a more expressive signature grille than others. The folks that look at it as somewhat polarizing would be, for the most part, the folks that have been with us since the beginning. In fact I'll take phone calls from some of these owners and will literally spend 45 minutes to an hour on the phone with me just expressing how disappointed they are," Bracken said. Bracken has actually been saying almost the exact same things about the grille for years — both to upset customers and to automotive journalists — for example, to Forbes in 2014.

Bosch builds an infotainment system that just might not suck

As far as we've come with in-car infotainment and interfaces over the past decade or so, we still have a long way to go — as most current systems show. Whether it's high-end brands like Mercedes-Benz with its kludgy COMAND system, which we hope will be replaced with the MBUX platform revealed at CES, or more mainstream vehicles like Hondas (with their frustrating, knobless Display Audio interface), getting the kind of content and ease of use in the car that we're used to having on other connected devices is far too complex and sometimes costly. While Apple and Google have tried to ride to the rescue with CarPlay and Android Auto, respectively, they're limited solutions. No automaker or tech supplier has been able to deliver an easy, economical, flexible and non-distracting infotainment solution. But Bosch could be closing in on this elusive goal, given the digital cockpit concept demo I recently received at CES. Displayed in a Cadillac Escalade, the concept featured five interconnected color screens: one in the instrument cluster, two in the center console, and two more in the front-seat headrest for second-row passengers. The digital cockpit concept demo had cool features such as haptic-feedback touch-screen controls that created an edge-like feeling similar to a physical button, facial recognition to confirm driver credentials, and the intelligence to know the location of a phone in the car to lock it out to keep the driver from texting. The most significant aspect of the Bosch digital cockpit concept wasn't visible — but shows the company's vision for a future of seamless, convenient, cost-effective and safe in-car infotainment. It's powered by a single electronic control unit (ECU) that can simultaneously run multiple operating systems and also separates vehicle and infotainment controls for critical safety and cybersecurity reasons. Most modern cars can have as many as 100 separate ECUs, Philip Ventimiglia, product manager for Bosch Car Multimedia North America, explained at CES, and several just for infotainment functions. "The goal is to reduce that to about 10 so that we can save cost throughout the vehicle and enable new technologies," he added. "OEMs want to put more technology into cars, but it costs money," Ventimiglia said.

2019 Lexus ES First Drive Review | Entry-level luxury that wants to have fun

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For 2019, the Lexus ES is all new and marks the seventh generation of the Japanese nameplate's entry-level luxury four-door. We're happy to report that the redesign brings some very welcome attributes, and the 2019 Lexus ES does everything you'd want an entry-level luxury vehicle to do. Performance, no matter which of the two drivetrain options you choose, is respectable, interior comfort is on par with a Restoration Hardware sofa you'd spend real money on, handling is communicative, and most important for a Lexus, it's serenely quiet inside. While these are great attributes, there are a few places we wish Lexus had spent more energy revamping. Through the humid hill country just outside Nashville, on a mix of the congested city arteries and the flowing switchbacks of Tennessee's forested interior, we put the ES through its paces. The 2019 ES is based on Toyota's TNGA platform, which underpins both the latest Avalon and Camry models. Perhaps that'd constitute a knock in a previous era, but the new Camry chassis is a rollicking peach compared to some others in its class. It's rigid enough for a windy road dance, but compliant enough for daily-driver duties. Even better, Lexus engineers improved the TNGA platform for use in the ES. A 200 percent increase in stiffness over the previous ES is due in part to a liberal use of structural adhesives and laser-welded screws. The front strut towers are reinforced, and topped with a brace between them. This extra attention to detail pays dividends that include a smoother ride and better handling. New adaptive Dynamic Control Shocks quietly smooth out bumps and undulations, allowing us to wind through the rural backcountry roads confidently, and the steering gives better feedback than we'd expect from a vehicle like the Lexus ES. Pushing the big sedan into one of the many hilly, and often blind, corners along our route elicits only a minute amount of body roll. But chassis improvements aren't the only upgrade from the previous model. The 2019 Lexus ES comes standard with a 3.6-liter V6 delivering 302 horsepower at 6,600 rpm and 267 pound-feet of torque at 4,700 rpm. This represents a bump of 34 hp and 19 lb-ft from the previous generation's V6. The engine is coupled to Lexus' new eight-speed automatic transmission, which is encased in a housing smaller than the brand's previous six-speed automatic.