by: Yousef Alvi & Jonathan Wooley
Editor’s note:
Let’s be honest for a second. If you’re an enthusiast, you’re probably not going to even consider this car. BUT your mom, uncle, aunt, grandparents, & sister’s-cousin’s-former-roommate will love it.
This is the 2016 Lexus ES350. This car is engineered to be forgotten… but in a good way. Hear me out. A lot of us look for cars that throw us INTO the driving experience – right? That’s what we’re after. The ES, on the other hand, takes you out of it. My mom has a newer ES… and for the life of me, I could never understand why she wouldn’t have gone with a GS, or an IS. But those were more in line with my desires, not hers. And after driving the ES (and an ES hybrid) for a week, I get it. It’s not the car for me… but it’s the perfect car for her. The ES is effortless. It’s absolutely mastered effortless. Like a server at a 5-star restaurant, it’s so good, that everything’s just ‘there for you’ without having to think about it. The ES is calming. It takes you out of the rush-hour… and isolates you in its own little calming environment. You arrive at your destination comfortable, and unstressed. Staring out of the windshield, you’re lost to everything else. The switchgear just arrives at your hands, the pedals are arranged just so that there is no thought. You seem to float on the seats. The noise this car makes…….. well there is no noise this car makes. Driving this car requires no mental energy whatsoever. It’s a refreshing & somewhat jarring reality after being used to the loud, harsh and frenetic cars that we drive.
