When you see a latest model Lexus ES 350, struggling for 10 minutes+ on a slope unable to come up from the snow, even after many cars have made it before him in the morning, including your RL that rode that as if there was no snow nor slope there..... You kinda feel proud of your ride.

He's probably not an AWD, but hey, spanking brand new black & mean looking Lexus... it's embarrassing.

Do they have features better than ours though?

 

I drove the ES350 as a loaner last month. It's a very BLAH car. My uncle asked me for an impression afterwards. This is pretty much what I said "It's a car, it has 4 wheels, and it's comfortable. That's as much as I'll give that car."

 

Over-glorified Toyota Camry = new ES350 ... fwd, nothing special... maybe more lux than any camry trim...

 

This..


Now if we were talking GS.... or even the LS

 

I think the newest iteration of the ES350 looks quite nice. Yes, it's basically a lux trim of a Camry, which is also quite nice and probably a better value. Any newer car will have a newer and more modern infotainment stack.

 

The VSA +SHAWD combo on the RL is simply unmatched in my opinion.

 

Tires make a huge difference too. Having said that SH-AWD allows these cars to do maneuvers they have zero business of being capable of.

 

My shwad light was coming for for a couple of weeks following the emissions light. The car was non-drive-able on snow... it became a different car.. in some cases non moving.. it became just AWD not SHAWD i assume.

+++ on your latter statement.

 

If I'm correct, an error in the SH-AWD system completely disables AWD. So you're essentially FWD at that point.

It's true that some of the Lexus' don't have much soul. But tires are a huge deal too. With half decent tires the ES would have climbed just fine.

 

I think that is indeed the case - I had one of those 'christmas tree-dash' incidents and it felt most unwieldy. Almost like driving a big Toyota, or something.

I have a snow button. That makes it AWD and it's nowhere near as bad as FWD, but not a patch on SH-AWD.

 

It's actually been a "glorified" Avalon since the 2013 model year. Oh, and AWD is coming to it in 2020. GS is dead.

 

Someone on here said that a couple of weeks ago, and responded I always see in the dash all wheels pulling while shawd light is on

 

Yeah, Avalon is rather in LS type of length / size of the vehicle, but let's say it has some Avalon details...
Even if AWD is coming LS will never be GS. If Lexus wants to follow Acura steps in killing off good models to introduce BS models, they should go right ahead... sales will speak for themselves... granted GS sold around 6000 units per year