Lexus is the luxury brand for Toyota. As the manufacturer stuffed everything reliable into their Lexus cars, they did very well with mixing it with a luxury feel. Not only is Lexus a reliable luxury car, in most cases, they compete directly with the other big dog luxury car brands.
In this article I will go over the Lexus ES330, the successor of the Lexus ES300. Overview the interior, exterior, and most importantly its most common issues.
We do not hear much about the ES330 and by the end you will understand why it is a bit underrated.
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Specs
3.3L V6
218 HP
236 lb-ft
21-29 MPG
5 Speed Automatic Transmission
FWD or AWD options
Exterior
Walking around the car you will notice a few key features like the front fascia, rear end and elegant side view slope. The front fascia has a simplistic front grill with its bold Lexus badge, which kind of brings me back to when there were hood emblems. To light up the road the ES330 uses these large headlights that swoop into the hood and fender. It is a statement. I can compare the rear end to many modern rear ends we see in the 2020 lineup. It does look good. As a Luxury sedan all these components are very important that matches well with the high end look.
Lexus did something right. In 2006 they designed a car that can withstand the test of time and still look a bit modern all while bringing back the driver to 2006 due to its updated tech.
Interior
Speaking of the interior, it is beautiful. The biggest staple has to be the glossy and elegant wood grain along the dash, doors, console, and the steering wheel. The materials on the door panel and the dash is all soft touch. Something we all should expect on anything remotely luxury, soft touch. Who wants to have hard plastic at their fingertips anyways?
The next biggest thing has to be the thud. The door thud I mean! With any car review video the thud has to be acknowledged. Not only does the thud give you an overall feeling of the car but allows the beholder to tell how high or low quality the car is. Well, it is a high quality car because it does had a deeper thud. Typically a higher ting thud is a cheaper economy car like a Honda. (Hondas are great, but those thuds..)
The seats are very comfortable, almost cloud like might it say? They are made of true soft leather covering some fluff of sorts that is different from many cars. Everything is placed ergonomically. It is just a nice place to be and same with the back seats.
One small thing throws me off but I do understand it has to be the hump in the floor board in the passengers seats. Sure. It was placed for costs, however, it would be nicer to have a flat floor board for the FWD models.
ISSUES
Let’s talk about the ISSUES!
Lets walk to the motor, well an imaginary walk.
The hood release is in the footwell of the driver on the left hand side. The hood release is a lever smack dab in the middle. Finally , lift up with minimal effort due to the hood struts. Which, by the way, is also expected from a luxury car.
The MAF sensor is the first issue that arises. The symptoms are typically poor performance, bad gas mileage and sporadic acceleration. You can easily fix this by cleaning the module or replacing it which I explain in the video linked below.
Expanding Airbag:
The passenger airbag does expand a bit due to hot temperatures beaming down. The vinyl then stretches and shrinks and its not very visually appealing. I have not heard of any issue because of this besides it just looking bad. If you wan to fix this, then you might be slightly SOL. You will need to replace the entire dash.
Warping Rotors:
The rotors can warp due to hard breaking, but that can happen to any car. Just more often with this car perhaps due to the typical demographic.
Final Thoughts
The Lexus ES330 is a very pretty looking car. Stereotypically it seems like it is more for the older folks, however, times are changing and people of all ages are realizing and appreciating idea of a luxury car as they become more and more affordable. These cars can and will last over 400k miles if you do proper maintenance, that is important.
This car is currently for sale as of writing this article in Austin, Texas. Check them out if you are interested! The specialize in 0% down financing.
Thank you Drive512AutoRanch
If you want to learn more, watch some semi satisfying shots of the Lexus ES330 and understand more about the issues, then check out this video: