Tail lamps trimmed in silver echo the design, stretching around the corners, as if reaching to meet the headlamps. Nine-spoke alloy wheels complement the styling. Chromed door handles are easy to grab and do not require awkwardly flipping your hand over as they do on other models such as the Infiniti I35 and Audi A6.

Lexus designed its ES sedan to be the safest car in its class. The passenger compartment is reinforced in critical areas and front and rear crush zones are designed crumple to absorb the impact of a crash.

You see and feel the quality. It can be felt in the solid sound the doors, trunk and hood when they're closed. But sometimes the quality is hidden: The underbody is smooth, nearly flat, contributing to exceptional aerodynamic efficiency (with a coefficient of drag of just 0.28), and the car is constructed using advanced composites and resin-steel sandwiches to further minimize the intrusion of noise.