Lexus ES 300h F Sport 2022 UK review

Lexus has updated the 5 Series rival, with suspension changes promising better comfort and dynamics It’s Lexus’s mid-size saloon to take on the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series, only this time with a lightly fettled mid-life refresh.There are design tweaks to the front and rear (to call them mild would be overdoing it) but the ES was a handsome, sharp-looking thing to begin with so there wasn’t much need to mess around with it. This, BMW, is how you do an aggressive grille.Three-eye LED headlights have been added, to give a wider light throw, and inside there’s a new 12.3in touchscreen that also mercifully retains some physical buttons and yet equally persists with Lexus’s infernal trackpad. We like you being different, Lexus, but there are limits.There’s also an updated driver assist package, stretching to the usual lane keeping assistance et al and with allegedly smoother steering corrections, plus an interior focus on ‘closer panel spacing’. Given that Lexus fit and finish was fag-paper tight anyway, that’s an impressive statement.Chassis alterations run to efforts to improve the dynamics and comfort, with more rigid rear suspension braces and a new actuator on the adaptive variable suspension, both designed to offer a more linear feel to the steering and suspension. Although, as you’ll see shortly, it hasn’t worked.