The Camry, restyled and re-engineered for 2007, is Toyota's bread-and-butter mid-size sedan and it not only shares a platform with the Lexus ES 350, but also the Toyota Avalon.
The Camry is the solid family car, while the ES is a sedan for buyers who want a little bit of luxury, a quieter ride and bullet-proof quality and customer handling.
Toyota Camry
The Camry sells because it is — and is perceived to be — a comfortable, economical and trouble-free sedan. When it arrived as a 2007 model, this marked the sixth time Toyota had reinvented the car in two-plus decades. By Camry standards, the styling is bold and the cabin is huge.
For power, the V-6 is rated at 268 hp and the more popular four-cylinder comes in at 158 hp. About 70 per cent of all Camry buyers go with the four. There is also a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Camry, for those who want the best possible fuel efficiency and are willing to pay the price for it.
Lexus ES 350
The list of credible entries in the entry luxury segment is long and includes the BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Chrysler 300, Infiniti G35, Acura TL, Cadillac CTS, Lincoln Zephyr, Audi A4, Hyundai Azera and now Genesis, Saab 9-5 and Volvo's S40 — just to name a few.
Lexus competes with the Camry-based ES 350 and the IS 250/350. The ES is the more sedan luxury touring car; the IS lineup is racier, tighter and more aggressive in every way.
The ES may be based on the mechanical bones of the Camry, but Lexus clearly has done enough differentiating to ensure its ES sedan is authentically luxurious. It is the brand's best-selling car, after all.
The ES, also redesigned as an '07 model, has lots of creature comforts, a 272-hp, V-6 engine, and a design that makes a visual impression thanks to a long hood, short rear deck and more dramatic cuts and creases in the sheet metal.
And there is nothing Toyota-esque about the cabin, either. It has comfortable seats, quality leather trim on the steering and shift knob, and soft-touch surfaces throughout — not including the authentic brown-walnut wood trim and a plastic bezel surrounding the cup holder and centre stack.
The ES 350, then, is a very comfortable and very well-equipped executive sedan, one loaded with luxury features and one that comes with an excellent quality history and high resale values.
That's how Toyota separates the ES 350 from the Camry.
