By: Greg Anderson Greg Anderson | Photography by - Automobile Magazine
in fact, if not for the introduction of the sporty new IS300, car sales would have dropped more than 10 percent in the midst of the best automotive sales year since the invention of the rubber tire. As the volume leader for Lexus cars, the ES300 is key to the brand's success. Just as the Camry pays the bills for Toyota (it's America's perennially popular family car, with more than 400,000 annual sales), the ES300 keeps the lights on at Lexus dealerships (except maybe in California). Lexus hopes to import 50,000 ES300s this year, up about 20 percent from a year ago. Although it shares much of its architecture with the Camry (look for our first drive of the new Camry next month), there's value in the ES300's extra cost. Unlike the last model's conservative sheetmetal, the 2002 ES300 is no one's cure for insomnia. Rounded C-pillars hint at the company's sporty GS-series sedan, and with another two and a half inches of height, the ES300 gives passengers an extra inch of headroom. Source: www.automobilemag.com
