Lexus ES 300h 2020 review: F Sport snapshot

In Australia the Lexus ES is sold in one 300h grade across three trim levels, and the car you're looking at here is the mid-grade F-Sport.

The F-Sport starts from $69,755 and features sporty exterior styling, plus some significant specification upgrades over the base Luxury.

It maintains the base car’s 2.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol hybrid drivetrain, which produces a combined power output of 160kW/221Nm. All ES variants are front-wheel drive via a CVT automatic transmission.

Thanks to its Prius-style battery-assisted hybrid system, the F-Sport has a claimed/combined fuel-consumption figure of 4.8L/100km. We scored 7.1L/100km on our standard combined-usage weekly test.

Standard features on every ES include a 12.3-inch multimedia screen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support (finally), A wireless phone-charging bay, built-in sat-nav, a head-up display, and dual-zone climate control.

The F-Sport unique touches include the sportier exterior styling kit, F-Sport 19-inch alloy wheels, an F-Sport variable suspension system, an 8.0-inch digital dashboard, a “panoramic view monitor” (a wide angle camera that lets you see around the front 180-degrees of the car), LED headlights with adaptive high-beams, F-Sport leather-trimmed seats, dual-zone climate control, and a power folding sunshade on the rear window.

Standard features on every ES include a 12.3-inch multimedia screen.

The ES scores a slew of storage areas in the front doors, and throughout the centre console, including a console box (with a trick hinge allowing it to be opened two ways), three large cupholders, a storage trench, and a decently sized glovebox.

On the safety front, the ES has a comprehensive suite of active items, including auto emergency braking (AEB – with pedestrian detection, plus it also works in reverse), blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, adaptive high beams, traffic-sign recognition, and adaptive cruise control.

The F-Sport features LED headlights with adaptive high-beams.

The ES 300h F-Sport also gains an ‘adaptive variable suspension’ package, which works with its expanded list of drive modes (which include Eco, Normal, Ssport S, and Sport S+). The modes also influence the behaviour of the CVT transmission, which has six stepped ratios. It can also be controlled via paddle shifters on the steering wheel.

The F-Sport has leather-trimmed seats.

All Lexus models carry a four-year/100,000km warranty, which is (sadly) still longer than most luxury automakers. All ES variants require servicing once every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.

Lexus is one of very few brands that still doesn’t offer a transparent capped-price-servicing program, but it does estimate the ES will cost between $1792.47 and $1897.85 over the four-year warranty period. Lexus is also renowned for not only its Toyota-derived reliability, but its customer service, offering a free loan car while your car is being serviced, and even picking up and dropping the car off for you in some instances.