Mix together a V-6 motor, an electronic 4-speed transmission, seating for five, 4-wheel ABS disc brakes, a fancy instrument panel, a moonroof, and rows and rows of cupholders and out comes Infiniti's I30 & J30, a Cadillac Catera, an Acura TL, a Mitsubishi Diamante, a BMW 328i, a Mazda Millenia, a Buick Park Lane and, oh yes, the Lexus ES 300. Any one of these will send you down the road in style while setting your wallet back around $30,000.

    Yet looking at these cars makes me wonder about the state of the automotive world as we near the turn of the automobile's first century. No longer must motorists pay enormous chunks of their salaries to have all the luxuries and comforts in their car. We can buy a Honda Civic, a Toyota Corolla, a Nissan Sentra, a Mazda Protege or a Ford Escort and find that standard equipment includes a heater (yes, they used to be optional!), a radio (those too), air, power windows and doors, power seats (on some of them), cruise control, a moonroof, radial tires, halogen lights, CD player, 4-speed automatic transmission, 4 wheel ABS disc brakes etc. etc. All those niceties come for about half the amount as the fine cars mentioned at the start of this article.

    So, why buy a larger, more expensive car? Well, you do get pride of ownership, more power, a better ride, more room inside, leather and wood, more safety, more quiet, and a few trinkets like an outside air temperature gauge, garage door opener, seat memory, built-in phone, etc.

    If you like a quiet serene environment, gobs of smooth seamless power, barely noticeable shifting, and a delightful sound system, all combined with unparalleled reliability statistics and the feeling that should anything need attention the nearest dealer will quickly take care of it while keeping you mobile, then the Lexus ES 300 is a car worth the difference.

    For the sporty minded, the engine is a powerful 200-horsepower, double overhead camshaft, 24-valve, all aluminum, modern V-6 which will propel the ES 300 to almost 140 miles per hour. Zero to sixty in a respectable 8.6 seconds. The Adaptive Variable Suspension has three optional settings, soft, medium and hard. I'd use the hard for your 140 mph blast. At all other times stay with medium. Soft is too soft and floppy. The steering set up for the Lexus ES 300 is not, in my opinion, sporty minded. It leaves you with a sort of "remote control" feeling, but is probably fine for most drivers.

    The instrumentation is masterful, to say the least. There's a cathode ray tube that projects exactly the right amount of light for absolute gauge clarity under all lighting conditions. You won’t have to squint to see if you've actually reached 140 mph.

    I particularly liked the "Command Center" on the steering wheel. It allows hands-off cell phone use, speed dialing, phone volume control, and automatic muting of radio and air conditioner when the phone is in use.

    Fuel consumption is rated by the EPA at 19 mpg (city) and 26 mpg (highway). Expect about 22 mpg overall.

    The ES 300 base price is $29,900 with a fairly short list of options: leather upholstery for $1,650, 6-CD auto changer for $1,050, adaptive variable suspension for $600 (don’t do it), traction control for $300 (don’t need it), moonroof for $1,000 and some fairly expensive wheel options. Not a bad price for this car. The dealer invoice for the car is available from various sources. Autosite in Compuserve will charge you $1.50 for a full-specification report on the car; Consumer Guide magazine's "Auto '97 Prices, Specs and Reports" includes it, and Consumer Reports' '"New Car Price" service for $12 per report also includes cost figures.

    The overall car warranty is four years or 50,000 miles, with a powertrain warranty of six years or 70,000 miles, and free service for one year or 12,500 miles. While the car is in the shop, most Lexus dealers present customers with a free loaner car.

    This car has had its share of accolades showered on it by the press, J.D. Powers, and Intellichoice. The entire Lexus car line was considered the best overall in sales satisfaction in 1996 and the best overall in vehicle dependability at five years of ownership by J.D. Powers. The ES 300 was named the best overall value of the year five years in a row by IntelliChoice. Lexus must be doing something right.

    Demand for the cars is staying ahead of supply. Would-be owners are waiting at least two weeks for their car to be delivered while dealers spend their time taking orders. Apparently, buyers have decided the ES 300, and the goodies it includes, is worth the wait. And the extra fifteen grand.

    Motoring since 1952, Austin Lynas has owned 54 cars and at one time raced mini-sedans in England. An aerospace engineer, he was instrumental in developing the anti-skid systems used in British military aircraft that preceded today’s ABS systems.