That said, of these two cars, the Lincoln wins on exterior appearance and presence. It simply does a better job of looking like a luxury sedan from the outside, especially given that enormous grille. While it may not win any beauty contests, it certainly has a great deal more style and panache than the rather ho-hum appearance of the ES300h. Lexus knows its audience well and went with a much more conservative body, but made the blunder of attaching the new corporate spindle grille to it, trying to give it a sportier appearance, but only succeeding in further confusing the car as to its nature.
When it comes to performance, however, things skew in favor of the Lincoln ever so slightly. This is in large part due to the better steering, more engaging chassis, and generally more normal car feel of the MKZ, showing just how good the underpinnings are on this car. Once again, while not particularly bad, the Lexus simply lacks anything resembling engagement and, as a result, it is simply so sleep-inducing that you will believe that Ambien comes as part of the package. However, as good as the performance feel of the MKZ is, it is the Lexus that shows just what a luxury car should ride like with its pillowy suspension. In terms of gadgets, there is nearly parity in both vehicles, with available navigation, panoramic sunroof, and self-parking capability a part of each car's option list.
And ultimately, this is a key contributor to why I would never bother to consider either of these. Right now, there is still a pretty sizable price premium for the hybrid technology resulting in higher initial purchase prices that would require substantial amounts of driving to offset with fuel cost savings. As Americans drive less and the less, the costs take longer and longer to recoup. Combine that with EVs that are starting to become more affordable and conventional gas powered as well as diesel powered cars becoming increasingly efficient and miserly on their fuel consumption, it makes it even more difficult to make the case for getting a hybrid, much less a "luxury" hybrid. Additionally, for both cars, the conventional gas-powered counterparts offer great fuel economy to begin with and substantially more power.
This is not to say that I cannot appreciate a hybrid. The upcoming Porsche 918 is a hybrid that I would love to test drive. GM has indicated that it has not ruled out the possibility of a hybrid version of the Corvette. Even Ferrari has expressed interest in possibly building a hybrid. These cars will be focused on offering performance on par with or better than the current gas-only vehicles, but will utilize less fuel and may use the new technology to boost performance envelopes through by adding such functionality as torque vectoring. The technology from these hybrids could eventually trickle down to the rest of the lineup and would mean more engaging and fun to drive hybrids. Until then, the MKZ and ESh simply offer too many compromises and are simply not worth the extra expense.
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