It’s been a long time coming, but tomorrow begins my search for a suitable car for my girlfriend, Karissa. Having driven a 1993 Toyota 4runner for the last five years, she’s looking for an upgrade in comfort, gas mileage and safety. Of course, it’s going to be a Lexus.

Now, there was talk of buying another brand, perhaps an Acura or a BMW, but nothing all that serious. It’s certainly no secret which car company I was pushing. In the end, it was a process of elimination:

• No large sedans
• No V8s
• Nothing new/nearly-new (which she refuses to buy due to depreciation)

This left us with the RX, the IS, and the ES. In our test drives at the local dealer, the RX was too big and the IS too small, leaving us with a single choice. Only problem, Karissa doesn’t like the ES 330 and its super-Camry look, meaning we’re going a few years back, to the 1997-2001 ES 300.

I’ve arranged for us to test-drive eight ES 300s tomorrow, all in Toronto. Armed with days of research, a list of common problems and an eye for blue smoke from the exhausts, I’m looking forward to it.