In an ideal world, climate controls would be standardized with one dial for fan speed, one for temperature, and one for mode. Original? No. Functional and logical? You bet. However, like countless new cars, the 2007 Lexus ES 350 does it a bit differently.

There are clearly marked buttons for adjusting the dual zone's temperature settings up or down, and there are obvious buttons for automatic climate control, recirculation, and off (you'd be surprised how often this one gets skipped or overdesigned). Adjusting the fan speed, a seemingly simple and common task, requires a bit more effort on models equipped with the navigation system, as was our tester. In this case, one has to tap the Climate button next to the center display to enter bring climate control settings up onto the touch screen, after which they can adjust the fan speed. It need not be that complicated.