Lexusfreak

I honestly don't think you can please these guys!

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=2463

ES350Bob

Lexusfreak,

If they gave him a car even slightly like mine, and it seems they did for some odd reason, it is no wonder he carried on about noise, especially the wind howl comment. I have said of mine you never do not hear the engine and the wind noise is awful and then he reports what he did about both it seems, certainly wind noise. The following quote and then some could be said about my car, but I also know other reviewers were given quieter cars, so why they gave him one noisy to test drive is beyond me.

"Pickup truck levels of road growl and wind howl not only hammer at one’s soul at highway speeds,"

Nextourer

First of all, what centre console is symmetric? Or rather, what Toyota interior is symmetric? All the Toyotas we've had had the centre console slightly biased towards the left side of the car. IOW, it's right aligned to the passenger seat to give a bit more room for the driver.

Secondly, I don't know what they're trying to prove - that the ES isn't helping the Lexus brand or that they can stuff as many metaphors into one article.

This is a grammatical error: "It doesn’t dishonor to the Lexus badge..." Shouldn't there be a "do" before dishonor? That or drop the "to".

Lastly, I usually don't bother reading their articles. I stopped the moment they wrote the Prius article hahaha.

Kaius88

The reviewer is such a poet. I dont understand half of what he's talking about. He must be from the Acura camp.

Frozen

'guys got an agenda.....I sat and TRIED to have the console open by moving my resting right arm around and couldn't.

ES350Bob

I have seen member posts on here where this happens but I think they pertained to resting their elbow momentarily and it opened on them.

Lexucan

I think maybe you have to be a Lexus/Toyota hater to get a membership to TTAC.
I was just reading their latest editorial: The Ten Worst Automobiles Today.
They are inviting members to nominate their choices for this dubious honor and will announce the "winners" at a later date. Two of the most often mentioned autos so far (and this is only the first day) are the Toyota Prius and Toyota Camry. Who in their right mind would nominate either of these out of all the other more qualified pieces of crap on the road today.

PsychDoc

Hate to say it, but the guy made some good and telling points.

The car is fast.

It's engine is loud...and not in a pleasant way.

The transmission is slow as molassas (you would have thought they learned from the tranny problems/hesitation of the ES 300/330)

It rides quite nicely.

It's a reasonably sharp looking car from the outside.

It's interior is "nice" but could/should be a lot nicer...needs more wood!!!

Visibility is certainly compromised from previous iterations of this car.

Gas mileage is positively awesome in a car this powerful.

The front seats are not particularly comfortable and provide little lateral support.


All in all an informative and highly well written review.

I sincerely hope the big boys at Lexus read it.

Sajeev M

Thank you all for reading my review...even if you totally disagree with me and think I'm a jerk. A jerk with an "agenda", I mean.

Yeah, the ES is a decent car overall, good chassis, suspension, and fast when you get the tranny and VVT going. But I was very disappointed with the noise, go faster than 65mph and wind/road noise gets well...un Lexus like.

No, I meant the way the woodgrain isn't symmetrical on the console. It looks wierd, but not in a good way like the rest of the interior.

Celibon

Well I don't know what to say... my ES350 is totally quiet and has absolutely no enigne and wind noise anymore than other cars. In fact it's quieter than all other cars I've been in. So your review is actually based on a car with noise problem instead of a perfectly good one like mine. I have no idea though why they gave you a car with noise problems for review. Lexus needs to get this noise problem fixed but I don't think you can say ES350 is loud. It's a problem of some of the ES350's but not a nature of all ES350's.

Same to PsychDoc -- this is definitly a quiet car. If you're hearing more noise than you should then you should bring it in for a check. Maybe you'll marvel at the quietness once they fix whatever's making the noise.

ES350Bob

Celibon,

When one does take it in to service for things like excessive wind noise, one is told it is normal and represents the ES350.

It does not matter if you point out owners like you who claim theirs is quiet on here or the demonstrator you drove was quiet, there is no comment when you do it, there is NO repair offered. Seems only a few dealers actually admit it is a problem, the rest of us have to deal with it by other means and/or live with it.

The same with the engine, even an engine with a prior diagnosed valve problem like mine, you are told it is normal and represents the ES350 though prior diagnosed as a valve problem by a dealer svc. dept. and 2 independent opinions same findings, Lexus corporate comes in and denies it all and denies repairs.

And the transmission as well, told it's learning not slipping and this is happening to quite a few on here who have posted about it, even many who have already had the supposed transmission fix of the TSIB have their transmissions still slipping afterward.

Given all of the above, it is no surprise to me his review represents what his experiences were with an ES350 though I agree with you about him being given one of the noisy cars but then again from your poll only 1/3 of members responding got a car like you did and 2/3 of us got cars they feel have an issue or two or three issues..

Im glad you got a quiet one is all I can say, both engine and wind noise it seems are quiet on yours, you missed these experiences.

wanderer99

I liked your review. I thought it was pretty honest. If you had the Michelin tires driving on coarse highway I can see how that would be r-e-a-l-l-y noisy. And if you had the wind noise issue, then that would present itself nicely at 60mph+ as well. I think the ES should be doing much better in these areas.

Nextourer

Ohhh ok. That I'm not sure. I'll have to do a double take.

I do wish there was more wood. The 97-01 was a good example and the wood had a nice grain finish.

Sajeev M

Thank you. I think my tester had Michelins (can't remember offhand) which is surprising because they are usually the highest quality tire out there. I can see that being fixed easy enough fresh rubber...

But the wind noise seemed to be coming from both the sideview mirrors and from the top of the windshield. Has anyone found recourse on the wind noise from the dealer?

My aunt has a 1990 LS400 and when I took it in for service a few years back, they treated me like royalty. I am very disappointed to hear they've given the usual "Big Three" answer (its normal) that ES350Bob got. Everyone pays a premium for Lexus' dealership experience (at least from my time there) and I thought it was a great value. They better get their act together pronto.

Lexucan

Mr. Mehta at TTAC can't seem to resist taking another kick at Lexus, even in the editorial he wrote yesterday about the Lincoln MKX

Quote:

Just in case you missed the history lesson, Lincoln’s placed a gigantic star front and center. It reminds all and sundry that this luxo-crossover isn't a wannabe Lexus– it’s a rebadged Ford.