twister

Chinny, with all due respect, did you just read what you posted? You are completely contradicting yourself. You come to this forum to get/read information about your car. Than, you are suggesting for others not to post information about their cars and their problems from which you can learn about your car? Makes no sense. How do you know that you will not develop the same problem and will be able to recognize it? Do you think we all here bought our cars and drove away with flares right off the dealership parking lot? Yes, negative posts are excessive, and its depressing for those who don't have the problem and have to live with anxiety that it could happen any day, but its a sad reality.

Since you have not been on this board for awhile, you might not know that a lot of the ES350 CL members with problems are not fortunate enough to have dealership that cooperates or even recognizes the problem while its a known factor there has been over 1,000 buyback and thousands of reported failed trannies. A lot of members had to videotape their flares, contant corporate Lexus numerous times, spend more times driving loaners than their ES350, etc. I even know examples of some members who bought their car from the same dealership as I did (where I had my buyback) and they were lied into a face that tranny problem is a fiction.

It has been brought up numerous times, people don't go on the forums to post about how happy they are. They are post about their problems, looking for a support from others that experience the same problem, and trying to find a solution to their problems. Other post are about modification, etc, which ES350 seems to be not a popular candidate for (look at GS and IS forums for that).

2007es350

Chinny, have you read through the posts? Don't you think if it was that simple, everybody would turn in their defective cars to get a new problem-free version? If it was that simple, people would stop complaining about their ongoing transmission problems.

Chinny's comment is a perfect example of why ES350 owners need to keep repeating their horror stories about bad dealerships and Lexus Corp when Lexus refuses to fix or even acknowledge specific ES350s that are defective.

wanderer99

I'm thinking that by posting defects we've (amongst other things):
- Discovered why we get wind noise in the A pillar - missing PDI plugs.
- Discovered why and how to fix the wind noise around the doorframe. (Club Lexus TSIB )
- Become aware of the first series of failed transmissions.
- Become aware of the second series of trans slipping issues.
- Discovered (through a poll) that the first TSIB on valve body replacement was a total failure. Lexus said it was OK though!... but then withdrew it.
- Discovered that the second TSIB for trans replacement doesn't solve much either. Again, this is Lexus's current fix.
- That individuals can pursue buybacks of their cars through Lexus, and how to go about that process
- Continue to hear how Lexus has 'fixed' the trans according to Lexus salespeople... yet even late model cars have trans issues.
- Become aware of the early model Nav problems (voice commands, etc) and its fix.
- I could go on and on and on....

So if posting about our problems and defects doesn't help us chinny, how is going back and getting another car going to help? OK, if I had a million dollars to burn I might do exactly that, but for most of us that isn't an option!

MD350

Well, actually, there have been many potential owners who have learned from the CL posts and inspected their ES prior to purchase. Some actually avoided buying a car with a bad tranny because of the education they received on this forum. They test drove it and noticed the flare. So, it may be depressing on some aspect. But, it is educational to others. If this forum avoided just 1 customer from taking delivery of an ES with a bad tranny, then it was well worth it! If you check the thread history, you will see where this has happened time and time again and the "THANK YOUs" are a-plenty.

garsarno

I prevented a friend from buying a ES350. His wife was all excited over the car. When I related my transmission woes and they heard the cold engine knock when I drove the car over to their house to hear (1.5 miles away), they decided to go with the BMW 530 AWD model from their 330 series.