chidacar

I bought my Lexus ES350 March 10th from a Northern Virginia Dealer. This is after careful (!) research between BMW 328xi and Benz C350! Lexus seems top of the line for the price and comfort. We drove the Black/Cashmere ES 350 with Navigation the same evening after 4 hours with 32 miles on it!

The next day (within 24 hours) we drove it on the highway with whole family (wife, and two boys who were excited on the voice of Navigator!) and merged from I-66 East to 495 North (Left Merge. If you live in DC area and everyone knows this is one of the suicidal spots in DC area), the car just broke!!!!!!!!!!! The car stopped in the middle of the highway with the engine on but just revving but not moving!!! Very scary….. Trucks whizzed by and I could roll it to the left shoulder and the family was scared like hell (Still they are!). In the shoulder, as soon as I put gas on the pedal transmission slipped and never moved, but just revs as if the car is on park.

Managed to tow the car to the dealer and got the loaner. (Long story short)

The dealer did not come back for the 48 hours about the status of the car and the alternative. They know it is a transmission problem but do not know how to deal with the issue! The next day they offered me a replacement ES350 with the same color due to arrive in two weeks. I met the manager and asking for what Lexus is saying about this, he mentioned Lexus would stick to their warranty and will repair my broken car and at his discretion he decided to give a replacement car. While I value his offering I still want to get the Lexus stand on this. No one could believe the Lexus broke in 50 miles.

When I called Lexus Customer Appreciation and explain the story the Rep gasped when heard my story. Nobody ever heard of it a Lexus broken in less than 50 miles!! But at the end of the conversation she was trying to end the conversation by saying that Lexus will send me an apology letter! I made sure this has to be escalated and I need to know where Lexus is standing on the ES350 transmission issue!! I got a call from the East Coast Customer Service Manager and she did not know how to handle me. I kept on saying ‘I don’t know what to ask, but I lost confidence in ES350’. She did not accept other than apologize. There is some serious problem in that transmission. She said that, I have to come up with an answer what compensation I am looking for and hung up the phone!

I decided to ask for a different model of Lexus with the same price, or I do not want any Lexus car!!! I can not run rest of my life in a car which is not thoroughly tested, not backed by the manufacturer and risking my family’s life on it. Lexus refused and their offer was 10,000 miles free service! The price of 4 people live is $39.95!!! It was such a humiliating offer. They did not offer any extended warranty or never even ready to comfort my feelings. Basically they sold me a Lemon and not accepting it. One favor they did was they released me from that car, not forcing me to buy that. (Lemon laws are written in favor of the manufacturers in most of the states including VA!)

It is certain that 2007 ES350 has severe transmission issues which Lexus knows (there are couple of posting in the internet but not as bad as this) and I AM ALIVE to tell this. If anything would have happened on that highway Lexus would have said a stupid driver died with his family in an accident and put everything under the rugs! After three weeks I saw the car on the bed still waiting for parts to arrive from Japan. They never tried to increase my confidence level on ES 350 or Lexus brand.If you want to try your luck go ahead.

My e-mail id is (chidacargmail.com) and feel free to contact me about the experience!!

osokuko

Glad to hear you and your family are ok – the experience you post is horrifying and I have never heard anything like this about the transmission. My first ES July build had the flare but I never felt it would leave me stranded in the middle of the highway. All though the 2nd ES 01/07 “replacement car” transmission is not like my first one. Besides showing a flare the next morning after we pick it up, there is something else going on with this version of the trans as I noticed some real weirdness between 5th & 6th gear like it’s binding between shifts not smooth when I was accelerating some what hard on the freeway. I have no confidants in this transmission, I traded the car in with 472 miles.
Keep us up to date with the progress on this trans.

wanderer99

chidacar - wow. I'm glad you and your family are OK. You'd be on a real high having just purchased your new vehicle, out for your first real enjoyable ride and this happens. Just... wow.

Lexus sticking to their warranty and offering to repair the car is the 'standard' response to any breakdown situation. Where it goes from there depends on the customer service you receive. Sounds like the dealer acknowledges there is a major problem here and is willing to give you your money back or another ES350. You have at least that on your side.

The very early (first months) cars had some problems where the trans would just 'lose' gear clusters. The trans would bounce around between gears at random, sometimes dropping to a really low gear like first when at speed. These first cars suffered trans death and the problem was promptly fixed by Toyota.

Since then we've got the trans slipping - enough said.

But no one has posted - from what I know - of the trans just 'disappearing' or not engaging. Did you trans behave weirdly or something and then disengage? Jerking? Anything?

Again - glad you're OK, and welcome to Club Lexus.

osokuko

Wander – This last transmission when I was driving it never seem to shift very smooth like my 07/06. I could feel most of the shifts, It was starting to remind me of the stories I read on the early trans “A” way back when. I was even thinking maybe they pulled all the pervious fixes out and was starting over again with the original set up. Usually the flares would show up at 800 – 1200 miles but this one started the next day. From reading the new posts here many have reported flares showing up in very low miles 100-200 miles. One of the reasons why I felt it was time to go.

BMT22033

I bought mine from Pohanka in Chantilly last November (it's a 10/07 build with 1250 miles on it). I'm curious which dealer you bought yours from? I get "small flares" (~200 - 500 RPM) on a fairly regular basis and I've had the car in twice now for them to look at it. Both times, not surprisingly, they were unable to duplicate the problem. Other than a problem that apparently existed during the first few months of production, they claim to know of no other existing problems with the ES350 transmission.

You and your family really *ARE* lucky to be alive! I'm sorry to hear about your car but I'm glad you were able to walk away from it.

ES350Bob

chid,

The detached approach of Lexus corporate is not unusual. I also had a dealer do for me what was offered to you because they felt bad at what I had experienced with my first ES350 and for the way I had been treated by Lexus about it.

These transmissions have and have had from day one several issues I have decided because for months we have had members reporting cold and hot slipping, multiple gear slipping and one dealer told me just under 2 months ago that transmissions that fail completely are those focused on for replacement, so they know and have known they will also completely fail as your's did.

BMT...,

Maybe copying the TSIB issued in January for them which is displayed in our sticky of TSIB will help, though once the blatant lies start it is usually down hill from there.

These lies will catch up with Lexus and are as damaging as having a model with a reputation for defective transmission.

twister

The very early (March/April '06 builds) tranny problems where related to a reversed o-ring (faulty assembly). Those tranny literally died in the middle of the road... But, we are talking here about early '07 build. Unbelievable!!! Thank God you and your family are OK!!!

909dude

chid

I recommend filing a complaint with NHTSA. This is definitely a safety issue that could have had disastrous results. Lexus needs to be held accountable for their unbridled pursuit of being the number one car manufacturer. Obviously Lexus has lost its moral compass and they don't give a d*mn about their customers. Take your money and run to another car builder.

dunnojack

it seems like an infrequent problem,

but you should report this incident to all the relevant organizations........ e.g NHTSA, and any other gov organizations. Get the ball rolling.

onsknht

I guess this is all the more reason for anyone thinking of buying an ES or Camry V6 demand a "90 Day No Slip/No Fault Transmission Buyback Clause" be added to any contract being negotiated.

If they won't do it, do not buy it!

Get the message across, the problem will get resolved.