twister

^ Sorry, but majority of my posts (out of almost 1200 in a year) are just complaining about ES350 I joined this forum sometimes in June of last year while waiting for my ES350 to arrive in July. Spend first month praising the car when I got it, than talking about possible modifications (when I got it tinted), than talking about my first tranny flares, replacement of my tranny, 2nd tranny flares, and my buyback (being one of the first ES350 tranny-flare buybacks in this forum). So, I started on a high note, than everything went downhill from there. Afterwards, most of my postings were talking about tranny flares and helping others with their buybacks. The only positive mark left in this forum is my "sticky" post at the top where I kept track of all ES350 TSIBs. Very sad, I might say, considering that all of my posts in 3GS forum are about car modding rather than problems.

Whatever formidable knowledge I have regarding cars is from this forum/community as well. I never cared as much about my cars and always looked at them as subject of transportation up until I bought my first Lexus last year. Even so this initial experience with ES350 was not the pleasant one, diligence of my dealership in taking care of my problem and helping me with a buyback kept me as a loyal Lexus customer. I have no complains and only high praises for my GS350 AWD, and found it to be the right car for me in terms of performance, luxury, and East-Coast-AWD necessity

josephlee

lets just say....its very different between the IS and ES steering response.
I drive the IS on a daily basis and the ES during the weekends. Sometimes I do forget how the steering feel for the ES is and have a hard time driving it. It is very loose compared to the more sporty IS.

but im pretty happy with my ES...since theres no engine flare, no engine knocking sound...just a couple of dash rattling sound that I've had it fixed. Overall, my toyota and lexus have been problem free

toneman

Not to doubt your observations regarding the handling of your ES, but one question that does need to be asked--what kind of tires are on your vehicle? ES 350s can come equipped w/ either the all-seasons or the "summer" tires; the summer tires give you slightly-better grip than the all-seasons, at the expense of increased tire wear. I know from personal experience that the summer tires do make the ES a slightly-better handling car--I had an opportunity to drive a loaner ES that came w/ the summer tires, and after pushing it fairly hard through a local cloverleaf interchange in my area that's posted at 25 mph, I could definitely notice a difference in handling between the loaner and my own ES (equipped w/ the all-seasons).

FWIW--IMHO I don't think the ES 350 has "massive" body lean or generally poor handling. Given its suspension setup, it is a pretty decent-handling vehicle with a nice plush ride (note--ride and handling are not one and the same, so please don't confuse the two), and it could very well be one of the top-handling vehicles in its particular class segment--if you remove BMW from the picture--LOL!!!...but based on my personal experiences, my 2002 Acura TL-S handled slightly better than my ES. Sure, the ride was a bit rougher (to be expected--after all, the TL-S is supposed to be slightly "sportier" than any Lexus ES series vehicle up to this point) but it definitely felt more planted to the road compared to the ES when I pushed it through the twisties (and by "twisties" I'm not talking about them wide sweeping turns that most cars can take at 80 mph w/o any problem).

carbuff

Toneman, I thank you for your comments. I agree that the kind of tires one has mounted make a real difference in handling. Nevertheless my Bridgestone EL400 All Season tires do hold the road well.

The Bridgestone web page says, "The Turanza EL400 are Bridgestone's Standard Touring All-Season tires developed to meet the Original Equipment and replacement tire needs of drivers for their sporty coupes, sedans and vans. Turanza EL400 tires are designed to provide a luxury appearance, long wear and responsive handling along with dry, wet and year-round traction, even in light snow."

Even at my early first weeks driving the ES350, these Bridgestones "feel" every bit as good to me as were the Michelins on my 2005 Acura RL and Goodyears on my 2006M45.

toneman

I won't dispute that the all-seasons do well (for the primary purpose they serve--by no means are they gonna enable you to pull near-1 lateral Gs); however, I can say--somewhat subjectively--that I was able to feel the limits of the all-seasons, as I could feel my car starting to reach the point where the tires were wanting to break traction...whereas, I was able to push the loaner ES (w/ the summer tires) a bit more. I don't consider myself an overly-skilled sport driver by any means, but I feel I can push the limits of cars that I drive more than the average person can do so. Heck--I've pushed some of my cars really hard through fairly tight curves, to the point that I've either made the oil light flicker on (and no, the car wasn't low on oil), and/or smelled burnt oil for a brief moment right after coming out of the turn.