Power6

Had to take the struts out yesterday, figured I would post a pic as some have wondered over the years why we don't have a fold down seat like the Camry does. If you haven't done your own struts you might not have seen this.



The difference between the Camry and ES is clear here, the "hole" is covered up with a corrugated plastic filler that has the armrest pass-through hole. Much of that is blocked by the large bolt in brace you see there that ties the corners near the strut towers to the floor pan. Then that is covered over by an insulation panel that is pulled up for this photo. Apparently the engineers felt the extra rigidity and sound control was more important than a fold down seat in this model.

It looks like one could definitely remove the brace and swap in a Camry seat if you wanted to...

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

That's very interesting and a good point about the Camry seat back. I wonder if the leather would match...although you could get it rewrapped, hmmm.

My car is in this exact stage at the moment, so I'm gonna take a look myself.

Why did you have to mess with your AVS struts?

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

IIRC it was for sound deadening...

They just assumed your average ES buyer wasn't about to stuff plywood/whatever in the back of their cars

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Do you think they could engineer a better way to insulate the cabin without sacrificing the fold down seats? Reason I say that is because BMW, a luxury car company, still offers fold down seats.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ their seats are paperthin and hardly 'quiet' when compared even to these 'dated' cars...

Not to mention, the ES still doesn't fold generations later since not enough people can care for it, so why bother?

Especially since the only people wanting it are on a forum driving the 3rd gen version of the lineup lol

Power6

The certainly *could* have made this car with a fold down seat. Of course everything is possible, but the engineers must work within the limits of cost, complexity etc. The car biz is intensely competitive, so figure every feature on any particular car was thought about quite a bit to make sure it won't stop a customer from buying the car.

They could have just gone with the fold down seat and let customers live with a little more noise, or made a new setup that blocked the sound as well and still folded down, maybe that would have raised the price a bit, or sacrificed some rear leg room..you see these things are all a compromise.

Think about it this way...if Lexus thought many buyers would head to the Acura/Cadillac/whatever shop if the ES didn't have a fold down rear seat it def would have one.

Power6

I was going to reserve that story for somewhere else, but one of the rear struts blew. I paid $Texas for two new ones from Sewell, swapped them in yesterday. I love the AVS suspension, not willing to give it up so I paid the price. Fronts are still going strong, hopefully they last for a while...

Put the summer tires on too, car drives so much more sporty with the summers steering feels hefty, more grip, feels great in sport mode.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Makes sense, I still would love my car to have them, but then again, I'm not someone who can buy a brand new ES.

Ouch on the new struts. That's what I paid for all four of them. If I was in your situation, I would have probably done the same. You're too far in to just go back.

static1646

That's because lexus wasn't thinking ahead to when their cars would become just another used car anyone can get for cheap. Not insulting the car btw. just stating how other non es300 owners and non carguys look at our cars

Norbecke

I have never noticed my ES does not have fold down seats lol. I have veteran needed to use this feature even when I had a car that did have this option. But as of now even if I did have it I have 2 car seats and a booster seat back there.

Chocolate

That kind of reinforcement would have been more useful on the front subframe.

Onelexus

I think even when you swap the lexus to the carmy seat so you have the folding option your still going to have that tiny hole in the back of your seats. I can of like it with just the arm rest folds down.

mugencivic

that's exactly what i was thinking.