"I seem to have 2 problems:

1) On rapid acceleration, especially from a slow speed, the trans delays a second before kicking in causing the car to die and then lurch forward

2) when slowing down below aprox. 20 mph and then when I apply the gas (slow or fast it doesn't matter) the trans will delay before engaging. I don't have a problem from a complete stop or above 20 mph.

I have also noticed lately when taking my foot off the gas at highway speed the trans does not appear to coast. It feels like the trans is slowing the car down.

I can cause the trans to shudder by shifting from drive to neutral and back to drive. It shudders under approx. 30 mph when going back into drive.

It appears these problem arises when the car has to downshift. "

"The 5 speed transmission on my new '03 (900miles) seems a little strange. If I drive about 35mph and then slow down to about 5mph and than try to accelerate there is a hesitation. It's as if the transmission can not decide on what gear to go into. When it finally does there's a slight lurch forward. Can this be adjusted? I asked my dealer if the '03 model had this problem corrected and he said it was. I guess he was wrong! "

"It's been a couple of months since I received my knew car and I wanted to post some things. To review, I bought an '02 ES 300. Everything about the car was great except the transmission (although the Toyo tires did get quite noisy after 10K miles). The transmission issue I considered to be flat dangerous after having several incidents of power failure with the transmission that put me in danger. Basically the problem was you'd hit the gas, the RPM's would fly up and the car wouldn't go anywhere. The transmission improved by disconnecting the battery which seemed to reset it, and then last October I received a software upgrade which improved things some more, but I was still disappointed because it would still fail at times. Lexus was quite arrogant to deal with right down to my Lemon Law hearing. They wouldn't consider settling and even ignored the states requests for information on the matter. The state rep said that was unusual because most manufacturers try to work with the state and the customer. The judge drove the car with me in the passenger seat and the Lexus Rep in the back seat. He was able to get the transmission to fail twice and then asked the Lexus Rep if he would like to settle or hear his decision. The Lexus Rep agreed to settle. I received a brand new '03 for $2100, a good deal considering this car drops in value about 20% the first year, if you include the sales tax in the original price tag. The Lexus Rep later acknowledged that 12% of purchasers are unhappy with the transmission and that makes me think it's probablly much higher since many people just shut up and accept the problem. "

"..Personally, speaking there's a lot of difference from the '02 to the '03. The '02 acted up mostly when I needed power suddenly and occasionally jerked and slipped in stop and go traffic. Also, the '02 would hang in gear and after a heavy acceleration it would downshift. The '03 slips and surges like crazy in stop and go traffic..... say 5 to 20 mph. Sometimes the shifting clangs so hard my whole car shutters. That's much different than the '02. However, the '03 downshifts annoyingly just like the '02. I should have asked for my money back, but I wasn't trying to be difficult just wanted a good car. I talked to a guy in another state today. He's meeting with Lexus tomorrow and fully expects a load of BS from them. Listening to his problems, they are somewhat different than mine. He says his 87 year old grandmother complained about the car's jerky shifting. Of course, she didn't know anything about a tranny problem. A friend of mine has an '03 and hasn't had any problem with it. I have driven two loaners. One had the problem, not as bad as my '02, and one I didn't notice it. The out of state guy had a similar experience. As to numbers..... the Lexus Rep at my February hearing admitted one in twelve aren't happy with the transmission. If you do the arithmetic that calculates to over 6000 dissatisfied owners with sales of 80,000 by February. I would say it's a lot more than that. My dad asked a lady if she was happy with her '02. She said she was quite happy with it. My dad mentioned the tranny problems and she said "Oh yeah it does that all the time, is it not supposed to?" "