whirlygig

could I get opinions and advice on the 2014 ES 350. I wanted to see what the general opinion was for the vehicle overall. Drivetrain in particular. Is this known to be a good year? Any bugs.
Thanks for your feedback.

Kijug

Howdy! Welcome and congrats!

I bought a 2014 ES UL/ML new. I have the PCS/DCC option which had a recall on the PCS part (radar + software needed replacing to fix a very rare "bad detection" problem). Anyway, the car has been superb to date. I have 37K miles and have only had regular maintenance--every 5000 miles--at the Lexus dealer. As far as "drive train", no I'm not aware of any issues there, even since the 2013 model when this model was introduced. The "Eco", "Normal", and "Sport" settings all work as advertised, however, realize that "Sport" is more a virtual setting than actually changing ride height, stiffness, etc. It just affects the throttle response a little (ditto for "Eco" setting). Just keep in mind this is a "luxury sedan" not a "sport sedan" so you will not get the instant response and handling like you would for a sport sedan. I hear the former ES model was more boaty-floaty, a decision I think Lexus made to grab folks like me that want a slightly stiffer ride and not too boaty-floaty...but that's was I read as I've not driven any former ES model.

I had a 2003 Acura TL-S (last of the best TLs, IMHO, and I still see them on the road, very reliable vehicle, now my son drives it). So going from a "sport sedan" to a "luxury sedan" was a change, a decision I had to make, but I like Lexus quality, reliability, and I wanted FWD (among other features). Most every other car in this segment is RWD or AWD (especially sport sedans) and doesn't compete with reliability. So overall, two and half years in and not a single complaint. I've been very happy and enjoy the vehicle quite a bit. I plan to keep the car 10+ years until I retire...then we'll see what the market has and if self-driving cars have become a reality (i.e., common place).

Fillykonk

I own a 2014 ES with Luxury package, Navigation, Blind Spot Monitor and several other options. The car has been perfect - no problems, no repairs, no recalls. This is the lease I plan on buying out when it's up in May.

lesz

If you were to go through the posts on this board for the 4+ years since the Generation 6 ES became available, you would find only a very small number of posts in which people are complaining about issues with the car. While you would find some threads in which people expressed thoughts about wishing that Lexus had made some design decisions differently with regard to the climate control system, audio system, navigation system, etc., you will only find a very small number of posts in which people are talking about actual problems with the car, and, even in most of those threads, the number of people who posted to say that they had the same issue is usually very small. Considering that, in today's internet, forums like this are the first places that people go to complain or to talk about an issue and considering that this is a forum that gets a good amount of traffic, I think that the relative lack of complaints here says something very positive about how well built and how reliable the current generation ES has been.

I don't have a 2014 ES, but I owned a 2013 ES for 3 1/2 years, and, during that time, I had absolutely no issues with the car. Several weeks ago, I traded that 2013 ES and bought a 2017 ES. I think that the fact that, without hesitation, I bought a 2nd Generation 6 ES also says something about how well built the car is.

Nelexus88

I purchased a new '14 ES 350 nearly 3 years ago and had zero problems with it.
I have made a couple of cosmetic changes to suit my personal preferences. Swapped out the interior lamps for LEDs and blacked out the grille center bar to mimic the look of the newer models.