Poppa

Well we just got back from a 9 day trip that took us from Louisiana up to Branson / over to St. Louis and then back to Louisiana.... all together a little over 1600 miles and I have to say I was pleased with the gas mileage... on the highway we got anywhere from 29.8 up to 31.1 Can't complain about that.. 12 hour drive home and other than just tired of sitting in one place, we were very comfortable... even with those Turanza tires on there, driving at highway speeds they ran pretty smooth..... now if we could just eliminate that damn "cool weather" dash board squeak ( which is not a problem this time of year ) this car would be perfect...... lovin my es so far.

Poppa

greg3852

Nice. Nothing like being comfortable. I just got back from a 2600 mile trip from Ma to Texas. I had to leave my LS 460 at home and drive a Chevy Cobalt. After mile #2 I was suicidal. No air, no cruise. Brutal.

Glad to see someone else hates their Turanzas. Mine are awful. But they are new, so I'm stuck.

Nice gas mileage there. What year ES?

waynedog

Poppa - could you explain the cold weather dashboard squeak? The reason I am asking is I have a 2007 LS that has that problem - lots of squeaks/rattling in the winter but gone in the summer. I am in the process of looking at 2014 ES350 as a replacement and I certainly do not want to have the same problem in a new ES!

Nelexus88

I noticed there are clear plastic strips sticking up between the end of the dash and the A-pillars on my new "14ES. I'm not sure if they are some temporary protection just used during assembly or if they are supposed to remain to prevent squeaks. I have that on my list to ask the dealer when I go in for the 5k maintenance check.

lesz

My memory of what happened a year ago when I bought my ES might not be perfect, but I have a recollection of finding the same clear plastic strips that you talk about, and, yes, they are just there for temporary protection during shipping and up to delivery of the vehicle. You should be able just to pull them out to remove them.

Poppa

Waynedog..... the squeak is coming from the left side of the dash, located just to the left of the "hump" over the speedometer... Funny thing is it does it in the summer too, but only after the temp has gone down to the low 70's... however the squeak during the warm months is much less prevalent than in the winter.... here's the thing, in the cooler temps, I can take my finger and "push" on the top of the dash and the dash will squeak... but when it warms up or has been sitting in the sun, the dash is very firm, and won't budge when I push with my finger,.. thus no squeak. It's actually a case of the dash itself getting firm in the warm weather....I've taken it back to the dealership once to try and fix it.. they put in some felt somewhere and it didn't help a thing... problem with taking it in now is it's much less likely to be "heard" since the dealership doesn't work on cars in the evening ( when the squeak might / could be heard ). I'll get it worked out one way or the other, might just have to wait til this fall..

Poppa

Hi Greg... my ES is a 2013.. bought it brand new about 6 months ago... as far as the tires, I had the same issue when I bought my Avalon new in 2007. It also had Turanza tires... I drove them til they were starting to wear, and then switched to Michelin's.... Much Much Much smoother ride, especially around town.... But I will admit on my recent trip where we were driving 70 to 75 mph, the turanza's rode pretty smooth.... but I'll go back to Michelin's when these wear down.

Poppa