Milla...

^^Hey this is a Lexus forum what else would you expect. We can justify rattles and squeaks in our cars at any given moment but for some odd unexplained reason I can't for the life of me justify those same rattles and squeaks in a Acura TL

jhenty

Its great how many people here knock BMW and Benz and they dont even own the cars. Theres horror stories about every car brand, when people have bad luck everyone hears about it, when nothing goes wrong no one says anything.

My family drives BMWs and we never have any of these rattling problems and all of our cars have gone 65k+ without any issues out of the norm. Even our Range Rover which is a mostly BMW product (2003) is currently at 100k running strong and rattle free. Our 03 x5 4.4i is solid with 75k on it. I dont know why people think they are so unreliable. Mostly because consumer reports only recieves their surveys from people with complaints.

Drive BMWs yourself, the engineering is far beyond Lexus, the fit and finish is similar but IMO Lexus pulls ahead in this area over the last 5 years. You can't compare Lexus to BMW because they are targeted at completely different buyers driving styles. For my driving style BMWs are superior vehicles by a lot, but I drive toyotas and lexus for their reliability and value but I mod them to my taste. BMWs are higher maintenance simply because their purpose is different, but that does not make them unreliable by any means.

lkirchner

------------+2

mavericck

So far my Lexus's, Audi's, VW's, and Porsche's have all been squeak and rattle free.

siamiam

it seems like the 70s mercedes are hard to kill because there are plenty of very high mileged ones still on the road, not to mention all those 190e-300es etc still on the road too

sdbrandon

IMO, some Lexus owners feel a BMW or MB, or any other car is unreliable because they do not understand the surveys. You hear the same folks talking smack about other brands.

Lexus is the most reliable car compared to others. However, that does not mean every Lexus is reliable. It does say that on average Lexus is more reliable than the competition. How much more reliable? The difference is negligible. It really is. I have owned Lexus, Acura, Honda, Toyota, and BMW's over the years. All were fairly good cars. The Acura in my case stood out the most as having issues, but it was what I would call a reliable car.

When folks read a chart showing Lexus as #1 for reliability, they have no clue how close #2 really is, or #10 for that matter. People are not stupid. When they plunk down $80k on a car they can expect and most do get a trouble free car for many years. Occasionally a lemon comes through and the folks turn around and buy another of the same car because they know it is a fluke.

If you read the posts on this board about failing backup cameras, wind noise, rattles, transmission issues, starters, manifolds, uncomfortable ventilated seats, etc. the site is riddled with issues yet folks seems to gloss over all of these posts. I read several enthusiast car sites like CL and I find the amountsof issues found on CL mirrors other sites and car brands. So let's not lose perspective.

I love cars, but I also know it is not wise to cast stones at another brand as you may in fact be fortunate enough to own one some day.

LexFather

I've seen this building up for some time here on our forum, the beat up Lexus thread....So have it, once no rules are broken, say how Lexus is the devil.....

Seems Lexus success just really bothers some people and seeing all of us happy owners just pisses people off. So here, have your thread to beat us up.

I was going to reply to some of these ridiculous statements and off commentary but its actually quite funny seeing Lexus just reported being #1 in sales the 7th consecutive year, they just had their best month ever in Decemeber and they have another new concept and the IS-F coming.

Lexus motto never was and is "the passionate pursuit of perfection is complete".
They are pursing perfection

LexFather

And, lol, looking at who has posted in here, not surprised at all. We are only missing a few other Lexus death bell members to complete this thread.

KrazyLexus

This thread was going well.

I just know both our Acuras have been solid since we bought them with not a single rattle or problem.

The same thing can't be said for my Infiniti's or Camrys we had.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

I agree with some statements about its how you take care of the car, but...

My family has owned all sorts of luxury (and normal) cars, and by far, BMW's have far more things to go wrong, and therefore they do go wrong...

Look at cost of ownership on MB, BMW and a few others out there... I'm not saying our Lexus' are king of the hill, but I have been in everything from my first car, which was a 74 450SL to early 90's 7 series (some sites consider these the worst luxury cars EVER made), to 06 SL55's and such...

Every car is a direct representation of how well it was taken care of, but, and this is a huge but, when stuff breaks, and rattles start, which is probably fairly even across the board, the Lexus' are cheaper to fix, and therefore actually get fixed...

In terms of percentage of cars on the road, I'll do some research, see what I can find...

sdbrandon

Clearly those with both Lexus and other cars brands in the garage seem to have a more objective and realistic opinion.

Neo

iTrader: (3)

It has been awhile since my car was stock. I have a lot of suspension "upgrades". This means the car is not as the Lexus engineers had in mind. I did have interior rattles and squeaks, which was somewhat embarassing. I was a bit self-conscious with passengers since I have a Lexus, spent $$$ on upgrading things, and the car makes noise.

Through CL info and experimentation, many of these noises have been eliminated or reduced. Still, since I messed around with the car's ride, I have to live with the end results. No one can say with 100% certainty whether or not these noises would have come regardless of the suspension tweaks.

I will not speak of other cars, owned (past and present) or not. I can't say that Lexus has the most rattles and squeaks. I just know mine does. There are only a couple of very minor ones left so I am OK with it.

picus

I don't see how one thread talking about rattles in a Lexus is a Lexus bash fest. It's cars guys, don't take it so personally. My SC400 didn't have a rattle, squeak, buzz, hum, or whistle to speak of, it was like a tank. That said, so was my G35 (which a lot of people had rattle issues with), in the end a lot of the evidence is just anecdotal. Lexus build quality on *some* models *right now* seems to have gone down a bit, a few more wear issues here and there. I don't find this to be a huge issue because if Toyota/Lexus has shown us anything it's that they learn from mistakes.

sdbrandon

One things folks have not mentioned. Tires and wheels have gotten bigger and bigger over the years. Low profile tires are more rough. Stiffer suspension coupled with stiff sidewalls will yield more rattles, body flexing, etc.

I would expect a car like a GS or IS to develop significant rattles over time compared to an ES or LS because of the sport packages.

Neo

iTrader: (3)

LOL. In addition to the suspension, larger wheels here too so I can attest to your statement.