Not all ES350 models have the flare, but if you DO get a car that has it and all dealer transmission replacements, modifications and re-flashes don't fix it you're basically stuck. Search the ES350 forum for "buybacks" and you'll see in the early days Lexus Corp would buy the cars back, but those days are long gone now.

Here's what I'd do:
1) Find a good Lexus dealer. Bottom line - Lexus dealers are NOT all created equal. I'd find an Elite of Lexus dealer in your area and visit them and lay it all out and tell them about your experience. Tell them you want out of the car and want to upgrade to a different model. See what they can do for you. If they say "what can we do to make this right" then you'll know you're on the right path.

2) If # 1 fails find a lawyer. Have them trawl through your paperwork to date, look at all the history in the ES350 forum about buybacks and warranty extensions, etc, then have the lawyer file papers on Lexus. Pursue the Lemon Law or similar depending on what your lawyer says.

3) If the above aren't options I'd bail from the car. Sell it now for what you can get and put this behind you. It seems from the description you've given that you've exhausted all dealer repair options at this point.

I have an 05 LS430 now which is infinitely better in every way than the 07 ES350 lemon POS that I had before. Night and day difference in the trans operation and the LS cost waaaaaaaay less than the ES350 did.

 

You should try another Lexus dealership first, if that doesn't work out, then go on with the arbitration.

 

Wow, now that I know what "flare" means, I have to say, in over 40 years of working on hundreds of vehicles, including transmissions, I have never, ever, experienced this condition. I dont drive my '08 IS350 enough to know if it has this condition, but will be driving it again soon.
I have to think that a good attorney could argue that your life and your family's lives are at danger, if you have to press on the gas at some life threatening moment, and the car does not respond and "flares" instead.
I have never heard of such a condition in an automatic transmission until I ran across these posts yesterday. It sounds to me like it definitely is a mechanical problem, and I am amazed that Lexus cant fix it. There are alot of parts in there, but its just fluid dynamics. Is this just a bad April Fools joke ?
If no other manufacturer out there has this issue, and I dont know of anyone myself, then I believe that Lexus is on the hot seat to get it fixed and out of their system.
For example, awhile back BMW determined that the rod bearings and crank bearings on their M3 engines were defective, and they recalled all of them, repeat, all of them, to get these parts replaced at their expense. Can you imagine how much it cost them to pull these engines out and do this work and put them all back in? Even earlier still in the 90's they had V8 engine blocks manufactured with a coating that didnt hold up, and they recalled all those 540's, and changed the engine blocks out. Some of these didnt exhibit the problems the majority did, but BMW still fixed all they could and didnt say, well, too bad for you.
If a precedent needs to be used as part of the argument, I believe the other manufacturers, including Dodge with those automatics that still had sand in them from the casting process, and others will be able to make Lexus look like they are definitely not following the very words of their business plan and advertisement language..
Geez, I didnt need to find this out now... DanF

 

How many miles are on the ES, my fathers ES350 has almost 30k and the transmission is fine, I thought the trans issue was fixed but I guess not, oddly enough my friend bought a V6 Camry and I held my breath cause it was his decision, and I would rather something fail with his choice then him blame me in the end

Toyota/Nissan(excluding Infiniti, no FWD)/Honda can't seem to make a trans for the high hp engines they want to offer, any of these entry level cars that offer performance at a lesser price all have trans issues.

Good luck with Lexus

 

I'm sure this has been analyzed to death but this flare sounds like a bad torque converter or bad controls on it.

 

If it's FWD only and the lesser price that I might agree with but if you look at the A650E (2GS, 1IS, and also LS and SC) 5 speed was bullet proof. And it looks like the AA80E 8-Speed in the IS-F should hold up too.
It is odd to me that Toyota "can't figure it out". If they try it should be pretty easy to figure it out especially with what appears like plenty of candidate cars for them to "debug". They may not like the root cause (require significant $$ to fix) which may be why they are being coy. Not fixing the problem though in future model years is just goofy. OTOH note that the "lag" issue is still an issue, IMO, on the IS-F in auto mode. If they aren't going to fix a problem there what hope do we have on some lower end models? *shrug*

 

just FWD, reason why I did not include Infiniti, the 5speed you mentioned is indeed bullet proof

 

There were so many - but my favorite went something like this "Just after starting the car, and just before it warms up, the computer has no control over what is going on, so the engine will ping because the computer is not in control at this time".

I sat there a minute and then said "I don't know how to say this, but...here goes......I don't believe you"

Very uncomfortable silence after that.


I like #2 - I bet you will too

 

At this point it is in the dealer's hands- Hennessy Lexus of Gwinnett. Corporate has completely turned their back and determined that there is nothing wrong with the car. Yet in the same breath, they will tell you some ES 350s have this "problem" and some do not

I guess we will have an answer from Hennessy on Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

That's complete nonsense........I'm sure you know that as an engineer.
When the engine is cold (generally below a coolant temperature of around 140 degrees), the computer is is in a different "loop" mode than when the engine is warm.......but it is still in control of engine/transmission functions, such as richer mixture, faster idle speed, higher transmission shift points, temporary higher-gear lockouts, etc....

 

Sorry to hear about your situation.. Seems as if something is up with Toyota/Lexus trannies as of late.. I had to take in my Rav4 for this issue.. Problem solved with the reflash.. Step it up Toyota/Lexus..