My sister had an 10' IS and my parents have the new 15' ES. The doors on the IS are nothing to right home about. There was also some serious quality concerns with my sisters IS that had then fixing dash rattles, new exterior mirrors, new air conditioning compressor, and the lettering was peeling on a lot of the interior switches. With that said, my parents ES has been OK, nothing great but the quality concerns don't seem to be the same, they can't stand remote touch and both realize that it was mistake purchasing that option. Neither of the them ever complained about the doors closing although my father did say the other day that they should of gotten the larger GS or LS. Needless to say, my sisters IS left her stranded on a long trip to Ottawa (only Toyota product ever to leave a family member stranded) and after four years of ownership she ditched it (good riddance) for a BMW 3 series which she claims is leaps, and bounds a far superior vehicle than her IS ever was.

Anyways, I am going to go back to chatting about the LC....join me if you want.

 

I do have to agree with you. Very likely it has a lot to do with the tech added and just the size of most components. 10 speed, 21" rims, safety features, rear wheel steering option etc etc...They all add up. I was expecting the weight to be lighter than it is, but it nice to know Lexus is not going all cheap on using too many lightweight materials.

 

True, but two points still need to be made. First, Lexus is not an entry-level nameplate. Like their luxury-class competitors, their vehicles still have to earn that "L" logo on them. Second, a number of other vehicles that cost less (in some cases, much less) than an ES do have more solid-closing doors. However, in its favor, though (and I agree with Jill on this point) the ES doors DO close with extreme precision if not solidness...that's at least partially due to the excellent sealing and weatherstripping that Lexus typically uses.

 

I agree with this 100%, the ES should be better, and in fact was indeed better in these areas previously. Having had two successive generations of the ES, the 4ES then the 5ES and having extensively driven the 6ES over the years, the area where they cut costs over those generations are dramatic. 2016 refresh helped, but not all the way.

EVERY Lexus should have that solid high quality feel without hard plastic where you touch inside.

 

To anyone who has seen the LC in person. Does the car have the same size presence as the SC430 or does it look bigger? Weight of the SC430 is at 3850lbs so wondering if the size of it looks bigger?

 

LC500 - 187.4" L x 75.6" W x 53" H
SC430 - 179" L x 72" W x 53" H

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I wonder how many people are complaining about the doors of the ES -- even saying they are worse than cheaper cars -- without understanding it.

We have a 2015 ESh and a 2013 Accord (current generation) in our family. I constantly have to remind my wife and son to NOT slam the doors on my ES. The doors on my wife's Accord have -- since we first took delivery -- been hard to close properly; they are very stiff, poorly balanced and feel heavy, and require quite a slam to close. Some would argue that they close solidly.

My ESh, on the other hand, has very well-balanced doors that take little effort to close; no slamming required. Yes, if you slam them, they sound light but the point is that you do not have to slam them shut. The balance of the doors is an indication -- to me as an engineer -- of the good design and assembly quality.

 

I had mentioned earlier that the ES has a nice sealing feel when you close it. Not a thud and not a tin can feel either. Totally different than a Mercedes, or a Honda or other cars. Not sure what exactly is the point of slamming the door. For some reason, there are some on here (without naming names) that just always want to bash the ES. I am more interested in comments from actual owners of that car. A Mercedes thud is not always a sign of quality to others. Lexus seems to get touch points done very nicely.

Anyways, I am sure the new LC which this thread is about will get the door closing right.

 

I have a 2016 es and my brother also has a 2013 accord and the doors feel way different as you stated. The es doors are meant to be closed soft not hard. Yea and I don't really understand what's all the hate about for the es. They have to understand that it's called a luxury car for a reason. And it def deserves respect because it does what it is designed to do excellently, a solid well built luxury cruiser. So the bashing against the es really needs to stop esp if you don't or haven't spend a lot of time with it like us owners do on a daily basis. Now my sister has a 16 gx and those doors close like complete crap, like a tin can.

 

No hate for the ES here, I had two of them. It's a great entry level car and has a lot of value.

I just hate cost cutting, and unfortunately that's the model where you see it most clearly.

 

My old college roomie has an '03 or '04 ES330...the fishy one before the refresh (so, extra frumpy looking), but man oh man, is the interior nice. I had never actually been in it until recently. The interior is exceptionally luxurious, and I especially like the wood trim around the gauges. I now know what the magazines meant when they gushed over the inside. I used to have an Infiniti I35 which was a direct competitor; the interior of that didn't even come close. Hell, this ES even has stitched leather armrests whereas my base LS430 doesn't. The newer ones just aren't this luxurious inside. If I were in the market for a cheap reliable used car, a late model ES330 would be on my lists. His has 186,000 miles and still flawless. He's a successful attorney and just refuses to get rid of it because he's frugal plus he wants to see just how long it will last.

 

My 2003 ES is still in the family, has almost 190,000 miles. Yeah best quality interior for the ES for sure. For the time it had a lot of great tech too, it felt like a much higher end car than it was.

It's held up great too. Ugly...but what a great car.

 

See this is just it, to some people it is great. To some it is not. While I can appreciate the materials and the details for its time, I just cannot stand the design of the interior and the design following it was even worse. The red colored wood grain trim to me at least looks simply hideous. So was the yellow colored wood trim. Not a big fan of the gauges. But I am sure there were people who liked the car and found it super luxurious like yourself.

 

ok, let's stay on the LC, not the ES/IS... thanks.