Jill, you can I are on the same page for Auto climate control. I absolutely hate auto, as all it seems to do is blow the fan way too hard. On a regular day, I have to make the temperature much higher just to get it to blow at a lower speed. I never understood auto climate and find it just fine to adjust everything myself

Same here.....glad someone else feels the same. For me, it is one of the most useless automotive functions ever developed. I know exactly what I need while I am driving, every minute, in terms of heating, cooling, defrost, vent-settings/airflow, etc..... far better than any computer. That's also how I first noticed that defect/early-failure in my Lacrosse's heat/cold distribution through the vents, which required both a new regulator and control-head. I was using my usual defrost/heat settings, but they just weren't responding properly. An automatic system probably wouldn't have known how to handle that....it would have gone around in circles trying to figure it out.

First, I worked for the FAA as a combination Flight Procedures Specialist/Cartographer (Aeronautical Charting)/Airport Information Specialist. I was also a volunteer Tour Guide at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum....Josh (ArmyofOne) and I went through the museum together when he was in town. I was not a Commercial Pilot, but a Private Pilot. The main difference between the two is that Commercial Pilots require more total hours, more experience in long cross-country flights, more instrument training, and more spin training/recovery. When I was a Private Pilot, though, I was one of only two Private Pilots in the country who also held a Ground-Instructor rating, and I could teach the basic-aviation course in the classroom....most Ground Instructors are at least Commercial Pilots.

As for the climate-control Commercial Pilot issue you bring up, planes are different from cars, particularly with automatic pressurization systems, where the pilots don't have time to constantly monitor cabin-pressure......that is perhaps best left to a computer or automatic regulation system. But cars, except for maybe some high-altitude passes through the Rockies, don't normally climb and descend into adjacent regions of rapidly-changing air pressure and temperature like planes do, and, for most climate-control functions, get along fine with manually-operated controls. Many of the planes I flew had manual controls for throttle, fuel-mixture, fuel-injection or carburetor heat, and propeller pitch, in addition to cabin heat/defrost.

versus every system which you can just use by those reviewers who sat in it for a short amount of time.....HMIs vary in useability and ease of use. Some owners love one system like yourself, but are lost when in put in an Audi.

Its just how it is. Same thing with iOS vs Android. Some state that android is easy out of the box, others claim ios.

Who owns the car, you or me?

That button turns the HVAC off.

Well there you go. You want to operate the system in a way that its not designed to be operated.

I wouldn't say I "love" the system, I just recognize the systems limitations I just don't see how its as huge an issue as its made out to be.

I've used all the systems. There is NO system you can just "use" as soon as you sit down, that's my point. Reviewers are harder on Lexus here than they are other carmakers.

I remember when remote touch first came out on the 2010 RX, and Car and Driver tested it and liked it, noting how easy it is to use. By 2013 they were bashing it at every chance. Silly and inconsistent auto press. :D

And the system has improved since that first 2010 iteration!

Found it:

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...-rx450h-review

But by 2012 (in a GS350 test):

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...rt-test-review

Pretty funny...

I do think it's an overblown issue, like SW17LS was saying. Most of the time when I am driving, I am not interacting with the system. If anything, I mostly use the steering wheel controls and hard buttons for things I routinely do. For nav, I typically use voice commands, since the manual entry of destinations, etc. is actually quite awful. But aside from that, I don't have too many complaints. Sure it took me a few days to really get good at pointing the cursor where I wanted, and longer still to really find all the features I wanted, but let's be clear - I've been using the system pretty much trouble-free since then. At least, now that the buggy Pandora Enform app is gone. :D

I'm still sorely missing the Pandora app in both my GS and Highlander. Such is life, I guess.

Yeah, real bummer that they did away with the Pandora App.

Have you used Slacker Radio? I like it.