I never was a fan of Scotty Kilmer's In-Your-Face mannerisms, hand/arm waving, and high-decibel speaking style, especially compared to a true professional like Alex Dykes. But, in this video, though I don't totally agree with Scotty about the fake vents (I personally don't think they are a big deal), he hits the nail on the head with just about everything else that s**ks on modern vehicles. Much of what he complains about agrees with exactly the things I myself have been complaining about, for a number of years, in my own reviews. I could have made most of this video myself.

 

Lots of Lexus and Toyota in the video. Are we sure this is not an attack on Toyota or Lexus?

 

No. Not in the least. Scotty actually has a lot of respect for Toyota/Lexus in the reliability department...he and his wife both drive older models, and generally recommends the brand. He simply used the modern spindle-grille from Lexus as one example of today's oversized, in-your-face grilles that a lot of manufacturers now do. But there are, of course, many others...as he makes clear.

 

Scotty can be be a blow hard at times but in this case he's not wrong.

 

Scotty is hard to watch. I'd much rather watch the savagegeese video with the same title, which he released a few months prior to Scotty.

 

I agree with everything he said!

 

Spoken like somebody who doesn't own one car that's newer than 15 years old lol

Times change, trends change. Take that Lexus, I had the same Lexus, it was nice at the time but today its bulbous, ugly, the wheels look silly small on it and the tires huge. If he prefers the look of that to a new Lexus ES, good for him lol

 

I do agree. He is stuck in the past. While I have very old cars and some that are just old, the new Lexus (and other cars) are more interesting, I actually saw a new LS500 F-sport today in the wild, it looks very good when next to regular non Lexus branded cars.

 

the ES 330 always looked weird and bulbous lol... fatter tires and no spindle grille is definitely better though

 

Actually, in this case, it's not a question of whether one is "Stuck in the past" or not. He is (correctly) pointing out why some features on today's vehicles emphasize form over function....and why some things worked better in the past than they do today, particularly with low-profile tires and the general lack of conventional spare tires. Glass headlight covers (vs. plastic), assuming they weren't damaged in an accident or vandalism, often lasted the life of the vehicle without having to recondition them. In short, what is newer is not always better.

 

....and he explained WHY he doesn't own a newer car.

BTW, Josh (ArmyofOne) owns the same 15-year-old ES, and loves it.

15 years ago, though, those so-called "ugly" tires and small wheels glided right over bumps and potholes that, today, are racking up big repair bills for new tires and rims.

 

when have you personally had to recondition your lights? I have some older vehicles. Never had to do it.

Spare tire I agree with.

 

Yeah the LS500 is pretty sharp looking in person. I don't have any issue with its looks.

It did, but it looks even moreso now, mainly because of the huge front overhang and the very small wheels. The refresh ES330 on the 17s looks better.

As for the spindle grille, I like the spindle grill, and with some exceptions I like the bigger grills car companies are using. Tastes change, and older cars with smaller grills look...old.

As for ride, modern ES350s ride just as well as my old 2003 ES300 despite having much lower profile tires. My LS460L rides just as well as your LS400 despite having much lower profile tires. Technology both in terms of suspension and tire design has improved a lot, and the "penalty" of having lower profile tires is much overstated. I have never had a tire or wheel damaged by a pothole on a car with lower profile tires...

I have. It really depends on whether your car sits outside and your climate. I did the headlights on my old ES about 6 months ago for my aunt. Its not a big deal, they turned out great.

Bottom line is, you can't do the sort of things you can do stylistically with glass, and "glass lamps were so cheap to replace" refers to old sealed beam headlamps which put out terrible light and weren't built into the styling of the car at all. A modern car headlamp with a glass lens would be MUCH more expensive to replace than the same lamp in plastic, and much more prone to breakage.

Agreed. However...I actually had to think about the last time I used a spare tire. Its been at least a decade, probably more. It was my wife's old 2004 Toyota Prius, and I changed the tire in my driveway and it wasn't really necessary, the tire likely would have pumped up and gotten me down the road. The last time I have ever been out someplace and had a flat that had I not had a spare tire I would have been stranded? I must say, that has NEVER happened to me in 23 years of driving. I've never had a flat tire that wasn't in my driveway and/or just a slow leak that could have air put in and be driven to a tire shop. Last time I can remember it happening to anybody in my family? It was my dad, and it was 25 years ago, he had a blowout one time in his Cadillac and had to have roadside assistance come change the tire on the side of the BW parkway. We did put the spare on his LS400 one time in the driveway of the house, but that was again a slow leak he just didn't have time to go have patched before he needed to be someplace. In that situation had he not had a spare we did have two other cars he could have driven while I took it and had the tire patched.

I think the bottom line is, tire construction is such that catastrophic flats that REQUIRE immediate replacement of the tire before you can drive anywhere are really very rare.

 

I typically keep a car 5-6 years (and, of course, take care of it and keep it clean), so that usually is not an issue with me. But it is, indeed, an issue for a lot of people. Just recently, I worked on the severely-clouded headlight covers of a friend of mine who has an older Pontiac Grand Prix GXP.

SCRATCH-OUT, BTW, will take out at least some of the clouding and milkiness, but is not really the best product for the job....there are better treatments.

 

I'll add my vote for Savagegeese. I really agreed with everything said. Kinda silly that Scotty Kilmer even took the same title for his video.