Yeah, I deleted it when I saw that you corrected your post.

 

You are right. Lexus has never been on par with the Germans for performance. Lack of vey high HP motors and big V12s show Lexus never really competed, value was the Lexus thing. And Lexus was always bland in appearance. .But there are many different ways to judge engineering. German cars are very poorly engineered for longevity compared to the Japanese. New tech innovation and speed, yes over engineered.

 

Top spec Corolla costs the same......

 

I think you are misunderstanding me. I don't believe for one moment there is an issue with engineering when it comes to Toyota and Lexus products. On the contrary. Toyota and Lexus have the ability to make performance cars as good as the Germans. Firstly, they take a conservative approach to engineering, stability, longevity, and comfort are priorities over performance, which is why they build in a lot of overhead. Secondly, Toyota and Lexus customers have different preferences and priorities than say Mercedes and BMW customers. Just look at the 3 best selling Toyotas: RAV4, Camry, and Corolla and for Lexus the RX, UX (including hybrid) and ES. Also, the majority of Lexus buyers are older.

If Lexus were to build high performance vehicles like the Germans, they would suffer the same or similar issues, and costs would go up substantially

 

I was told, not sure if correct, they started to require *** on newer vehicles. Some BMWs had the button where you can turn it off at the beginning of a drive. Newer ones no longer have that button. Some say the 48v makes a nice smooth transition. For me it’s too jerky. When it kicks in, I feel almost like someone bumps my rear. I and some others hate it. The worse part is when stopped, you open the door for something quick, it will shut off the engine completely. Thankfully it can be coded off. And it’s also off when you’re in Sport plus. And from what I noticed it doesn’t improve mpg noticeable if any.

 

Other MPG. There is no reason for 48V.

 

Ok look, I've said this before and I'll say it again. IMO nobody can do HVAC and heated seats/steering wheels better than us. My LX has a heated steering wheel that works great. But I get into the Enclave and my hands burn off within a minute or two, way better. Enclave also has the only cooled seats that actually work that I've experienced and I've been in a lot of cars. My Lexus seat "coolers" don't work very well in both vehicles. The heated seats are decent in LX, ok in LS. In LS they don't heat up until the car is warm bc they blow air, not my favorite.

Old Big Red (Yukon) about 10 years ago....true story. We had a legit snow here where everything got F'd up, a big deal for Knox. Roads were bad....I drove around for about an hour and the heated seats actually literally dried my wet pants from sledding, and falling off the sled. It has seat heaters that will burn your butt off.

America can do air conditioning and heat. We have such a vast nation with such different climates, I still think that we do it the best and take all of that into account. That Yukon is a total beater and hasn't even been used in 6 months, but in the dead of summer start it up and you're freezing almost immediately from all the A/C fan power, from front and the rear vents that you can point at yourself up front.

 

I couldn’t agree more. My old Durango’s hested steering wheel, heated and cooled seats worked way better than any of my Lexus’ or my BMW M340. My X7 is actually very good and has heated arm rests on the door and center console which is pretty nice.

 

BMW's latest ventilated seats are a shame. They're so weak. And if I remember correctly they don't even offer cooled seats. On the other hand, I'm very happy with my wife's six year old RX's ventilated seats. They work fast!

 

I'd rate the ventilated seats in our X3 as just "OK". Nothing too great but probably better than without them. Sometimes I'll run both the seat heaters and ventilation on medium or low and it's pretty comfortable.

 

Probably better than the is350 I had that would blow hot air making you even sweatier.

 

Does my Tundra count, since it was built in TX? The AC in the truck was one of the reasons that I bought it, during a test drive in May 2020 it was 90 degrees out. I turned on the AC in the Tundra and within minutes I was freezing, from that moment on I was sold. In the winter, I use the heated seat which can get pretty toasty.

My GSF on the other hand, the heated and cooled seats are basically non existent. I took it into the dealership to get it checked and was told it was normal operation.

 

I think it's better than it was, at least. Back in the day Germans (and maybe others, IDK) had to re-engineer their a/c for cars sent here bc the a/c didn't cut it in the United States.

And yeah, lol a 2015 Enclave, nothing special. Steering wheel is ridiculous, burns your hands off and seat coolers I actually turn on because they work, I don't ever bother in our Lexuses.

I hear ya, both our Lexus cars have good a/c, no complaints. My LX has 28 vents. But jump in the POS Yukon and the fan speeds are noticeably higher and it gets freezing immediately, I would rate it as better even if not by a mile. There are just some things some countries can't really be beat on, and for us it's air conditioning IMO.

 

100% agreed, my IS350 ventilated seats were the worst I have ever encountered. Like you said, it was as if it was blowing hot air.

 

I've only had three cars that had heated/cooled seats and one of them is my 2nd Gen IS350. Never used that feature, never had to, don't really care if it works or not. My Polestar also has heated seats, I tried them and they work well, making the seats too warm at the highest settings. As far as HVAC, I've never had any issues with any of my Toyota's or my Lexus. I've driven in heatwaves both in Northern and SoCal, and a few times through the Central Valley where temps can get to 115F in the summer, my cabin has always stayed cool. Last summer I drove my IS350 to SoCal in 110F weather and the cabin remained nice and cool.

I've used the AC a few times in the Polestar, and it works really good. As far as the heating, it's pretty instant, it will heat the cabin in less than a minute. The cool thing about EV's is you can run the AC all the time with pretty much no penalty. On both our Ioniq and Polestar, I will keep the AC running when I'm parked somewhere or going into the store. You have to start the climate control from the app if you leave your car and lock it, the Ioniq has much better controls here as you can set more perimeters while the Polestar turns on the climate on Auto