I've noticed that when I set a temperature, while the heat is in Auto mode, it never seems to reach the desired interior temperature. I checked yesterday on my 30 minute highway commute. I had a thermometer in the car and noticed that when I set 75F it never seemed to get much over 70F. Not a big deal, just wondering if the heat over-promises but under delivers with our cars? Outside temp showed at ~50F.
Also, interior heat up seems pretty slow. In most of the other cars I've had (with temperature controlled heat/AC), when the heat comes on it's pretty powerful, heats the interior pretty quickly, and then lowers the fan to maintain a comfortable level. The Lexus, on the other hand, seems to be very gradual despite the hearing the fan speed increase when the engine has warmed.
=================================
My karma just ran over your dogma
Current Hers: '13 Lexus ES350
Current Mine: '15 Jaguar XF (its aubergine)

 

I leave mine set at 72 degrees (Auto) year round. It seems to get there pretty quickly when it's cold out, even below zero. I haven't used a thermometer to check accuracy, but it feels comfortable to me.

 

I've had it work better when i manually go into climate controls and turn AC off

 

Whether the temperature in the cabin is the same as what the system has been set to has a lot to do with where you are measuring the temperature.

For example, when the AC is being used in the summer, the temperature of the air that is coming out of the dash vents should be somewhere around 45 degrees. If the dash vents are aimed toward the steering wheel and the air is blowing directly on your hands, it will feel icy cold, but the temperature in the middle of the cabin might only be at 72 degrees.

Similarly, with the heat in the winter, the air coming out of the foot well vents should be around 80 degrees or warmer, but the temperature of the air in the middle of cabin might only be around 70 degrees.

I have no idea where the climate control system's temperature sensors are located, but, if you measure the temperature with a separate thermometer, I would not necessarily expect that the thermometer's temperature reading would be the same as what the climate control system is set to unless you are measuring the temperature with your thermometer at the same location where the climate control system's temperature sensors are.

 

Just a reminder, my wife puts the heat on in the winter as soon as we get in the car because she's "freezing". Her words... I've told her 74 times that the radiator water must get hot before there will be any heat. The climate control even delays the start of heat until the water heats to a certain degree and the heater core can produce warm air. I find, as Mike does, that setting the temp around 72F. does the trick. I also find that the A/C does a very good job of cooling on the hottest of days here in Pennsylvania.

 

Lmao! As is the problem with my girlfriend. Tsk. Women.

 

Reviving this dead thread I found so I can complain about slow heat.

Now that we are getting colder night temps, I'm using the heat in the mornings. I started the car and let it run for 7mins before we came back and still no heat. The temp this morning was 40F. I had the interior temp set to 75 and often have to raise it to 76 or 77. I've never had to go that high to get warm air in any vehicle. Is something wrong with a sensor or... I guess I just need to crank it up, because it does work, just very slowly.

On the flip side, this car gets me cold AC faster than any car I've owned in the past...opposite for the heat!

 

Just the way it is. Cold weather start up I turn the heat up to max - High. As soon as I feel “some” warmth and/or see the temp needle move I turn the fan to high. I think it’s over engineering by the designer.