brittmayo

Excluding the ventilated seats, the Mark Levinson amplifier and the actual MPG, all of which have been discussed exhaustively in separate threads, what is the biggest problem (or disappointment) you've had with your ES300h?

jonmanch

My biggest problem is that my phone's phone book (with less than 1000 entries) will not completely download. Many of the numbers I dial/call frequently will not download and although Lexus Knowledge says that numbers can be manually input into the phone book, the screen mentioned in the directions is not on my car. I have tried in on my phone (HTC EVO 4G LTE) and on a Samsung Galaxy S4.

This is my biggest gripe, and I would like a sunglass holder.

chewbach

Various Idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies of the nav/media/phone interface and system. Examples:

- The nav will talk during a phone call.

- Some menus late you page through all pages while driving. Others will limit you to just a few. Others won't let you page at all.

- Etc.

wasjr

Other than the ventilated seat performance, or lack thereof, we have no problems to speak of, just annoyances.

There are some navigation/voice features that aren't as user friendly as I am used to in my MDX. For example unlike the shared nav/audio screen I can change back and forth with voice or quickly glancing and pushing a button in the MDX. In the 300h if I want to see more of the nav screen it is more distracting and difficult to eliminate the audio from the screen (If there is voice recognition to do this I have not found it yet).

As an example re the voice recognition, in the MDX I can speak specific XM stations or specific desired temperature. I did find a workaround for the XM stations by lining up the stations we listen to most and scrolling from the steering wheel controls.

I had not noticed the nav talking during a phone call until today when my wife called me while she was using the nav. It was very distracting to me and made it hard to hear for her.

Fly4u

As others have posted, many facets of the ES300h technology are dated and/or inconvenient.
OTOH, given the abysmal rating some mfgrs score for cutting edge tech, perhaps the Lexus approach is acceptable.

My other significant nit concerns the wheel brakes - not very linear and a bit overly sensitive at very low speeds. I fully understand how hybrid regenerative + hydraulic disc systems interface, but my previous vehicle, a 2010 Fusion Hybrid was a model of brake feel excellence.

ElliotB

About the only thing I don't like is that when you open the doors, the 'gizmo' that keep the door from bouncing back and closing doesn't hold the door open very well unless I stop the door and hold it open for a moment. I have never had a car like this. A minor inconvenience that I have gotten used to in an otherwise near perfect vehicle.

LexBob2

Good point on the technology. Read just about any review on the CUE system in new Caddy's or the Touch system in Ford/Lincoln products and they're not too good. They will improve, but initially there are a lot of complaints.

Remember the initial I Drive in BMW's. Really bad, now it is one of the better systems.

lesz

+1
Toyota and Lexus have never been on the cutting edge with regard to technology and gadgets.

Over the last 15 years or so, 6 of the 9 vehicles that I've owned have been Toyota or Lexus products, and, with each of those vehicles, there have been a good number of competitors whose use of technology and gadgets surpassed those of Toyota and Lexus.

When a manufacturer designs and builds a car, it has to stay within a budget limit to remain competitive with similar vehicles from other manufacturers. Some manufacturers use that money to include that cutting edge technology and and a basketful of gadgets. Toyota and Lexus seem to place their priorities on build quality and dependability. Doing so often means not including new technology until its dependability has been proven and until its cost has come down. The top-of-the-line 1998 Toyota 4Runner Limited that I owned, for example, lacked the full-time all-wheel drive technology and even simpler gadgets like heated seats that some of its competitors were including in their vehicles. Yet, it was the best built and most dependable SUV that I had ever driven.

My choice of a 2013 ES was not based on it being on the cutting edge of technology. If I wanted to be on that cutting edge and if I wanted to maximize the number of gadgets available, I could have bought a Chevy Impala and, at the same time, saved quite a few dollars. I, however, chose to buy an ES because I was looking for a front-wheel drive vehicle that would be as dependable as possible and one that gave me a comfortable ride while maximizing isolation of noise from the road, from the engine, and from the wind as possible. In terms of meeting those qualifications, I don't think that anyone does a better job than Lexus did with the ES. At the same time, though, I knew that I was buying a vehicle whose use of technology and whose array of gadgets would not match those from some of the other manufacturers for, most likely, another generation.

Goodtravel

Since no one else has picked up on EliotB's comment regarding the detent on the doors, I am wondering if this particular issue varies from car to car (or is adjustable). I never noticed it on my previous 2005 ES330 but I do find the driver's door on my new 2013 ES300h tends to jump out of the detent position and close on me as I try to exit the car. It is not a problem if the door is opened wide or carefully set in the partially opened position but I frequently forget and when opened casually the door usually bounces out of the detent and swings back toward the closed position. Does this only affect a few cars or is it a common (albeit minor) nuisance?

redog

1.Obsolete Nav system.
2. Unusable voice recognition.
3. You must be a contortionist to access the center console.

That being said, still the best car I've ever owned!

jml33

I thought I was just not opening the door correctly and now that I see people actually putting this down I'm happy it was not just me. Now that it has been said a few times I bet there will be more people having the same issue.

jonmanch

Wasjr, a solution might be to use the full screens for the radio and navigation map and just switch back and forth by pushing the MAP and RADIO buttons which will probably be more responsive than a voice command.

jerryray

Love the ES300, but the Bluetooth in this Hybrid has very limited Verizon phones that work. I have posted this topic where you can read about it. NO current Verizon flip phone works on this car and Lexus knows this.

I do prefer my RX450 joystick with the side mounted enter button.

Cerulean99

1. voice recognition is terrible to be useless except for "go home"
2. no AC button to quickly turn off AC - you have to go through several menus on the screen
3. voice prompts from navigation while on a phone call - can't make any business calls on the phone while on a route because I don't want the nav voice to cut in all of a sudden (unprofessional)

jonmanch

In the set up, you can modulate the volume of the navigation voice. It is not convenient to do on a daily basis, but if you want to lower the voice, you can.