2017ES350

After months of looking at 2016 cpo ES350's, this past Saturday I bought the wife a 2017 ES350 eminent white pearl/parchment. She loves it. I drive a 2011 Corvette Grand Sport ....so hohum. Drove it about 50 miles yesterday. Nice smooth, comfortable car with lots of gadgets. Looking to get Xpel Ultimate film on the front next and windows tinted. I laughed at the dealers Scotchguard treatment pkg in at out for only $995 which they were willing to knock down to $875....lmfao.

bc6152

Looks like I'm the first to welcome you to CL, so happy you're here and GOOD LUCK with the new wheels. Come back with any (you'll have a few) questions and the smart members on here will get you answers.

jloftus

Welcome 2017 ! That's an interesting combination - Es 350 and a Corvette! I almost got a muscle car before deciding on the ES.

What is the Xpel Ultimate film for ? Some kind of protection ? The reason i ask, I've had my 2016 ES350 for about 8 months now, and somehow have
managed to get little 'microscratches' on the side windows. I'd love to figure out how I did it, and how to avoid it in the future.

Big Bad John

jollick

Congratulations and welcome to CL.

gmanusmc

Welcome to the forum - congrats on the new ES350 - enjoy!

Mike728

Welcome and congrats!

2017ES350

Hi and thanks for the welcome. As to your question about Xpel, it is one of the top rated clear protective films on the market. You can put it anywhere on the car that has paint and also the headlight lenses. They have pre cut kits for different areas on the car. Protects your car from stone chips and corrosive bug guts. You cannot see it except for the edges when you are close. If a stone bounces up from car in front and hits the paint where the film is, it mightt dent or mar the film but it self heals. In Fl we deal with the love bug explosion in May and Sept. Those little F'rs will etch your paint if left on for more than 24 hours. I will have it installed as it is a ***** and you have to know what you are doing or you will end up with bubbles, dirt, dust etc that you will see. To do the front bumper, headlights, 18" up the hood and across fenders and the mirrors is about $700-800 depending on installer. Will also do the A pillars and a strip across the front edge of roof....probably another $150. Stuff is great and has a 10 year warranty. Lexus dealers offer protective film packages but not sure what product they use. Very happy with the stuff on my Vette.

lesz

Even though the cost will be higher, you might want to consider getting the full hood and full fenders covered. Doing so is now what many of the installers are doing. Even though the front of the hood and the front of the fenders are more vulnerable to stone nicks, the rest of the hood and fenders are also more vulnerable than other parts of the car. Besides the added protection, another advantage of going with the full hood and full fenders is that you don't have the lines in the middle of those panels to collect dust, wax, etc. I had the full hood, full fenders, full bumper, mirrors, door handle cups, and door edges done on my ES, and I'm happy to have the extra protection.

Also, don't be surprised if, after you have the film installed, you start to notice an extremely annoying whistling sound coming from the driver's side mirror. When I drove my ES home after the film was installed, that whistling sound could be clearly heard even with the windows rolled up when I reached a speed of about 50-55 mph. If you do a search, you will find dozens of threads on this and other forums with people reporting the same issue. Had I not remembered reading those threads, I could have spent many hours trying to figure out the source of the issue, but, as soon as I removed the film from the driver's side mirror, the whistling sound disappeared completely. I suspect that the aerodynamics on these cars are so well designed that even the thin film is enough to divert the air flow in a way that causes the whistling sound. For some reason, there is no problem with the film on the passenger side mirror. That is likely because the passenger side mirror is angled slightly more than the driver's side mirror. I've thought about having the installer give another try at putting film on the driver's side mirror to see if the whistle is gone if the film is placed in slightly different position, but I haven't gotten around to doing that.

Congratulations on the new ES, and welcome to the forum.

TechNut

Congrats on the new car. I agree with Lesz and second his recommendation on installing the film on the entire nose clip of the car. I only did part of the hood on my last RX and ended up with chips on the hood above the film after a very short time.