The few times we use the ES, we are sure to drive it long enough for the oil to heat up fully, usually 20-40 miles. I know that short trips are deadly for an engine. Even with 2-4K miles a year I change the oil yearly.

It's our 2017 RX350 that gets all of the short trips. Still, every week we try to drive it on longer trips. Knock wood, at about 5,000 miles a year it still runs like new. I also change the oil yearly.

 

LOL I hope can out last my ES too, I drive around 12K miles a year on avg. now (was 20K before during Covid), I currently have 95K on it, so (250,000 - 95,000)/12,000 = 13 years left, I'm not 40 yet I hope I can out last it!!!

 

I wonder if demographics is an explanation. IS buyers skew younger than ES buyers, and so are more likely to rack up miles from commutes and road trips and the like. Grandpa car ES is much more likely to be at 20k miles after 12 years after going to church, the doctor, and the grocery store once a week.

 

To really know the reason for the difference, one would need access to the data that iSeeCars collected on "almost 400 million cars" and the details of their "proprietary model" handling of that data in arriving at their longevity results.

In speculating on the difference in longevity between models from an automobile manufacturer such as Toyota/Lexus with a reputation of making long-lasting, multi-hundreds-of-thousands-mile vehicles, one needs to keep in mind that there are additional, probably more significant factors to consider in determining the probability of a vehicle model type surviving to 250,000 miles than just mechanical parts reliability and longevity. Factors such as weather-related (e.g., hail, tornado, flood, hurricane, etc.) damage and accident-related damage where the repair costs exceed the depreciated value of the vehicle will send a vehicle to the salvage yard with a relatively low mileage data statistic.
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Thanks for the follow up
Do you use a battery tender for in between no use? If so which one? How long are the no use periods?
Thanks again

 

This really depends on how many short (<~10minute) trips you make between longer trips as well as the temperature…colder weather uses the battery harder because you are using defrost, seat and steering wheel heaters more, which results in less charge going back into the battery. With a lot of short trips the starting draw will slowly drag the battery down more than the alternator can put back in. If I let mine sit more than 2-3 weeks in summer I’d check the voltage with a voltmeter (hasn’t happened yet but you never know). The nice thing about the dashcam I use is that it will display the voltage in the recordings and will shut off parking mode when voltage drops below a user-selectable value. In winter, I do a premptive, overnight charge every couple of months regardless.