The April 2024 CR Car issue was released and the ES350 V6 is showing Major engine problems for 2020. This was not apparent in the 2023 CR report (second attachment). I also noticed the ES Hybrid battery is a trouble spot. It's very unusual for Lexus Engines to have such below average ratings. Also interesting was the 2023 CR showed the Hybrid Engine with a red trouble spot but in the 2024 issue it was back in the green. I'm thinking timing cover leak for the V6 but what's going on with the hybrid. Some might also blame build quality during Covid.

I'm sure some would take CR with a grain of salt but I have based my car purchases for years on these ratings and never been steered wrong.


2024 April CR:




2023 April CR:

 

I had this engine in an '06 Avalon from 2006 to 2013, then in a 2013 Lexus ES 350 from 2013 to 2018. My 2019 also has this engine and all other years forward have the same engine up to 2024. I have a difficult time believing that in 2020 ONLY there's a problem. Add to this that there hasn't been any reports on this forum to my knowledge regarding major engine issues with the V6. I don't have a great deal of faith in the CR surveys...

 

I have no worries

 

I own a 2021 and am not concerned. But if/when I place mine for sale, I’m afraid potential buyers may be discouraged from buying my car or may use this rating as a tool to demand a price reduction. Maybe enough Lexus owners will contact CR and demand a re-evaluation and correction.

Is there any other comparable luxury level make/model that has better ratings? Genesis?

 

Very few would use such a metric when purchasing a car.

 

These CR ratings are bull****.

 

I figured someone would say that so I'm not surprised over this comment.

I have used CR for decades and have had exremely good success.

 

You can continue to use it.

 

I don't think it's an all-or-nothing situation. As a longtime CR subscriber, I too have noticed more anomalies and inconsistencies than I used to in the reliability charts. My suspicion is that as the magazine industry has declined while the number of car models has risen, CR's readership has gotten both older and (even) more automotively conservative, and often they simply have fewer survey results on each model. That allows for more fluke statistical variation from model to model and from year to year.

A weird one to me is that their charts this year do NOT show the well-documented 2019-20 batch of bad fuel pumps that showed up in previous CR surveys across multiple Toyota and Lexus models. That leads me to believe that the survey asks, "Did you have problems with your older car THIS YEAR?" Which would mean a few owners of 2020 ES 350's had engine problems since last year's survey. Time bomb in these famously reliable engines? Car reached the age where the owners didn't notice these cars now require a spark plug change at 60,000 miles? Fluke? We don't know.

 

The CR survey makes sense if you know how to interpret it.

My 2019 ES has been trouble-free so far. I've been following this forum since early 2019. When the 2020's came out, this forum got numerous reports about the battery draining/failing. It was a software bug that was introduced in the 2020 MY. There was eventually a tech bulletin and a software fix.

Note that the 2019 MY ratings don't reflect this problem. That correlates with the posts in this forum. Also note that in the 2020 MY, the "electrical" category gets poor ratings. That's the battery issue. The engine category apparently got dragged into the battery issue, which I agree is misleading.

 

Thank you for your permission

 

I don’t expect any serious problems with my ’22 ES350 UL but I do have to say that while it is perfect (to me) while driving) the idle is still rougher than it ever was on my two previous ES’s. Not actually bad, and the dealer doesn’t detect any codes or problems, but it is not buttery smooth and quiet like the earlier ones were, at least on my car.

 

The engine issue for the 2020 ES hybrid was a casting issue which could allow coolant into oil and a recall was issued for some early made 2020. CR is making out like all of 2020 is affected and I know for a fact it didn't. Did not realize CR omits that very important info. Mine was built in Dec 2019 and not affected so just some of the early built 2020 are affected. Not sure how I will view CR from now on knowing it skews the facts. ESh is correct on his post especially related the engine and electrical. Also for electrical software updates were done to keep parasitic drain down from draining aux battery for 2019 and 2020.

 

But they sure do stir the pot every time they are released. Every time, every brand/model, every forum etc.

 

CR didnt't skew any facts that we know of. There isn't enough space in the magazine to explain every red dot on a chart. It's not like they ran lurid tabloid headlines that said "ES no longer reliable!" Also, while ESh isn't necessarily wrong, we don't have enough information to know that his theory is right, either. Sounds like you're taking all of this a bit personally.