I drove home my new 2019 Lexus ES 350 Luxury (Moonbeam Beige w/Chateau/Mocha) on Wednesday evening. It's been 15 years since I bought a new car so I'm overwhelmed by all the features. I didn't know where to start, so I put together a list of questions. I called my Lexus store, but 2 out of the 3 Technology Specialists are on vacation this week and the other was with a customer. To my surprise, the service reps could not answer most of my seemingly basic questions.

I'm slowly figuring it all out and paring down my list. Here are some of my more basis questions.

1) Where do you put your sunglasses?
2) Where do you put trash?
3) What's the button below the trackpad for?
4) Head up Display (HUD) - The highest brightness level is not bright enough with sunglasses on. Any solution for this?
5) Parking Assist - The highest sensitivity is not sensitive enough. I get very close to objects and it doesn't go off consistently.
6) Voice command doesn't work - When I press and hold the button, it doesn't beep.
7) Concierge doesn’t work - I click on Concierge on the 12-inch display, but nothing happens.

I have a long way to go in learning the more complicated functions, but for now, I just want to master the basics.

 

1. I use the door pocket.
2. In my pocket
3. Never used it but its a submenu button for some apps
4. Polarized and hud dont work
5. Mine works fine - ask dealer to check - same for 6.
7. Concierge as in climate control just sets some memory settings you prefer for hvac, heated and cooled seats etc.

 

In addition to the comments from Mike, with respect to the Voice Command button on the steering wheel, do not press and hold, but rather press it, release, and wait for the beep. If you have an Apple iPhone paired with your ES350 via Bluetooth, pressing and holding the voice Command Button will activate Siri (Mobile Assist and a Microphone symbol will appear in your LCD display) and you can issue voice commands via Siri while holding the Voice Command button. As Mike has indicated Concierge when turned on allows your Lexus to automatically set and maintain various climate control settings to appropriate values which you can modify if you wish.

My Lexus ES 350 was my first new car purchase in 20 years (still have my 1998 Lexus GS300), and I, too, was overwhelmed with the new tech. I did two things. I read the several manuals that came with the car thoroughly and each day for the first few weeks after I bought the car I went out with the manuals on my iPad and sat in the car in the driveway with the engine running and tried various buttons and settings until I understood exactly what they did. I also got used to some of the new tech like Lane Tracing Assist, and Dynamic Cruise Control by trying them out on roads without heavy traffic congestion until I throughly understood the advantages and limitations of this safety tech. Even with this preparation I am still discovering new aspects to my Lexus ES 350. Incidentally, my 2019 Lexus ES 350 Luxury is also Moonbeam Beige with Chateaux/Mocha. My wife and I love the color and the interior. Enjoy your new ES 350.

 

There are also many videos on Youtube that cover the new tech on our vehicles.

 

I agree with Mike and others, but I might add some clarification on item 7, concierge mode. The concierge mode only works on those items that you have set to “auto”. So set your climate control, seats and steering wheel to auto. Then engage the concierge mode. So far, with the high temps, the only benefit I have observed is that it turns on the ventilated seats when the car is warm. When we back it out of the garage and it is cool, no ventilated seats.

 

Thats how AUTO is designed to operate. I never bother with concierge. Auto for climate, adjust temp and turn on heated or cooled seats when needed.

 

It just wasn’t clear to me when I first got the car that the AUTO feature of each of those was actually linked to the concierge mode. I just wanted to offer that clarification to hopefully save others the learning curve. I do imagine I will ultimately use ours the same way as you, but I wanted to give the concierge mode a fair shake.

 

Yeah I never use the AUTO settings on seats and steering wheel as I find I want to change those often. AUTO of course on the climate control works flawlessly for me.

 

Awesome! Thanks for all the great responses. Very helpful!

Bingo! You nailed it.

I just entered my first destination by voice. Very cool!

When I clicked on Concierge, I was expecting it to dial Lexus for me to talk to a person live. I found that feature called Destination Assist under the Destination menu. Is that the only way you can call to talk with a live person at Lexus?

The funny thing is I was in my basement parking spot in my high-rise building and it dialed the number and started to ring. The car did all that without my phone from my basement parking spot. How does it do that?!

Also, I can get a lot (but not all) of the Sirius XM channels from my parking spot, too.

I love it. It's the only color I wanted.

That's unfortunate. Polarized sunglasses are great.

What type of sunglasses work with HUD?

 

You can buy non-polarized sunglasses. I bought a pair from Shady Ray for about $35.

 

I only use the voice command to change the A/C temperature because i do not like the little switch that you toggle for the A/C temp. Works perfect everytime , and it is pretty cool to see the numbers scroll up and down.

 

I found an old Foster Grant clip on and tried it out. I have the original insert and it talks about maximum UV protection, but doesn't say anything about polarization. I assume it's nonpolarized.

It's pretty much works the same as my polarized clip on. The HUD looks faint.

 

Mine works great with regular sunglasses and high intensity setting, but quite faint with polarized glasses. If you are sure you have the intensity up and non-polarized glasses, then I would have the dealer check it out.

 

Take them off and if the Hud brightens, you know your glasses are polarized.

 

I have everything on AUTO, you can simply change the temperature in order to increase, decrease, activate, deactivate the seats. Not sure if it works on the steering wheel but I would assume it does. Just wish it knew when not to activate the passenger side.