Sharing my experience after 5000 miles - 2019 ES300h Luxury. What drove me to the Lexus ES hybrid is the brand reliability and mpg consideration.

What I love about the car:

• Seating /driving position
• Smooth and very comfortable ride
• Steering response (much better than I expected)
• ML sound system
• Excellent safety systems- the reverse auto braking feature already prevented an accident in a parking garage
• Appearance and finish (both internal and external)
• Radar assisted cruise control & lane keep assist –found it very useful for highway driving and I am using it more frequently than I thought.
• The triple LED headlight

What I am not happy about:

• My average MPG is between 35-38 miles, most likely due to my driving situation, as about half of my trips are between 3 to 5 miles and not energy efficient. These ultra-short trips score under 30 mpg and I get around 40 mpg when I drive for more than 25 miles. The mpg also drops significantly under 50-degree F. Probably a plug in hybrid is better suited for my driving situation
• The car is generally very quiet but there is an annoying ticking noise from the headliner (driver side) when driving over rough surface. It sounds like a plastic trim that is not properly fixed, or could be the plastic handle. I mentioned this to the service engineer who said it is ‘normal’. They adjusted a misaligned cabin trim piece in the back during the service, but the noise is still there.
• I have occasionally felt the need for more power while trying to merge into busy highways…but it is a hybrid…no complaints
• Poor ventilation/ heating for the rear passengers, I played with the climate system but couldn’t figure it out. There is almost no heat coming through the rear vents
• Durability of the perforated leather seats…need to be very careful. My back seat already has a tiny tear. I will eventually need to fix it and the OEM rear seat bottom cover (without the cushion) costs about $1170
• The touch pad…I am getting used to it but would still prefer a touch screen
• Numerous brown spots (probably rail dust) on the pearl white paint, the dealership though it is normal and suggested me to use a rubbing compound. They don’t have a body shop and cannot address it.

Overall I feel the ES300h is a great highway cruiser and most suitable for those with long commute.

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For the rail dust, lookup CarPro Iron X. Follow the instructions well.

 

This is has been driving me nuts since I picked up my ESh last summer. I expected this with a pano roof (had rattles after 10k miles in every pano roof car I've ever had) but to immediately have a rattle in a normal sunroof Lexus is annoying.

When you grab your "***** handle" above your head does the rattle go away? I feel like mine does. I haven't tried just turning the screws tighter on the handle. Might be worth a try.

And your mileage is similar to mine. I'm at 8k miles and maybe 9 months and I just last week got my best mpg tank at 39.x mpg according to my Fuelly calcs. Most have been around 37mpg. I have a 6 mile one way surface street commute that would have made more sense for a plug-in hybrid.

 

Thank you...Iron X looks promising. Going to order one.

 

Thank you...I totally hear you, the noise is irritating since it is so close to the ear
I am not sure if it is from the handle since I hear it even when I grab it. However, the noise is very inconsistent, sometimes I don't hear it over rough terrain and other times it is very annoying.

 

I have exactly the same issue of annoying ticking noise in my 19 F Sport around the driver door and I think around the infotainment screen (something loose).
It is also very annoying that there is a lot of howling wind noise (in addition to normal/bearable wind noise) when driving over 50 mph (happen 70-80% of the time).
My car has 9K miles now over 1 year. These issues were not obvious for the first 3-4K miles.

It drives me insane and made me think about switching to a different automaker.

 

I faced the same issue in my RHD ES300h. There was creaking/ticking noise coming from top right side.
It was coming due to flexing of roof sheet metal with B pillar. It was solved by removing the headliner, sunroof assembly and then filling the joint with insulation foam.

 

Did you resolve your issue under Lexus warranty, or was that a project you undertook yourself?

 

The work was done under Lexus warranty.

Work in progress picture. The noise was emanating from roof sheet metal joint.

 

I don't think my dealership will do anything like this...they told me that the technician did not hear anything unusual.

 

I don't think my dealership will do anything like this....they told me that the technician did not hear anything unusual

 

Was there anyone actually riding in the back seats when you noticed that? There is a setting called "S-Flow" that changes where the air blows based on where people are sitting. You can read more about it in the manual. It should be like page 258. Just a thought.

 

grabbing this pic to show my dealership, my 2019es has this ticking issue above head. lexus have had it for 2 weeks once and ended up stuffing foam thats muted it. But can hear it from rear grab handle area behind me, and also can hear from passenger side now. Its going back again in couple of weeks.

My first Lexus and only had car 6 weeks, im totally gutted, its way too annoying for me to live with. If they cant fix it i will be swapping. Ive had to involve Lexus UK.

the steering wheel also doesnt return to central position after full lock turning to left on pull aways, even power steering in a fiesta does that. Car also rumbles/shakes when in park sometimes. 🤷‍♂️ but by far the rattle/ticking in roof is unacceptable for a luxury car

 

Yeah its hard to say there's so much stuff up there, wires, clips, what not. my feeling is its the headliner itself where the layers sandwhich together. there's probably a gap somewhere and that gap is flexing/rubbing over bumps and the layers are clicking in certain spots. basically not much you can do about that besides hope another headliner was manufactured a bit better and swap the whole thing out. from that pic it looks like a big sheet of plastic there. perhaps thats it. another issue is no 21 year old tech is a) going to even consider all these things and b) take time to inspect/touch/flex/tighten every single part up there to rule stuff out. they'll just do a cursory glance, do/touch things they've heard other techs do, and replace a part they think it might be/stuff tape etc and call it a day and hope for the best. those are the types of things you just hope the manufacturer got right cause really it's going to be hard to isolate and find by some tech somewhere and they're just going to send you on your way.

 

yep, when ever i’ve heard of Lexus managing to fix this its usually only after persistence, 2/3 visits. At my particular branch they only allow the senior techs to touch the roof apparently.
Ive even said if they cant find anything obvious, let’s just stuff as much sound dampening foam as humanly possible. 😂

they have also agreed to me taking the tech out, so i will be asking him to not cut corners on it. 🤞