vanson350

iTrader: (1)

I switched from Acura to Lexus and my wife did as well. We have not been very satisfied. She had a brand new 2008 ES350 and the transmission completely failed at 5,000 miles. Yes it was under warranty but none the less still a disappointment. My 2007 IS350 has been in the shop about 10 times since I bought it with 9,000 miles on it in March of 2008. I like my car but don't love it like I liked my old faithful Acura that had 197,000 miles and had been in the shop four times in 11 years. Once for the window regulator which was under warranty, once for the starter and alternator, one small recall and the transmission seal started leaking two weeks after I got my IS350. Keep in mind the car was 11 years old at this point and had the original transmission which had seen me tow two Waverunners, motorcycles and ATVs. I think my old Acura was mad at me for upgrading.

The two cars do not compare as far as luxury goes or in the looks department. But the IS has had four recalls since I have had it. The floor mat recall was bull in my opinion. They replaced the all weather mats with a substandard mat that is junk compared to the ones I had purchased from them originally. The break pad issue was resolved with lower dust pads for pads that now squeal when they are cold. I'm driving a $40k plus car, it's embarrassing to be rolling to a light or stop sign with your bad @#$ Lexus a squealing. Fuel rail campaign was also done and now I have to make an appointment for the valve springs. Not to mention the many times I have had to take the car in for them to try and stop the various rattles I have encountered in the dash area. Geez my Acura didn't rattle this bad after 11 years. Yeah I have it lowered and am running 19 inch Volk VR-G10 but give me a break my Acura was lowered too.

Growing up as a kid I thought that Honda and Toyota were by far the most reliable brands out there but with all the issues I have had with my Toyota/Lexus I'm disappointed. Do I think that Toyotas have gone to $#@$, no but they have let me down. My wife will end her lease soon and go back to an Acura MDX. I've gotten to the point where I would like to get rid of my IS350 for something else, I buy she leases. And the Lexus Nav does suck. My wife had an MDX prior to the ES350 and Acura navigation is way better. Maybe I'm not schooled in the Toyota/Lexus Nav system but it blows compared to the Acura. Why do I need to cut some wire or do some special start up sequence to use it during my driving when a passenger would like to look something up. I wanted to get and IS-F next month since I am getting promoted but maybe I should just go and buy a Honda Fit. Hahaha What's also funny is that my wife was going to get a TL when her old MDX lease was up and I convinced her to go with the Lexus. The IS350 and TL-S are not going to drive the same but I do feel that I would have had probably 1-2 trips to the Acura dealer as opposed to 10 for the Lexus. I like BMWs too but I want a reliable car over one that may be a bit faster or handle a tad bit better.

NCLexi250

iTrader: (1)

Wow, an Is-F or a Honda Fit.. talk about two different sides of the spectrum man! Good job on your promotion.

YooNiBaLL

my parents and i looked at both the TL-S, G37S, the 335xi, and the IS 350. We got the best deal for the lexus. Plus, the IS 350 was the best quality/reliability. It was very close between the 335xi and IS 350. But the Lexus was cheaper and the TL-S wasn't even a thought in our minds. The interior was bland compared to the IS and the speed was just bleh.

MBTC

I forgot to mention a couple of other items of interest (they escaped me before since the thread is really about the TL vs the IS, but I thought I would mention them here).

When the new Accord coupe came out, I thought the overall bodystyle was somewhat stunning for a Honda, and it inspired thoughts of the old Prelude, which I thought was nicely styled for it's day. I wanted to consider this car for purchase, and it would have had considerably more HP than my IS250, yet run on regular gas! ... But alas few problems:

1) A V6 with leather, decent options etc would have approached the $30k mark, that's only 2-3k less than my IS250. The service level you get at a premium brand alone makes it worth the extra money here, not to mention the IS is a much better car.
2) Everything I read indicated to me that Honda had spent on their attention on designing cosmetics and ignoring the driver experience. Almost everyone complained about road noise, regardless of 4 or 6cyl models.
3) Those with leather complained about the quality of the leather (WTF? If you are going to pay even close to $30k for a car at least offer decent leather?)
4) Perhaps most important to me, people complained about the seat comfort, backaches on long drives. I have never once heard this complaint about any Lexus model, yet it seemed to be unanimous on the current gen Accord. I'm one of those that will notice poor ergonomics on long trips, so this was probably the biggest dealbreaker for me.
5) The Accord 4cyl coupe is an amazing value, but the fact that the price is so approachable to many people meant that there would be a gazillion of them on the road (and there now are, unlike the first few months).

... Maybe if there were an $8k difference between the IS250 and a Honda V6 EX-L, the Honda would look better, but with only a few grand difference, no thanks. And meanwhile, the Acura TL starts at $35k?

Now, to the only REAL competitor to the IS250 in terms of overall value. This year Infiniti introduced the G25 (the 2.5 litre version of the G37), which has about 15 more HP than the IS250, and starts at a lower price point. I knew this was coming out in only a few months, but decided to go Lexus IS because it was mid-late in the model lifecycle (this usually means all the bugs are worked out of the design, and cars in this lifecycle stage tend to be some of the most reliable on the planet). I did not want to get a first-year G25, because frankly I don't think Infiniti is quite in Lexus' league in terms of overall quality, and I think they need at least 3 years to work the bugs out of the design.

I'm very happy with my choice. I dodged a lot of recalls and TSBs with a late-2010 model IS. Whether or not I stay with Lexus or consider another model like Infiniti in a couple of years will depend on how my car ages and how the dealership takes care of me when it does, but I will say that Infiniti G25 looks like a formidable competitor to the IS250 when you consider the MSRP is under $31k. I got my IS for several thousand under MSRP, and if that is even close to true about the G25, then it could be an absolute amazing buy.

lji

I've had issues with the Lexus I sold as well. They replaced the CD changer around 3000 miles as my CDs got stuck in it and they couldn't retrieve it, the cupholder wouldn't open fully and the back breaker for me was the alignment issue. I didn't want to hold on to car after warranty expired that kept drifting on the highway around 60 mph (road crown my foot - My 2005 Camry tracks straight on the same roads). Same roads and the new 2010 SH-AWD TL doesn't exhibit this problem. Funny this was I test drove a GS 350 the dealer had on the lot and that car did the exact same thing my IS was doing. Until Lexus owns up to their problems, I'm staying away. I hope the rest of the people on this forum don't have the issues that I experienced.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...-to-right.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...alignment.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...the-right.html

LexFather

Of course you will have those vocal people saying they have issues with Lexus and went elsewhere especially with low post counts. anecdotal evidence Good for them that is what competition is for. The facts are Lexus even with recent issues is more reliable and made of superior quality stuff. Otherwise those other brands would be where Lexus is instead of the other way around. If I bought a car less superior I would try to convince myself it was superior since I am paying for it.

I do find it odd that changing NAV on the move is "liberating" when you can do it on your phone and I feel a Japanese car made in JAPAN is liberating rather than a Japanese badged car designed in America, sold for Americans, built by Americans. Just give me a Buick at that point. Until THAT is fixed, forget about it.

There has been good feedback here, lets not go overboard. Shall we name ever issue Acura has cause there are tons of them as well.

intellis

Agreed. The lines on the IS are so fluid, define, and unique. Hands downs its one of the best looking cars around. IS all the way!!!!!

chikoo

They are very fluid. It is just not that lip friendly. Which in other words means that all the other lips and skirts that get tacked on the car look like an eyesore. Except for the black color.

Just my observation.

ttiangco

I think hondas/acuras are just very disposable vehicles. I used to own a tsx loaded up with navi at 17, and when i got rid of it i didnt miss it at all. Everything about them just screams cheap. The road noise (which is something major to me) is just unbelievably loud. The windows are thin, and the door closes like shiet. I never looked back to Acura because their fwd kills me, and i dont want an all wheel. I personally believe toyota/lexus are better any given day, car for car, pound for pound...except the honda odyssey is far better then the toyota sienna! hahhaahha

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I forgot to make something clear. I don't like the current TL's looks. In the post above, I was referring to the previous car. The current car looks funny to me.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Not really...

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/18/p...-2010-vehicle/

That's long-term dependability

Lexus has been at/near the top of that study for over 15 straight years... well above Acura and Infiniti for as long as they've existed.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

The general public also thinks Dancing with the Stars is fantastic entertainment.


But yes, last year Lincoln scored slightly higher than Lexus (though the scores are about close enough to consider it a tie... point being both had significantly fewer long-term reliability problems than Infiniti or Acura)

As I say though- if you go back and look at the VDS results year after year, Lexus is at/near the most dependable nameplate in the industry. In fact from 1995 to 2008 Lexus was #1 in long term dependability every single year...2009 and 2010 they're still near the top (3rd overall, but statistically it's awfully close at the top). As I say, well ahead of Acura and Infiniti for virtually the entire existence of both brands.

syzygy

Why do you post here?

You've never owned a Lexus. You clearly don't plan to own one. You've gone around these forums for years posting the exact same (type) of thing over and over again.

Just out of curiosity, what car do you own? My initial guess is some sort of German vehicle (perhaps BMW?) but I can't be sure.

By the way, just to be clear, you're welcome to post here. I'm just wondering - why?

I suppose some people enjoy inciting arguments with rival car forums for the sake of arguing.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Indeed... though once they were sold to an Indian company their quality dropped off the table... (the 2010 result has them dropping well below industry average, while they were well above it for years prior to that... the 2009 results where they still had a high rating would've been the last set of data before the whole Ford sale thing began).

bear in mind, the JD Power numbers are based on actual reported problems in models after several years.

The Consumer Reports ratings posted were "predicted" reliability scores rather than actual historical data about the cars in question.

I'll stick to real data over guesswork personally.

chikoo

Frankly speaking Ford quality is getting as good as Toyota or Honda, if not better. Thanks and applauds for the Ford Master learning some lessons from its own student Mazda(Japan). This all started with the Mazda6 platform. Ford started to build the Mazda6 for the US in Flat Rock, MI and what wonderful build quality it achieved. I drove a 2003 Mazda6 for 7.5 years and nothing broke. Not only nothing broke, no trims deteriorated either. The dash, the leather, the door leather trims, the carpet, the rubber moldings, the suspension. All in tip top condition. All I did was 8K OCI and finally at 110K sold it with a heavy heart.

Compared to that, I already have the windshield weatherstrip deteriorating on a 2008 IS250 and leather trim on a door peeling off. That too on the passenger side. The side that is used the least.