Call me crazy...

Long story short: 3 months after I purchased (leased to be exact) my blue onyx ES350, wife and I decided to move back to Taiwan. So here I am in Taiwan, with a 3 days new white ES350 here and a 5 months new(?) blue onyx ES350 in Toronto. I will fly back to Toronto and take care of the lease termination in Jan. and hopefully they won't charge me too much as penalty. Sigh.

I was torn between getting the IS250 and ES350, but considering the wonderful experience I had with my blue onyx ES350, I ended up buying it again. To those who have doubts after reading so many posts of problems in this forum, I have this to say: This car is just great! It's comfortable and quiet. Transmission is silky smooth. Acceleration is powerful when I need it. No rattles and wind noise. IMHO it's simply the best car in its class.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that there are real problems as others have posted. I consider myself lucky to get 2 ES350's of the same superb quality, not to mention they're both problem free. Granted the 2nd one is still too new to tell, but so far it rides just like the 1st one -- perfect as I've expected from Lexus.

Of course I can't guarantee that every ES350 will be problem free, but I hope this post gives more "dimension" for people who are considering buying this car. There ARE happy owners out there!

 

Congratulations on your Second ES 350! Glad you enjoy the car.

 

wow. congrats. Are you in Taipei by any chance? early next year, i will be spending some time in Taiwan as well.

 

Congrats Celibon! I hope you enjoy Taiwan and that you will still remain among us here at CL!

 

Great to read another POSITIVE post about the ES350. Good luck with your new ES. I hope it provides you with as much driving pleasure as the first one did.

 

Congrats on your 2nd ES and thanks for sharing your positive experience.

 

Hey Celibon, you and I ought to start a "2X ES350 Club" . I too have experienced 2X perfectly fine ES350s, though the first one I had only owned for 11 days. How are the driving conditions in taiwan compared to Canada? I suspect more stop-n-go traffic, no? I'm glad you get to enjoy such a fine vehicle in another country. Have you seen any UL around?

 

Thanks guys. My ES350 in Taiwan is not the UL version that I have in Toronto. We only have 2 versions here: Luxury and the more expensive UL. I have the luxury which has navigation but not Mark Levinson nor the DVD capability. It also lacks the softer semi-aniline leather seats and the panoramic sunroof. However it does have some things that were not included in my UL:

- auto folding side mirrors (very tight parking here in Taiwan, nice feature)
- side turn signals between the front doors and the front wheels (added safety for the crowded streets in Taiwan)
- ashtrays on the rear doors (useless for me)

Foreign import cars are considered a luxury here because of the price after high tax. For the price I paid for the luxury ES350, I can buy the UL ES350 that I have in Canada with some change. Heck, for the MSRP here (approx. USD$64,700 for the luxury) I can buy a base LS460 in US lol . Oh well this is just how it's gonna be for me. I should be thankful that I'm not buying a car in Singapore where it's even more expensive.

Cocopos- yes I live in Taipei. As Kaius88 said it's mostly stop-n-go here. Average speed on the roads is slow. Which is one of the reasons why I bought the ES350 again -- even when I'm stuck in traffic, I'm still comfy inside its luxurious cabin. It's just too bad that much of the 272hp is wasted.

 

In the past 2 months I've seen maybe 6 or 7 ES350's on the road, but didn't count the number of UL. According to my salesman the UL consists of about 2/3 of ES350 sales.

 

Since you have had both, how much of a difference is there between the semi aniline seats and the regular leather?

Also, is the semi-aniline seats in the UL ES350 the same as what is in the LS460L?

 

I've been away from my UL for 2 months when I bought the luxury, so I can't really recall what the semi-aniline felt like. I can tell you however that the regular leather seats are good enough for me. Maybe when I get into my UL in 2 weeks I can make a better comparison.

As for your second question, honestly I don't know

 

yup yup. the COE in Singapore is expensive, though they are starting to come down. I lived in Singapore for parts of my life and I wouldn't have been able to afford a Lexus there. Nice. I go to Taiwan at least once a year but only stay there for a while. Spent most of my time in Kaohsiung though.

 

No kidding. CAD to SGD is about 1.34 (or rather 0.75 SGD = 1 CAD).

when I was there 10 years ago, an LS400 was $289,000 before taxes. (SGD to CAD might've been 1-1 back then)