I am looking at buying a 2009 LS with AWD. How reliable is AWD? Any issues with it? Is it really a benefit to have AWD? Does it make any difference in everyday driving (I live in the south with no snow)?

Thanks

 

I can
t answer directly, but I also live in the South and avoided AWD when I bought my car.

1) More stuff to break
2) More weight and friction = less MPG, less performance
3) My wife's Infiniti has AWD and the steering is noticeably heavier than the 2WD versions. That might or might not be the case with Lexus.
4) Car sits higher in front, less cool.

Basically, it's just more stuff under the car I did not need or want.

 

I had no issues with my 09 AWD LS but others have had some shuddering issues around 40mph (do a search). Since you are in the south with no snow you probably don't need AWD and like the post above, the RWD has more hp and a tiny bit better MPG. Too bad you weren't closer, I just traded in my 09 AWD and the place I traded it has it up for a really good price given the condition of it.

 

Had a 2010 with it and liked it. Now own 2012 and purposely sought it out. I find the car more stable on wet roads and roads with lots of sharp turns. Just seems to handle better. As far as gas mileage on my 2010 my overall overage was around 24. Freeway with cruise got around 30. The 2012 only has 2100 miles on it and I am noticing around the same numbers. Then again, it is all about how heavy a foot you have. Yes, it has only 357hp vs 380. But the 0-60 times are only about 4 tenths of a second different. Since the car is not designed as a high performance vehicle in either AWD or RWD I do not find that to be an issue.

 

Patgilm - what dealer has your 2009? I can fly to Baltimore for $200.

Thanks, Wayne

 

Benzel Busch in New Jersey has it. See if the link below works. They are not asking much over what they gave me for the trade in. It has 41k miles, clear bra on the hood, front bumper, headlights, foglights, side mirrors, side sills, and rear bumper. It has Mark Levinson sound system. All maintenance is up to date and just had a full brake fluid flush. I put on new Bridgestone Turanza Serenity tires at 39k miles and had an alignment done. Cabin and Air filters were changed at 30k miles. Always used Zaino wax and the car was really a turnkey trade where they didn't have to do any reconditioning. The factory warranty is good through 10/15/12 and you could extend it for another 3 years/100k miles just like a CPO car for $2k. The leather even on the drivers seat is in excellent condition as I was meticulous in cleaning and conditioning the left lower and left bolster of the seat. I was the second owner and the original was the owner of a local toyota dealer close to me and all of the work prior to me was through his dealer.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...24193546&Log=0

 

I have read elsewhere (on this site and others) that many AWD owners have had major issues with "shuddering" at certain speeds and have not been able to get it fixed (ends up being the basic design of the car and cannot be fixed). How widespread is this problem on AWD versions? If there are 10 reports of it on the internet, does that mean most owners have it or that 10 out of 10,000 have it?

 

Had to get towed twice in my '97 LS400. Once from a rain-saturated grass parking field; once from a slightly sloped, gravel covered parking lot. Would never get a RWD-only vehicle again. Currently have a '12 AWD LS460; no problems.

 

Never had any AWD problems, it is a 600 but I would imagine the system is the same. As mentioned above for the 460 mpg and acceleration suffer but traction is much better. I would opt out of it however if you dont live in the snow. Also car sits up higher front and looks ugly

 

You could run 16" rims on front to help drop it down a tad!

 

Well I am one of the AWD owners who has had the shuddering problem that patgilm referred to. I have now had the same issue in a 2009 that Lexus bought back and it has now appeared in the 2011 I am currently driving.

I really like the great control it gives in winter conditions but if I lived in the south there is no way I will ever buy another LS AWD unless Lexus does a major re-engineering of this feature.

 

That's what is disappointing about Toyota/Lexus. I think they've lost sight of what made their name....I expect cars to be released to the buying public with know 'issues' and year-after-year repetition by Chevrolet and Ford and Mitsubishi....but not Toyota.

The 'old' Lexus would never have allowed an issue like that to go unanswered for more than 1 model year.

 

Could not agree more.

 

Just wanted to follow up on this topic as I am now hopeful that Lexus has solved the AWD vibration issue

I have just had this TSB (L-SB-0013-12 AWD Vibration between 30-75 MPH) applied to my 2011 LS and I am feeling pretty confident that this finally fixes the AWD transmission vibration problem. On inclines at speeds around 60 MPH under slight acceleration I would get quite severe vibration that was even noticeable to passengers. After this TSB was applied I could not detect any vibration.

I think I need take more time to be sure this is a permanent fix because when I first picked up this 2011 I could not feel any vibration but after about 4000 miles the car was vibrating worse than my 2009. I suspect that this was a result of changes to the transmissions's shifting algorithm after "learning" my driving behavior.

But if this fix does work it will have solved a problem that has plagued my ownership experience since June 2010.

Many thanks again to Road Rage for posting this TSB