I always have a Porsche also, my 11 Cayenne v6 is quickly making my LS redundant. My brother has a very nice Hyundai Genisis sedan, the dealer experience is third world compared to Lexus.
They really don't give two ****s about customers...

:thumbup: THIS!.

We simply ignore the fact how German cars improved their reliability while still keeping their cars technologically well advanced compared to Japanese cars. Its very unfair to compare std luxury car such as LS against technologically advanced cars such as MB S.

When more technology is integrated it brings complexity which unlike traditional mechanical engineering, hard to test for long term reliability. Let Lexus build a car like S and still show/maintain reliability as in their 2000s, then I will agree German engineering is inferior to Japanese.

Please spend sometime in MB website and then tell me what we drive can be considered as 'luxury' car or not.......

Remember the post few weeks back about what options not to be included when looking for a used LS?. That list had options such as air suspension, ML audio, radar cruise etc. So, we consider these basic options (may be except radar cruise) are unreliable even in Lexus. But expect better reliability from German cars which has more advanced features than LS.

At this day and age I would expect live google map and not hard drive and DVD based. I would also like watching (of course passengers) satellite TV while on road, lane departure assist to keep the car at the middle of the road 'with out' human hand touching ever..........

Recently read an article on self driving car patents. Guess which auto companies hold highest number of patents on self driving cars.................it is Audi not even Google!!!!

Well, if they are true sequential shifters, that's fine but if they are the pathetic excuses used in the IS250/350, they are worse than useless. The "shifters" in these cars are little more (no more) that upper and lower gear limiters which can "force" a shift if you move up and down a sufficient number of gears. Don't know what the rest of the Lexus lineup use.

"According to a report put together by Thompson Reuters’ Intellectual Property and Science Division, Toyota spent the last couple of years filing hundreds of patents related to autonomous driving. The report said that Toyota’s 1,400 patents outstripped any other automaker or tech company by a factor of two."

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/01...other-company/

"Based on the headlines you might think that Google single-handedly created the self-driving car, but when it comes to patents for autonomous driving technology, the IT giant is no match for Robert Bosch, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Since 2010, Bosch has applied for 2,710 patents related to autonomous driving followed by Toyota’s 2,061. VW ranked third (1,173) with Japanese supplier Denso (1,022) and Honda (882) rounding out the top five."

http://www.autonews.com/article/2016...nology-patents

I tried to find that article I read last week. During that search I come across this article which again points to Audi being holding higher number of such patents. I agree these numbers and ranks may be bit skewed based on how patent type/category are viewed.....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverw.../#7753391c41ef

While German's reliability has decidedly Improved ( I believe we can thank Lexus/Infinti for that), it is not like there parts and labor rates have come down commensurately. And while certainly better, I do think many believe them superior to the Japanese.

Parts and labor rates are up there on a Lexus too. What’s nice though is that anybody can work on it.

To be sure. On the good side, excluding the air suspension (which is quite well engineered; it is just when getting up in miles preventative maintenance is to be expected and the parts is quite high)
Especially with our car, it is very DIY friendly. I have to think part of it is having a relatively small V8 which makes working in the engine bay fair more pleasurable as opposed to those who shoehorn a large engine in a smallish car.

It really does grow on you. I also hated the look of it when it came out but, now it's growing on me... lol

this is why i went to tesla...

I wouldn't say "it's grown on me"...but I don't vomit anymore when I see it. Maybe I'm coming around.

Check back in after a year and let us know how many $$ thousands you've spent on maintenance to keep that prestige going!

I like Audi, but they are right up there with BMW and Mercedes when it comes to cost of ownership! Let us know what loaner car you driving next week!

LOL

It's amazing how many people don't like the new grill design on the 460, to each his own I guess when it comes to looks, but personally I think it looks ten times better than the nose on the 07-12 LS460's. If there's one thing I could change on my car it would be the nose, and I'm not talking just the grill but the entire front...never been thrilled with it, very plain, Toyota Camry-ish. Love the more aggressive hour glass design and the interior looks much better in my opinion as well. I think in a couple of years the 2013 LS460 will be the greatest bargain in the used car market, can you imagine buying one of these things for $20k-$25k? And those days are coming. Now that will be a super value,you'll be getting a drive train that has had nearly a decade of refinement and a redesigned modern interior and exterior, with all the modern ammnetities of a high end luxury car.

I have a friend who has a previous generation A6, I think it’s a 2010, she’s had no problems whatsoever. I know others with other modern yet older Audi’s and it’s the same story.

The “Audi unreliable” thing is really overstated. I know way more people with older problematic BMWs and Mercedes. I think as far as a German car goes, Audi is the way to go.

Agreed. If you're insistent on driving a German car, Audi would be my only choice. Even then, I'd still be gun-shy. Audi has steadily climbed the reliability scale. Porsche has scored highly as well.