ES330 Purchase

[Lex_ESx4G]

I drive a 2008 RX350 that has the rare black birds eye maple wood. It's nice but a CUV is not for me. I would like, however, to get into an ES330. I've always been a sedan guy, somebody who appreciates an ultra smooth, very quiet, dependable ride with high quality interior materials. This generation ES looks to fit the bill.

A couple things however:

I'm a bit particular. The 2002-2004 center stack had a black (or charcoal) plastic surrounding the climate and radio. The 2005-2006 had a silver surround and I think it looks significantly worse than the 2002-2004. It throws the entire interior off for me. I will say, however, the OEM navigation screen dramatically improves the look of the center stack. Something about the radio layout doesn't work for me, I don't really know why.

What I love is, unlike my RX where you have to change fan speed on the touch screen, there appears to be NO climate controls you absolutely need to go through the touch screen in the ES with. Can anybody double confirm for me? I also love how the clock doesn't need adjusting through the screen, as it has its own hour/minute buttons.

I had an excellent XM radio receiver in one of my older cars, so I plan on doing something similar. Of course I'm not going to pierce the wood and run it through that, but I'll figure out where a good spot is. Having more functionality on a separate device, in addition to not having to use the touch screen, is something I'm very interested in.

In fact, aside from asthetics regarding the button situation as described above, I like the idea of viewing the map while driving. Obviously we're in 2024 and I wouldn't use it, but I'm going to update it to the newest version (think it came out in 2019?) so it can look the best it can. I think it looks rather cool, in some weird way, that probably nobody in 2024 would understand except me. LOL. Also big props for putting hard buttons on the sides of the screen. Wish more manufacturers would do this and not make it to where you need to do everything in a touch screen.

The ONLY downside to this idea is having to press accept every single time I start the car. In my 2008 RX, that menu (I call it the lawyer screen) goes away after a few seconds. Does it on the 2005-2006 ES330? Big question for me. If nobody answers anything from this post, please, please let me know about this one. I was vehemently against touch screens in cars (bought the RX not knowing I had to use it for fan speed and the clock) but if I do not have to use the touch functions on this one, I'm all for it since again, it greatly improves the look of the interior over those radio buttons on base models.

What else... the positioning of the shifter is weird. Why didn't they put the AVS and sunshade buttons somewhere else and center the shifter? Cars without these features look very weird to me and honestly was a reason I didn't consider an ES for many years. I wonder how many people's OCD kicked in over the years when they were driving a base car and saw that the shifter needed to "shift" over an inch or two to the left...

Problem solved because I'm going to find a fully loaded one. I don't know how many 05-06 ES330's come with AVS/sunshade, ML radio, navigation, pedal adjustment, cooled seats, adaptive/HID headlights, passenger memory seats, etc. You know, the works. Especially in a color I like. I'm determined to find one though. The golden birds eye maple looks very nice, but I'm a big fan of the black birds eye maple that's in my RX. I know that's incredibly rare and virtually impossible to find in good condition with lower miles and a fully loaded example. Plus didn't it just come out in 2006?

Oh and speaking of colors... I don't think I could do a black interior, especially considering I would miss out on the golden birds eye maple. Definitely don't want the cashmere color for leather/padding surfaces and all that. Just plain does not work for me.

Speaking of the ML stereo. How does it hold up? I'm not necessarily talking quality but rather due to the fact I'm looking at a nearly 20 year old car. I heard they are more prone to stop working over the base "Lexus Premium Sound" system. Is that true? ML isn't a huge deal if it isn't much different than the "Lexus Premium Sound" system. I heard that one has only 86 watts, and I know you can't go just off watts to determine the quality of a sound system, but still.

AVS. Saw that comfort mode means the ride is softer and easier over bumps than a car without AVS in the first place. Is that correct? I'm definitely looking into the smoothest, quietest ride. Those are my two biggest objectives. Although I really would love to find an example with AVS, I don't want to limit myself if a car without it doesn't make a noticeable difference in ride quality. I figure I'm going to change out the brakes/calipers to 2001 ES300 spec so I can fit 15 inch tires and give me a massive sidewall, so doing that on a non-AVS car is equal to 16 inch tires on the most comfort-oriented setting with AVS. Would you agree?

In fact, I don't care at all about the sunshade. I would personally rather it be manual, but the button placement keeps the shifter location from looking too awkward. I figure at some point I'll just take out the sunshade and get a manual one put in, similar to a 2005 Camry. That worked very well and looked very nice. It was a dealer option, so it wasn't some tacky looking aftermarket thing.

If anyone took the time to read this book, hats off to you. I really want one of these with all the options/colors I described. I look extremely forward to reading responses to all (or any) of these questions as well as any additional insight.