Trunk Tempoerature

[Lindseylum]

My ES 350  2017 is new to me, and the trunk appears not to have any climate control, that is, in winter everything in the trunk arrives in 2 hour trip, very cold, even inside luggage items are very cold.  Same in summer, very hot.  In my older Lexus LS 430 some of the interior air in the cabin must have passed into the trunk, as I never experienced cold or hot items in the trunk after one hour or more drives.  Is there any way to make the air in the cabin go into the trunk to moderate the extreme temps in the trunk ?

[pj8708]

No.

Paul

[1990LS400]

I suppose you could open the trunk pass through door behind the rear seat armrest.

If your LS430 had the Ultra Luxury package with the separate rear HVAC system, that might have been why its trunk temperature was closer to that of the interior.

[Lindseylum]

I guess that would work, although I don't know why Lexus doesn't let the air flow through and out the trunk.  My 2005 Camry allows that, and items in the trunk are always a moderate temps when I arrive at other cities... no matter how hot or cold it is.  So... why wouldn't a 2017 Lexus be as good as a 2005 Camry?  well, I do think in many ways car-makers and others go backwards over time, they get something correct the first time, and then find a reason to change it , but not always for the better.

[1990LS400]

Now that you mentioned it, I remember once noticing that the trunk of one of the LS400's we owned from 1990 until 2014 didn't seem to get as hot or cold as exterior temperatures.  I never thought much about it although there might have been cutouts in the metal structure under the parcel shelves that passed interior airflow to the trunks.  I distinctly remember the exhaust vents in the trunks but all vehicles built by Toyota have those.  The attached image shows the left side one on the LS430.

With the flight to SUV's and crossovers, far fewer vehicles with separate closed off trunks are being sold these days.  I don't see us ever buying another traditional sedan with a closed off trunk but I'm hoping to buy a 2-seat "geezer retirement car" that has closed off trunks when the 2021 models become available.  When Jay Leno reviewed the newly redesigned mid-engine 2020 Corvette C8, he recommended putting one's beer only in the front trunk since the radiators are at the sides of the front trunk and the rear trunk is behind the engine.  I plan to measure the C8's front trunk at an upcoming auto show to see which one of our Igloo coolers will fit - I plan ahead!