Django44

Third party warranties are a waste of money on a Lexus in my opinion. The brand is ranked the most reliable car in the world by Consumer Reports with the ES350 the best of the best. I've been offered such warranties on my 2008 ES350 for years. Why do they keep offering them? Because the insurance companies know this model of Lexus, on average, is the least likely to breakdown of all cars on the road. I'm about $7500 richer today because I turned down all their offers over the past eight years. Total repair costs for me with 95,000 miles on the car is $90 for a battery cable.

Be aware that all radar detectors in Virginia, hard wired or not, are illegal.

A few days ago I received a notice form Lexus that they are initiating a Warranty Enhancement Program to cover the problems of "cracked and/or sticky/melting" dashboards in covered vehicles as a result of heat or humidity. The covered vehicles include the 2007-2008 ES 350. There are timeline restrictions with a date of May 31, 2017 as a cutoff on Primary Coverage. All the details are included in the material Lexus sent. I have not had any dashboard problems with my 2008 ES350 even living in Northern Virginia. I do not regularly park my car, however, in sunny hot locations in the summer so that may have something to do with the lack of deterioration. If you are registered with the Lexus warranty program I would expect that you should receive this notice as well.

Recently I had work done on my 2008 ES350 that required a battery disconnect. I had to reset the radio presets, auto seat positions, and clock. I also lost all my "previous destinations" in the Navigation system.

Today, just about the time gbhrps sent his message, I received yet another phone solicitation for extended coverage on my 2008 ES350. The car has 75,000 miles on it and I have not had any problems in the nearly 6-1/2 years that I've had it.

I posted this earlier in the year on the topic of extended warranties: "Across the broad spectrum of all cars on the road the extended warranties are not worth it. If they were the warranty companies would not be in business. Unless you know that your car has a high likelihood to breakdown then I don't think they are worth it (and if the model has a poor reputation the warranty companies will know it and charge you accordingly to assure that they make a profit). When I was considering an extended warranty for my 2008 ES350 a couple of years ago I did a little research and found that JD Powers ranked the Lexus (and Lincoln) as the most reliable brand on the road. Given that, I decided against the extended warranty and just put a little more money into the savings as a means of self-insurance. To me its like buying fire insurance on pig iron stored under water. And, by the way, the warranty companies are still sending info and even calling me (had a call last week) about purchasing an extended policy. Do you think they would be doing that because the Lexus has (1) a good reputation for reliability or (2) a poor reputation?" Having said all that, the $584 for another two years of warranty does not sound like too bad of a deal. I was quoted something like $2200 for three years. Note: my 2008 ES350 now has 73,000 miles on it and if I had purchased extended coverage I would have never used it.

Yes. We've raised the seats to max height and would still like a little more (we're somewhat short folks).

Can anyone recommend a comfortable and durable seat cushion that could add 1-2” of height to the front seats and that fits the ES 350?

If the button is getting physically stuck (as opposed some internal electrical problem) you may want to try using an electronic cleaner and lubricant spray such as that sold by Radio Shack. Just spray a little directly into the gap between the button and the molding.

Across the broad spectrum of all cars on the road the extended warranties are not worth it. If they were the warranty companies would not be in business. Unless you know that your car has a high likelihood to breakdown then I don't think they are worth it (and if the model has a poor reputation the warranty companies will know it and charge you accordingly to assure that they make a profit). When I was considering an extended warranty for my 2008 ES350 a couple of years ago I did a little research and found that Edmunds ranked the Lexus (and Lincoln) as the most reliable brand on the road. Given that, I decided againt the extended warranty and just put a little more money into the savings as a means of self-insurance. To me its like buying fire insurance on pig iron stored under water. And, by the way, the warranty companies are still sending info and even calling me (had a call last week) about purchasing an extended policy. Do you think they would be doing that because the Lexus has (1) a good reputation for reliability or (2) a poor reputation?

I agree with 1990LS400. I too had a trailer hitch (Curt #12343) installed on my 2008 ES350 and find it much easier to use than the old trunk rack that I used with my Camry which seemed to put a lot of strain on the trunk lid. I had it installed locally for $95, although the guy said he should have charged me more since it wasn't as easy as it originally looked. I then purchased a Thule 954 Ridgeline 4-bike rack which is easy to mount on the hitch and comes with a locking device to prevent theft. According to the ES350 manual the car can tow up to 1000 lbs. so if I ever need to tow a light trailer/load I suppose I can do that as well.

As SKIP2929 states, the Prestigious Society offers a terrific work around that permits you to use any function otherwise blocked while the vehicle is in motion. I purchased and installed one and find it invaluable especially on long trips. The installation took about one hour and the instructions that came with it were very clear. The only additional thing I did was to place the device, which is smaller than a pack of cigarettes, into an old sock to prevent it from rattling once it is inserted behind the control panel. I was able to place the on/off switch (a very small button) into the ash tray space (we removed that the day we bought the car) making it otherwise hidden from view. The only problem I had was reinstalling the two vents above the nav screen. I couldn't get them to snap competely back into the dash which left about a 1/4" gap at the bottom of the vents. The next time I took the car in for servicing at Lexus the technician snapped the vents back into place. My wife and I love the device since she can now explore many things on the nav system while the car is in motion. On our cross country road trip last summer this turned out to be very helpful tool in combination with her iPad when looking for hotels, restaurants, cafes and other point of interest. The device runs about $300 but is well worth it if you travel a lot. And, yes, it should not be operated by the driver while the car is in motion because it does take a lot of attention. Google "Prestigious Society" to find their web site.

good stuff, thanks for the info weird how even though it was off, it was not consistent in one direction I reviewed my notes and find that I went through about 30 minutes of congestion south of Harrisburg, PA on the return trip and I suspect that gave me the low MPG reading (29 MPG) on that one leg. Interesting how a few miles of stop and go congestion can effect mileage.

In August I made a round trip from Virginia up to Canada and tracked my mileage. The trip totaled 1,695 miles (about 70% on interstates) and I used a total of 54.4 gallons of fuel (premium) which means I got 31.16 miles/gallon for the entire trip. My earlier examination of the odometer readings compared to actual marked miles along interstates showed that the odo reads about 1.9% low. As a consequence I estimate that the 1,695 mile trip measured on the odo was more like 1,727 actual miles thus giving me a mileage reading of 31.75 miles/gallon. I also compared the MPG readings on the Lexus dash display to actual MPG for individual segments between fill-ups to see how accurate the MPG gauge is. In the four tanks of gas that I used, the MPG gauge showed 31.0 MPG compared to an actual adjusted 29.0 MPG on one segment (why it was low I'm not sure). The other three segments showed the actual MPG to be higher than the Lexus display MPG: (1) Lexus 31.8 / actual 33.1; (2) Lexus 29.0 / actual 31.3; and (3) Lexus 33.0 / actual 34.9 MPG. Bottom line: I think the Lexus MPG gauge reads low and that we’re actually getting even better mileage than the gauge indicates.