LEX-SV

Nice drop to $2.699 today for Chervon regular, w/usual 16 cents uplift for premium. btw - No wonder the lines for gasoline were so long at Costco when I drove by yesterday, price for regular is $2.399 there.

Just got the preliminary letter regarding recall of more than 400,000 Lexus vehicles because fuel leaks may develop in some cars and cause fires. Fortunately no fires have been reported so far. So far the handling of recalls (many recalls in last few years) at my Lexus dealership has been first class. I'll report how this one goes eventually.

VBdenny - Great idea for a thread! Instead of listing every car owned (which would take too long for me), focusing on cars really liked and why. Let me think about a few....

Scion was initially an experiment by Toyota, a division within a division, but now that's just some ancient history. Scion today is lagging mainly due to weak product offerings. Pretending to be premium will not get the results that better product offerings will. Mercedes/BMWAudi (main competition for Lexus) will continue to offer new products (mostly if not all lower cost fwd platforms) in the US at lower prices. Lexus was a pioneer in business with highly successful Camry-derived fwd ES, and late in the game with compact SUV NX, so they have capability to compete at affordable end of premium car business.

Good report.

Btw - First gen Scion Xb is nearly a cult car in US (and in Japan, branded as Toyota). When it first came out I was probably the only person over 40 that liked it. Even many Toyota salespeople didnt have a clue about its appeal. It certainly wasn't trying to be a premium car as it sold well in the first years.

Good point about the overall Lexus customer service experience, best in the automotive business consistently. I'm very fortunate that my Mercedes dealership is a block away from the my favorite Lexus dealership. This particular Mercedes dealership has stepped up to the challenge of meeting Lexus standards for customer service (sales and service, including amenities) and they are over 98% there. As the customer at both dealerships, I'm glad to see positive impact, first class experiences at both. I have had some business exposure to Japan (and only 1 trip to our sales office in Japan), and noticed same things that you did. I don't dare even get a house with a 3 or 4 car garage...

Yes, everybody wants to be in premium car business, and wants that ability to charge accordingly. Not all will make the cut just by producing luxurious vehicles (Acura, Buick, Volvo, Lincoln, are examples of those still trying), it takes a big investment including serious hardware and amentities including separate highend showrooms and service centers, to name a few. Despite proven Toyota's success with mainstream products and Lexus lux products, Scion has languished for years and in recent years is a downer by industry standards. They need to show us product that will propel Scion out of the consistent no growth/downward path.

Scion is a one hit wonder (Xb 1st gen, followed by less successful Xb 2nd gen). I'm familiar with it, having purchased an Xb for a famility member. Scion has lacked new/competitive products in recent years. Here's the November 2014 sales stats in US, not impressive, but at least the Xb stays at top of chart (FR-S is cool, more of niche product in a low volume kind of market): FR-S 935 IQ 82 XD 352 XB 1414 TC 1124 I'd like to hear more about how they plan to move "Scion to a small premium brand", because if it isn't done right they could end up like Lincoln.

Interesting, IMHO not a great idea. I'm also wondering about this guy and hope he keeps his hands off of Lexus. This talk about the magic $30K price point is hollow. Example: He is wasting energy putting down Mercedes (US) for going below that artificial price point with CLA, instead of focusing on products. Mercedes has quietly upped the entry price to above $30K, mission accomplished after generating more demand than they can handle with both a desirable product and attractive price.

midwesterner - We are like-minded with our automotive taste, and btw I'm not young too. A few my automotive quirks include: . I'm always fighting off the urge to own another Porsche, specifically some variation of 911 coupe (that's a personal problem, lol). . Also the new RC coupe and new Mustang GT/GT350 have caught my eye. . Currently we don't own a SUV (usually have had one for last decade+), not missing it that much, other than the ride height advantage in heavy traffic. . For long road trips, we tend to use/abuse a rental car (carefully selected for the trip). . For in-state/moderate road trips, the Mercedes C250 works great with comfort, reasonbly fun to drive, loaded with all of the lux amenities and easy to get 30 mpg on freeway/highway. . For fair weather day-tripping and some weekend trips we tend to use the Lexus IS350 (From an automotive standpoint, in my backyard is serious sports car country). Back on topic, Lexus reliability is easily the best in premium car business. Just when I thought Mercedes was catching up in this area, they fell short with latest launches of CLA and S-class (per CR), lets see how Mercedes responds. Audi has certainly made strides with reliability in recent years, lets see if they can keep it up. Most of the auto publications have commented on the progress that Lexus made with latest GS from drivers standpoint, and my limited driving exposure to the GS350 seems to verify it. These are more sporting versions of the GS today than in past generations.

Sounds like AUTO mode defaults to Recirculation mode for faster cooling/heating? . My recommendation (after the dealer does the remedial treatment) is never use the AUTO mode. In 10+ years I have never used AUTO for more than a few seconds and never had problems of this kind, and I only use outside air unless behind stinky car. . If you hit AUTO, immediatly adjust fan speed, etc. to put it in Manual mode. My cars stay in that Manual mode before/after startup .

Nice update/review on the GS350 awd, thanks. A couple of my observations on this class of mid-sized premium lux sedans. The somewhat isolated/numbish driving feel seems to be common and expected in this particular category of cars today and all the key players have dialed in this cushy setup intentionally including BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Lexus. Just the general larger/wider footprint makes them less conducive to sporting mountain road driving in the West IMHO too. We should be glad we didn't have the "numbing" experience like my ex-coworker did, he sold his 997 911 and bought current gen A6 3.0T, been over a year and he is still adjusting...... The next size down (being the compact premium sport sedans) tends to emphasis driver involvement a bit more including Lexus, BMW and to lesser extent Mercedes and Audi. The basic sizing of these cars alone makes them a bit more nimble and the buyers seem to want the agility (at some cost of ride comfort). One obvious high volume example of this is the Sport versions of the MB C-class have outsold Lux version by huge margin for years. My personal example of selling a Boxster S and replacing with a IS350 required a lot of F-Sport-type equipment to configure the car for satisfaction (but that's just me and not a common scenario)....

Still dropping here, yesterday $2.759 for Chevron regular, plus 16cent uplift for premium.

* Always using AUTO mode?

^ Sadly many auto brands have owners reporting same type of problem. Are you in a location that has high humidity? Have you tried using your climate control in "outside air" mode all the time (100% while driving and when turning off)?

cwes350 - Thanks for answer to my question on recirculation mode usage. In my case, I'm using "Outside Air" mode over 95% of time since day 1. dwince54 - I hope you get some resolution regarding your Lexus. At this point I can understand why you would say that you "would never purchase another Lexus". But one thing to keep in several other automakers have similar complaints about smelly air vents including BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Acura, Ford, Honda, VW, Jag, GM, Chrysler so I'm not sure what automakers that leaves....

I was curious... Do use your Climate Control in Recirculate mode or Outside Air mode mostly?

I mentioned this over in the ISx50 section regarding prevention of the mold problem. Although I think for cars that already have the mold smell problem, the damage might already be done and hard to eliminate. In my Lexus IS350 owned over last 6 years (as well as 2 Honda Civics and 2 Mercedes C-classes) I have never had the mold issue. I am wondering if these practices have somehome prevented it, just a guess: . Always use "Outside Air", not "Recirculate" mode. Only if in especially stinky area or behind a gross polluter do I use "Recirculate" mode briefly. . When car sits in garage, I always leave moonroof in Vent position.

Another "plus" feature in Lexus that is common to premium cars is the one-touch open and one-touch close moonroof. Some regular cars/SUVs (some Toyotas and Mazdas for example) don't have one-touch closure feature, you have to hold the button until roof is completely shut.

Yes, Eibach's have been on my IS350 for over 5 years, no problems.

Check the owners manual of your lexus IS250 regarding center mounting child seat in back. I glanced at my rear package shelf in my IS350 and it looks like it has the top anchor for centermounting a car seat, so that's good. Center position in back seat is the safest place in car for a child.

$2.799 for Chevron regular today, 16 cents uplift for premium.

Eeeeeuuuwww/spew. Gulls and pigeons.

I've owned 5 different convertibles, pretty much done with that. But a nice coupe always catches my eye....