The G Man

Even then, there is only so much you can do. especially for people who dont have a second car.

The ES is tough to beat as far as quietness and smoothness in its price range, but new Buick LaCross is pretty close. As far as the LS is concerned, it is still the quietest, but the MB S-class and the Audi A8 is also pretty close, close enough as most will say. Here is a chart of a recent quietness and smoothness comparison of the top mid size sport luxury sedans by road and track, as you can see, Lexus is not always the best:

We had owned 5 Toyotas in the pass, and I cannot recall any incidence of strong acceleration when you hit resume.

I believe the ES is the only Lexus that Toyota will retrofit the brake overrride safety feature into. I bet you a lug nut that Lexus will give into public and government pressure and install the brake override on all their cars.

RX in NC, there is no doubt that most people would be happier in a Jag S-type than a GS, two different class of cars really, but not everyone is as handy as you. For those who dont know the difference between a head gasket and a cylinder head, Lexus is the way to go or any similar Japanese cars. Jags are not the maintenance hog as they use to be, but they are still high maintenance, and costly when out of warranty. I compare European cars to Japanese car like old girlfriends, some are a lot of fun but very high maintenance and some are boring but reliable, it all depends on your patients and what you are looking for at the time.

It may look like sudden accelaration might be a problem in the Prius as well. According to Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple and owner of several Priuses, his new Prius took him for a ride of a life time. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/11/prius.cru...dex.html?hpt=T1

nc211, I also have owned many Toyota and Lexus, eight to be exact between my wife and I. Believe me, we didnt buy all those Toyota because we believe it had a nice transmssion. We bought those Toyota and Lexus because we know it is a safe bet. Have you driven a new Jag? I have and I also bought one, it is that nice, the new Jagaur XF puts the Lexus ES and the GS to shame and yes, its rated to be more relaible and have better customer service than Lexus. As far as the Tahoe vs a Land Cruiser, the LC is $15000 more, I would much rather buy a new Tahoe than a 2 year old LC.

I just read this info on another site, it seems like Toyota doesnt have any plans to install the brake override safety feature in any of the Lexus models. Also, they are looking into a new way for the driver to shut off a car with keyless ignition in an emergency. They considering the procedure of pushing the start stop button 3 times and or the old fashion way of holding it down for 3 seconds, both will work. Personally, I would like the feds to step in on this one and set some kind of industrial standards as to the best way to shut off a car in an emergency: "Toyota is planning to install software that automatically brings the engine back to idle when the driver steps on the brake. Such a system, known as a brake override, is already used by a number of other manufacturers, including Nissan, BMW and Chrysler. Lyons said that Toyota would install a brake override on all new cars starting with the 2011 model year. In addition, the automaker is adding that program to four models involved in its 5.4-million-vehicle floor mat recall — the Camry, Avalon, Lexus IS and Lexus ES. He said a decision had not been made about putting a brake override in the eight other models in that recall — the Highlander, Corolla, Venza, Matrix, Prius, Tacoma, Tundra and Pontiac Vibe, which Toyota made in a joint venture with General Motors. John Gomez, a San Diego attorney representing the family of the California Highway Patrolman killed last summer, said he was gratified to hear that Toyota would expand the keyless ignition system’s functions, but believes that the brake override is a more critical issue. "They should retrofit every vehicle on the road," Gomez said. "There is no defensible reason that the throttle should remain wide open when the driver has both feet on the brake pedal."

I must say, this will be a tough law suit to win. Imagine winning a lawsuit because something you bought depricate unexpectly, but then again, I have seen people winning law suits for stupider reasons.

I agree, Lexus had a few problems with transmission flares in the RX, it has been a known problem for a while. Even though Toyota transmssions are better than Acura's, they are by no mean the best. Performance and smoothness wise, the German and the Jag's transmssion are the best, they are close ratio transmssion design to shift quick and seemlessly. As far as heavy duty transmissions, there is still nothing like a good old fashion American transmission like the Allison transmission, which is design for toughness.

Yes, they are H11.

A good car is like a good woman, if you find a good one, keep it.

Isnt a tricylce safer than a 2 wheeler? :)

Well, thats not a fair comparision, from the sound of your last few post, you sound like you really enjoy a soft rider that is quiet and practical. The Ford Mustang is really not design for drivers like you, nor is the new Camero, Corvette or Viper. These are driver's car, they are design for people who like to hear the engine noise and exhaust noise, they call them exhaust notes :) The owner of these type of cars like a frim control ride and quick and tight handling, everything your Lexus is not. That is why the typical age of a Lexus owner is the 2nd oldest I believe, second behind Buick.

Quietness, smoothness, and reliable are qualites most owners look for when buying a new car, but they are not the only quality that people look for. Some drivers consider handling, accelaration and deisgn top priorities as well. Lexus use to be the quietest car around, but there are a few brands out there now that is just as quiet as Lexus. Personally, I think too much isolation is not always a good thing.

I saw that clip of the gas pedal getting stuck on the mat, it’s a poor design, the gas pedal hangs too low. As far as that CHP officer's ES, it’s all speculations at this point, there is no way to prove anything if you saw what was left of the car. As far as the LS, I think I would start to presume these sudden acceleration are real and not driver's error until it is proven otherwise. Its certainly possible that there is isolated case of sudden accelaration for any make or model of any car.

Kelly's blue book and other automotive guides have drop the resale value of Toyota anywhere from 2.5% to 4.5% in the last two weeks, a US judge will decide whether to consolidate the suits into a single national class-action suit for Toyota owners who believe the recalls have hurt the value of their vehicles: http://bostonherald.com/business/automotiv...p;position=also

See, he didnt have enough time to shift into neutral either :) :)

I agree, the ES is a great car, its built on a Camry platform and we all know it has proven relaibility. In fact, I would say most Toyota and Lexus are still pretty realible cars. What concerns me is the recent quality and the pricing, what ever happen to the Lexus I use to know 10 years ago, Lexus use to built a very high quality car at a very good price when compare to the Germans. Now a days, their quality is not what it use to be and the pricing is getting closer and closer to the German counterparts. I just dont know how the Japanese can compete with the Koreans in the future. The Koreans are where the Japanese was 10 years ago, cheap labor , low spending and cheap R&D and production cost. Toyota and Lexus are actually where the American car companies were 10 years ago, tons of cash reserve, out of control spending, high labor cost, high production cost and decreasing profits.

It is also the number of people affected. There are probably more Camry and Corolla owners out there than any other brand or model.

High performnace Halogens are usually whiter but not as white as HIDs. If you want to convert to HID, you will need a projector lense. If all you want is a whiter halogen, try PIAA, Sylvania silver star ultra or Hoen, all three are pretty good brands.

The GS350 doesnt have that feature, its standard on the GS460 and GS430.

I had a LS430 years ago, and I agree with you, its build like a tank. I would keep the LS if I were you, Lexus just doesnt build cars like they use to anymore :(

There is a reason why the Avalon doesnt sell well, its because one can easily buy a ES350 for about $2000 more. My wife had a 2001 Avalon, it was one of the worst Toyota we ever had. The steering is way too losse, we had a hard time keeping the car straight at speed above 65 MPH. The suspension was comfortable at 1st, but after 3 years or so, it was noisy and rough. The interior did hold up pretty well, I still think that the older Toyota and Lexus interior was build with better material than the recent ones. I agree with blake, I would rather buy a Genesis, ES350, LaCrosse, or Taurus instead of the avalon.

As I have stated in another post, Toyota CEO is good at apologizing for poor quality and recalls but not as good at actually doing something about it. They have being apologizing for poor quality for quite a few years, now but the quality has not improve, but it did level off in recent years and maybe it would have improve in the future if all these recalls haven’t happen. These recalls cost Toyota millions of dollar, by the time we add up advertisements, cash to dealers to deal with this mess, the actual cost of the recalls and the lost of sales, it will easily add up a over a billion dollars. This is definitely bad timing for Toyota, they are coming off the worst year Toyota have ever had financially. Their spending is out of control, they have money tie up in NASCAR and millions invested in the LFA which is predict to be a project that is designed to lose money. Their labor cost is out of control as well, all signs point to GM of the past. Toyota will be competing with the like of Hyundai in the future, the Koreans can built cars for much less than what the Japanese can build it for. Other Japanese car companies like Honda and Mazda already knows this and they are cutting back. Toyota is the last Japanese car company that is spending money like Obama  I think the future quality of Toyota and Lexus will be about the same as well, but the price of their cars will up and Toyota and Lexus will cut back on thing like customer service and warranty work, if they haven’t done so already. I think they will also operate on a smaller profit margin as well.