timzter

my understanding of brake assist systems is that they help you brake when trying to stop super quick never tried it, but to check it out, I would imagine you would have to brake real quick and hard, and see if you can feel the brake assist system kick in to stop you quicker then you would be able to do on your own you got me curious..without locking um up like some maniac,lol, I'll give it a try to see if I can feel the system kick in So...? Did you give it a try to see if you can feel the system kick in? saw your note here and it reminded me to try it out tried it a few times today, and could not notice any "brake assist" when braking fast perhaps the system kicked in and I just didnt notice it perhaps the circumstances have to be different, then just braking hard, to activate the system, though I have no idea what that scenerio would be or what value it would have..seems to me that trying to stop fast should do it if fact, I posted here once that I thought the brakes were not as responsive as they should be with quick stops, and characterized the brake feel as "spongy" most, if not all of the participants of that thread, disagreed with me, and said the braking feel was fine for quick stops do you think they feel "spongy" for quick stops? Not sure about "spongy". Was just wondering where's the "assist" in brake assist? I don't feel anything. However, in my old 2006 ES330, I could. When I went down a hill and I tap the brake or press it down lightly, I could feel something kick in, like a mini jolt, and I could literally feel the car slowing down a bit more on my behalf. Not so in the 2010 ES350.

Does anyone know if the 2012 (or 2013) ES 350 have reintroduced the pull-out "hook" on the side of the gear compartment on the passenger side's foot well for keeping, for example, a bag of groceries or take-out food in place? It was present on my old 2006 ES 330. I thought that was such a simple, effective, and needed feature which they removed from the ES 350!

my understanding of brake assist systems is that they help you brake when trying to stop super quick never tried it, but to check it out, I would imagine you would have to brake real quick and hard, and see if you can feel the brake assist system kick in to stop you quicker then you would be able to do on your own you got me curious..without locking um up like some maniac,lol, I'll give it a try to see if I can feel the system kick in So...? Did you give it a try to see if you can feel the system kick in?

I am concerned that when I rent a car later or drive someone else's car which does not have a backup camera, I would hit something when I reverse since I am now so completely dependent on it. :P

Yeah, the voice recognition in the 2010 ES350 SUCKS big time. Try setting up a contact name like "Ed Smith". It thinks "Ed" should be pronounced "Ee Dee" as in the initials E.D.!! "Cafe" is pronounced "Kef" instead of "Keh feh". And forget about having a contact name like "Dr Jones". It doesn't know that "Dr" is pronounced "Doctor". You have to help it by saying the words the way IT thinks they should be pronounced!! SUCKS!

How does one test to make sure that the Brake Assist system is actually working? When I had my old 2006 Lexus ES300, when I was going downhill and I lightly stepped on the brake for a second or two, I could actually feel something kick in to further decelerate the car--a light jolt if you will. But in the 2010 Lexus ES350, I cannot tell if the Brake Assist is ever engaged. How does one test Brake Assist in the 2010 ES350?

Hi, does anyone know if it is a mandatory requirement for lease owners of Lexus vehicles to bring the car in for scheduled maintenance (5,000, 15,0000, 30,000, whatever....)? If you don't do the maintenance, will they charge a penalty fee when you return the car at the end of the lease?

I suppose I could set a destination on the NAV which is very near my current location (like at the end of the street) and then see on the NAV screen when I will arrive and use that as the "current time" for setting the dashboard clock.

The NAV setup screens allow you to select daylight savings time, etc., but I don't see anywhere where it asks you to set the CURRENT TIME. So obviously it knows the current time automatically. How can I find out what the CURRENT TIME is in the NAV so that I can set the clock on the dashboard to it? Personally I feel that the dashboard clock should be automatically set and synchronized to the NAV clock.

Seems that it is getting more often that my locked car door (any of the 4 doors) does not open immediately when I pull on the handle from the outside with my key fob in my pocket. It used to be that as soon as I touched the door handle to pull on it, it would "beep beep" immediately and I did not have to pause. It would be as though the car wasn't locked at all and all I had to do was reach for the door handle and open it in one smooth continuous motion. But these days, the "beep beep" tends to come on a few seconds after I touch and pull on the door handle. Anyone knows why?

Thanks for the tip. :-)

I recently had my car turned in for some repairs. When I got it back, the navigation screen remains in "daytime" mode, even when the time of day is already past 6 pm. I checked the settings but could not find a setting which controls whether I want the nav screen to turn to "nightmode" in the evening. Anyone knows how?

I have owned an 05' ES330, and now a 2010 ES350. Both were and have been reliable and excellent cars. There are always little things in every year and model but nothing jumps out or has been an issue with the 07, except the navigation voice recognition. It really is poor in my opinion. It seems to have difficulty in consistently recognizing commands. But I don't have much need for the voice feature anyway so it doesn't bother me. Other than that, the Nav. works very well. Paul Yeah, the voice recognition SUCKS big time, even in the ES350 2010. My phone book has an entry where the first name is "Ed". Guess how the voice recognition pronounces it???? "Ee Dee" instead of just "Ed".

Wow, are you saying it is OK for me to use regular gas for my ES350 2010??? I know that when I cheated by using regular gas in my previous Infiniti J30, the car experienced "knocking" (http://repairpal.com/what-is-engine-knocking), which made a rattling sound during acceleration, and there was also a noticeable decrease in power, such as when I tried to overtake someone or accelerated from rest at an incline. The Infiniti technician's first question was whether I had started using regular gas! Switching back to premium gas resolved the issue just like that. Are you saying it is NOT a problem for the ES350 2010? No knocking, no decrease in power?

My interior carpet (by that, I mean the carpet along the SIDES of the interior, such as immediately below the gear stick assembly) looks like the one in the attached pic (as indicated by the red arrow). As you can see, it is much darker than that posted by Paul A. Being darker is not really my gripe. What I don't like is the material. The carpet pile is sparse, and the way it is attached to the underlying structure is cheap looking. If I use my finger to push against the area marked by the red arrow, the carpet gives, showing that the area underneath that area has hollow air spaces. Totally unacceptable for a "luxury" car in my opinion.

Hmm...the color of the carpet on the side of of the console (as shown in your picture) is much lighter than mine and is even-toned. The one that came with my 2010 ES 350 is horrid, in my opinion. It is darker, has a sparse pile, and if you run your fingers across it, it creates visible streaks.

It's been almost a year now of driving my 2010 ES 350, and I must say this 'noise' issue is still perceptible. I leave my office very late in the evening and when stopping at traffic lights during that time of the night when there is not much traffic, this "whup whup whup whup" low-frequency engine "heartbeat" can be quite noticeably heard (with audio system and A/C turned OFF). I will raise the issue when I next bring my car in for an oil change at the Lexus service center, but I have a feeling they will say "it's within acceptable thresholds."

Is there a way to prevent rust buildup on the metal brake disc that, unfortunately, is visible through the "spokes" of the wheel? I see this on my neighbors' cars as well and it is just plain unsightly. Nice, clean, shiny car, but ugly, brown, rust on the brake disc!

Recently, I have been playing a lot of Scrabble on my iPhone (playing with other Facebook users). The Scrabble app must have a bug because it causes the game to freeze sometimes, and I have to do a hard reboot of the iPhone. Around that same time, I started noticing that my iPhone did not sync up with the car's bluetooth when I started the car, nor when I pressed the controls on the Nav to manually try to do a sync. I later figured it out that even though the iPhone's Settings screen showed that bluetooth was ON, don't believe it. The way I fixed it is to tap the iPhone to turn bluetooth OFF, wait a few seconds, then tap to turn bluetooth back ON. Only by doing this will the bluetooth sync up. Hard reboot of the iPhone did not. :-( I think the Scrabble game must have somehow messed things up, but at least I found a way to make the bluetooth work again.

Can someone verify if plugging the iPhone (3Gs in my case) to the 2010 ES 350's USB port also powers the phone? I hope so, because you can charge the iPhone by plugging it into the USB port of your laptop. If YES, that's great, but then why do we need the cigarette-lighter type outlet in the storage compartment? If NO, then that sucks because then we can't play music on the iPhone on a long trip without having to repeatedly unplug the phone from the USB port and plugging it into the cigarette-lighter type outlet in the storage compartment.

Yeah, you will develop a relationship with the female voice alright--a "shut the f* up" kind of relationship. :-) I rate the voice recognition a low 2 out of 10. "Call Canton Cafe" (I pronouced it as Keh-Fay) resolves to "Call Thad"!! Retrying with "Call Canton Kef" calls the right number. So it doesn't know that "Cafe" is pronounced "Keh-Fay". It thinks it is pronounced "Kef". Also, if your address/phone book that you downloaded to the Nav has entries like "Dr. Joe Shmoe", good luck! It doesn't know that "Dr." is pronounced "doctor". Only way to resolve it is to rename the entry to "Doctor Joe Shmoe." Especially frustrating is when it GOT the number you said you wanted, and the final instruction it gives is, "Press the off-hook button or say Dial." So I say, "Dial", even imitating how she says it in terms of tone and inflexion. But 80% of the time, it replies, "Pardon? Press the off-hook button or...." Arrghh!! Sucks.

By NavTraffic, do you mean the audible traffic information that you sometimes hear when your GPS is set up to go to some destination. It'll say something like "Slow traffic 2 miles long 6 miles head." But you only hear such alerts when the GPS is navigating to go somewhere, which sucks in my opinion. The other option, I think, is to tune in to some XM/Sirius station to listen to traffic conditions, but I haven't done that before. What's the station number? (I usually just tune to FM 103.5 here in the DC Metroplex for traffic info.)

OK, another gripe about my 2010 ES 350. My odomoter reading is only about 5,500 miles now. I have noticed that when the car is idling (i.e., when the gear is engaged in Drive, foot on the brake, and the car is not moving, such as when it is stopped at the traffic lights), there is a low frequency pulsating sound similar to what you might hear on a ferry boat. Sort of a low "whup whup whup whup" which you can certainly hear coming from idle trucks, buses, taxis, and such. It is not loud, but definitely noticeable, well at least to me. I am sure the Lexus people will say this is normal and acceptable, but I find it to be rather distracting and embarrassing when I have passengers in the car. I would turn on the music to mask it so my friends won't notice this idle sound! For a "luxury" car, this idle sound is simply too loud. My old 1994 (!!) Infiniti J30 was MUCH quieter. All you would hear is an even-sounding low frequency "hum" of the engine, no pulsating "heartbeat" sound. When the car is cruising on the highway, this pulsating sound disappears, I guess because now the engine is revving at a higher speed, thus causing the engine sound to be more uniform and evenly smoothed out. So yes, when the car is moving, it feels luxurious, smooth, and "quiet"--like what you would expect. But when the car is stopped, with gear engaged in Drive, it is rather disappointing.

Had a 2010 ES350 yesterday (only 900 miles) as a service loaner. It had the same beautiful interior. I was suprised though with the grey floor mats instead of Parchment. How do you like the color contrast Steve? I don't mind the grey color of the floor mat as I mind the material it is made of. The grey color would help hide dirt stains more easily. So that's OK. But the floor mat carpet pile is still too sparse. Not tight enough. So your feet leave prints on it and make it look uneven.

Overall, I still like my 2010 ES 350 which I bought in January. Cerulean Blue + Parchment. However, as I have mentioned in a previous post, I am disappointed with the khaki-colored 'carpet' material that lines the SIDES of the interior above the floor. You can see it clearly in your pic. See: Carpet Material Below Gear Box The material looks very cheap. The carpet pile is very sparse and you can write your name in the material with your finger. Use your finger to push against it and you will notice that it is 'hollow' underneath for maybe an 1/2-inch or so. There should be a rigid material underneath before the carpet material is wrapped over it. So, in my opinion this part of the car is very poorly designed and Toyota really skimped with the choice of material. The only other thing I am not particularly fond of is the look of the car when viewed straight on from the REAR. It's butt is rather small compared to the rest of the body unlike its LS counterpart which has a bolder, prouder, more high-end look. From the back, the 2010 ES 350 is not flattering and does not scream Lexus. Look at this rear view of the ES350. Compare with the rear view of the LS460. Every week day when I get off work and go down to the garage where my car is parked, when I approach the car from the rear, I am often less than satisfied with what I see. Now the front and side views of the car are great, but the straight-on rear view leaves much to be desired.