It may look cool, it may have competitive new features, but there's no way that it's not built to the same old GM crappy quality.

Especially now that Caddy is building cars that are cool again, and attracting younger buyers, the "consumer satifaction" ratings for Caddy will not go up, even if the actual quality of the car has improved from years past. If Caddy attracts buyers out of their Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, and even the German makes, there will be many dissatisfied customers making direct comparisons to those makes. It's much easier to "satisfy" customers who were lured away from Lincolns and Buicks...

 

There's lies, bigger lies, and statistics. How ARE these rankings put together?

If one brand is 50% below average that to me means it has twice as many problems as average. So if the average is say '3' problems, then one 50% below average has 6 problems. Now 3 extra problems doesn't sound so bad, but 50% worse sounds terrible!

 

I agree completely! Couldn't possibly be a ploy to sell more CR subscriptions.

 

The title with "Toyota crashes" is a title made up by cnn/money to describe CR's most recent release, other news sources have used less sensational titles to describe the same from CR, like "Japanese models continue to dominate in the latest CR ratings" etc. . . . .

 

As an owner of an 07 ES 350 with a tranny that flares and an engine that has severe cold engine knock, I am happy this is out in the press. This kind of negative press is what Toyota and Lexus need...a slap in the face.

I have been given the cold shoulder at the service department, being told it is normal operation. I expect a lot more from a Lexus product.

Not to mention, my wife's previous 2004 Toyota Sienna was horrible. Severe hesitation and an engine that knocked unless I used 93 octane. Several computer flashes later, we traded it on a Honda Pilot and love it!! Not one warranty claim to date.

to CNN money for this article!!

 

I wonder why the ES350 isn't mentioned along with the Camry V6 when discussing CR's findings on the trans issue? An oversite, or maybe because they aren't out there in the same big numbers as Camry?

 

Oh, the irony:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei...id=1265961&b=0

 

CR magazines don't operate....or sell......that way. They also don't take any advertising money of any kind, from any manufacturer or any public relations/ad firms. Their magazines and articles, for the most part, are as plain as vanilla. That is one of their traditions.

They are also one of the few magazines not to put their whole publications on their web site. A few things ARE put on the site, but to get the entire article...and the important data.....you either have to have a formal magazine or Internet subscription. I personally don't care for their Internet policy, but perhaps that is one of the reasons they are able to avoid corporate money tainting their decisions....most of their income is from subscriptions. They also charge for auto-pricing reports and requests.

 

its probably reccomended vehicle... since 17 Toyota/Lexus/Scions are reccomended, probably only Camry V6, V8 Tundra and AWD GS are NOT reccomended

:-)

 

The service department giving you a cold shoulder is not directly Toyota's fault; it's the fault of the dealership. While Toyota tries to control and maintain certain standards at dealers, some dealerships operate however they want which includes poor treatment of customers.

Toyota itself has admitted the issues about the tranny flare, not sure about the cold knock.

 

But why does Toyota KEEP producing transmissions like this? Nobody seems to be able to answer that.

Flares and RPM-slipping, both cold and warm, were a problem on 2001-2003 ES300/330 and 2001-2002 IS300 models, and possibly some other Lexus models as well (I am not familiar with every known instance). I don't want to sound like a Monday morning quarterback, but when you don't learn after a whole string of games, something is wrong. Apparantly the mistakes of those earlier transmissions were not taken to heart.

It is one thing to recognize an engineering mistake and attempt to correct it.........it is quite another matter to repeat it over and over again. That is one of the things, for example, that turned so many people against GM, and why it lost so much market share.

There's an old saying....."Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on ME".

 

That's a good question. Personally, I'm not too familiar with the flare issues on the ES300/ES300 or on the IS300.

From what I've heard, Toyota's 5 speed auto tranny is a solid and reliable unit.

I'm quite sure Toyota knows what the problem is, but it is strange as to why Toyota continues to make transmissions with these problems. Could be related to Toyota's engineers being stretched so thin over the past few years combined with focus on cost-cutting and a bit of wavering of focus on quality.

 

I had a 2001 IS300. I'm not bad-mouthing it by any means. It was, otherwise, a superb car, quality-wise, but it had a minor but irritating glitch, usually on the 2-3 shift but sometimes the 1-2 as well. At unpredictable intervals and transmission temperatures, the 2-3 shift would allow the RPM to momentarily "flare" or jump, as it shifted (about 200-300 RPM), with a noise jump as well. Slowing down to about 5 MPH or so, without stopping, and hitting the gas also produced a big RPM flare with virtually no response at all, and no downshift (if you stopped and started back up again you were OK). It was also quite harsh-shifting in all the gears when cold.....then unbelievably smooth when warm, when the flare didn't happen.

ES300/330 owners had a different problem. The tranny simply would not respond at all in certain gears at certain speeds (well below redline). It made for aome dangerous entrys into fast-moving traffic.

There were several excuses given for this.....from bad computer ECU programming to emissions requirements to inadquate previous factory fixes.


(In fact, THAT was how I originally joined Club Lexus. I was looking for Internet information on that transmission problem, and found quite a bit of it here.....and I've stayed ever since)

 

Thanks for the info and clarification .

I guess it's a combination of reasons as to why Toyota's new transmissions still experience these problems to an extent. It could also be problems at Toyota's transmission supplier Aisin.

Hopefully Toyota does implement permanent fixes for these issues with future trannies.

 

In the meantime, there is still no fix to the flare issue. I have also called Lexus customer service, they took notes of my issues, but were no help.

If I had the time to fool around with this, I would get an attorney and pursue a buyback. But, for now, I'll drive it until just before 50K miles and trade it. I am sure not going to take a financial loss on it.

By the way, this is my first and last Lexus. Back to Acura I go....