MD350

I have owned my ES for 1 week and have almost 400 miles on it. Yeah, it has a couple rattles which I am sure the dealer will fix. But, I read this forum every day and it has been quite depressing lately with all of the issues everyone is talking about. My car has a build date of 7/06, so I hope the tranny issues were resolved. But, cheer me up a little bit before I feel I made a huge mistake in buying this car. I have heard people say never to buy a car on its first year out. I thought that only applied to American makes and not Lexus.

ssmoked

dont worry you have 4-5 year warranty

jeffofla

Lexus is selling almost 8,000 ES 350s a month. If there were huge issues across all production days of this vehicle, you wouldn't be reading about here, you would be reading about in the general news. For the most part, the vast majority of those who have purchased the vehicle have no issues whatsoever. Some of us have minor issues and some have major issues.
In my case, my vehicle has been in for warranty service 2 times. Once to make the sound work on my DVD in playblack. The second to replace the nav assembly so that my voice recognition would work for the climate control.

The bottom line is what you are reading is a significant minority of people are comiing here for help seeking resolution to their problems. Because most people won't vocalize that their car is meeting or exceeding expectations, you usually never hear about them. But you are certainly hearing about the ones with problems.

Lexus certainly knows about the issues. It is how they resolve them that really matters. And from what I read, if your car is having a significant issue, Lexus seems to be bending over backwards to make it right.

I would not let the hysteria of a few - even though valid - negativly affect your decdsion on the car. Even with the issues I face, I still am really enjoying my ES 350

LexBob2

MD, we have an ES 350 with a 4/06 build date and a 5/06 purchase date and have had NO issues. Everything is working and sounding as advertised.

You happy yet?

MD350

Yes, thank you all for your input.

cocopops

iTrader: (1)

Dont worry, MD350. But do check it out with the dealer whenever you have any concerns on your car. Even if it is not a problem, you would always feel better. Sometimes its just our 'gut' playing with our minds. I have an 06/06 build and am over 700 miles now.

Macklin

MD350, I am sorry to hear about yours and others issues with your new car. I am happy to report no issues with my May built car. No tranny flare, no rattles, no wind noise, no engine clatter, etc. Straight on fast as h*ll and much better gas mileage than my ES300.

My only complaint thus far is the gray mats were impossible to keep clean so I just installed a set of black ones. They go great with the SGM.

Good luck with getting your issues resolved.

wanderer99

MD350 - go to your dealer. They should be able to fix this, and they really are there to help you. Coming from a Honda to Lexus service wise has been completely enlightening. Everytime I mention I have a problem with my car (rattle, wind noise, etc) they automatically hand me a service tech and off we go to duplicate the problem. Everytime. Some of my rattles were really small, but they agree with everything I've found to date. Wind noise, engine sounding a little loud, rattles, the techs at my dealership have agreed with them all. I told my dealer to call the US and find out from Florida about the window shims to help the wind noise. They did this, no questions asked.

With my dealer, they insist on working with you to identify then solve the problem. This is troubleshooting at its best.

With Honda, I had a vibration problem at 110km\h and lots of rattles. Over 6 visits for these issues the dealership(s) would refuse to ever allow a tech do to a road test with me. Instead they would pronounce the vehicle fixed at the end of each day when it never was.

Run to you lexus dealer!

MD350

Thanks for the advise. I may not have been clear, I actually only have a couple rattles. Otherwise, the car is fine so far. It just worries me reading about everyone else's problems and what the future could lead. But, again, thanks again for the advise and I hope my dealer is as good as yours.

dreyfus

If you want to feel better about your Lexus, go online to any of the forums for the car of your choice Acura, BMW, etc.. You'll find them loaded with rattles and defects of one kind or another.

It's the nature of these forums to highlight problems.

For a really good cheering up, go to any auto issue of Consumer Reports (this month's evaluates the SC). Check out those full red circles for reliability under the Lexus models and then compare them to the full black reliability circles under the others.

Reliability was perhaps the most important factor for me in deciding to buy this car. You simply cannot do any better.

carenthus

Like everyone has been saying. Usually you will see more negative posts on the forum than positive ones. People in general tend to go to the forum for support, suggestion, or help when they have a problem. The problems seems to be small in number. Lexus has been trying their best to please the customers when things do go wrong with extended warranty or freebies.

Just look at it this way, you are the first people to own the new 2007 ES350. Personally, I think it is a beautifully designed car. It's beautiful inside and out. Whenever I do get a chance to pass by an ES350, I give the car a second look, or even a third, fourth look. I also glance to see who is the lucky driver. Well I do this for all the new Lexus models. The new L-finesse design is gorgeous.

cyke

MD350,

As everyone else mentioned, go to your dealer. I have no rattles at all in my ES350... purchase date of May '06. So far so good. I already have logged in two trips to Grand Canyon and one to Flagstaff from Metro Phoenix and approaching 4k miles.

On my former '04 Acura TL, the 1st Acura service tech I dealt with won't even fix the evident rattle. 2nd service tech fixed it only to reappear over and over again. Hopefully, Lexus will be able to fix it permanently.

cyke

rx7_fan

There are a lot of people taking about rattling, are you talking about the rattling that goes on when you bump the music really loud with the bass bumping? or is it a different type of rattle?

wanderer99

We're talking rattling in the vehicle when the audio is off.

encore888

Toyota is doing the right thing by preventing more issues from coming up with a slowdown.

Don't let the cases on the board ruin your enjoyment of the car. It's better to live and drive your car normally, not watching for something to go wrong...that just creates fatigue.

The new ES 350 is a Lexus...you can rest assured that it is a high quality car, and that Lexus will take care of you--warranty and otherwise.