new here and 1st post btw.......what are your thoughts of the es moving to the us for production/assembly? the philosophy over in japan is certainly different than the UAW workers. this has me somewhat worried that the precision to detail may slip a little here in the us. my mom has a 14' Avalon and although very well built their are few details that make you go "yep that was done on a Friday afternoon'. what's the forums thoughts on this....

 

Much ado about nothing, in my opinion. Check out these links about the North American plant that makes the RX and other US production:

http://www.lexus-int.com/magazine/issue3/lab/

http://www.toyotageorgetown.com/qualdex.asp

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe Toyota's Kentucky plant labor is represented by the UAW.

 

Personally, I wouldn't be concerned about an ES from the KY plant. It's not a new start up facility and has a good history. I might wait a model year just to make sure things are going smoothly, but if in need of car sooner I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

 

Toyota employees are not UAW members in Kentucky and earned more than their union counterparts last year.

Check it out:
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/31/t...-first-time-l/

 

With experience with your Mom's Avalon, you have a pretty good idea of the QC Toyota has instituted in their production of vehicles here. I expect no less, and even better for Lexus.

 

some good insight from you guys thanks for the info...on a side note i traded-in an 14'jeep g.c. for a 15'es350, and couldn't be happier. the fit and finish is impeccable, and i thought maybe being assembled in japan had some influence on that. it sounds like it should still see this even coming over to the states for assembly. i' ve grown up with always having either toyota or honda in the garage, and thought i would give the domestics a shot with the GC. after really scrutinizing the jeep there were many areas where QC fell short. i also drive a 12' subaru outback and it's been great. detroit makes some nice stylish automobiles, but once you look beyond the skin it starts to go south.

 

in the past 25 years, I've had 7 Toyota or Lexus vehicles, and 5 were built in Japan, while 2 were built in the US. During that same time period, I've 7 Nissan or Infiniti vehicles. Four of those were built in Japan, and 3 were built in the US.

While the fits and finishes, reliability, and overall quality of all of those vehicles was excellent, the 9 that were built in Japan were just a notch above that of those built in the US with regard to consistency of gaps between body panels, absence of orange peel in the paint, absence of squeaks and rattles, etc. I say this with the disclaimer that I am especially particular about fits and finishes, and my guess is that most would not notice things that I notice, like the small differences in the fit of body panels and the amount of orange peel in the paint.

I hope that the Kentucky plant can match the quality of the factories in Japan, but it will take seeing the product produced in Kentucky for a while before I will be convinced.

 

totally agree on the panel gaps and orange peel. one of the 1st things i do when criticizing a car is to look at the alignment of the trunk and hood for equal separation on each side. the ES was spot on