Looking at buying a later year 6th gen ES gas model. Are these things as reliable as Scotty Kilmer's 5th gen ES?

The kind of unit I'm looking at will be around 60k kms, 2016-2018.

Will be doing mostly highway driving and stick to the maintenance minder.

It will be driven in a part of Canada that has the coldest winters in all of North America.

Any thoughts?

 

Make sure you get the heated steering wheel. I think based on my research they are very reliable powertrains. IMO the jury is still out ob the safety + features but I like them. Consider how long Lexus and toyota has been using that model engine and trans. They are fully matured at the end of a very long wide spread use run which means they should be at their best. My opinion anyways. Its what I purchased. 2016 es350 Luxury, heated wheel, pano roof, power shade, 18" wheels. Very happy so far.

 

Heated steering wheel is essential yes, and the seats. I drive an RX now and cannot live without those features.

I had a 10th gen Civic with those safety features. Lane keeping assist is a must for me and it isn't hard to find on the later year models.

Well, I'm having a hard time finding posts or articles about major failures with these vehicles and I can't seem to find many, lol, I thought I'd check here at the club as a final check.

A low kms later year 6th gen is what I have my sights set on now.Thanks for your reply.

 

I purchased my 6th gen ES brand new... currently a little over 47K miles and so far not one mechanical issue that I can recall... I did have a squeak in my dash in cool weather, but that was fixed the first year and haven't had a problem since. I've read that it's the same drive train that was in the Avalon.. Before the ES I had an avalon for 7 years, and just like the ES, no mechanical issues. I think the 6th gen ES is a extremely dependable car.

 

J D Power has ranked Lexus #1 in dependability for eight years in a row. Over that time the ES has been ranked #1 in dependability for the mid size premium category every year. On our second one with zero problems.

 

I had one of the first 2013 MY ES 350's produced from Japan. I had no issues, not one, and subsequently bought a new 2019... As Poppa states, the engine is bulletproof having been also used in the Avalon (that I also owned for 6 years) before buying the 2013. Lexus made some nice changes in gen 6 later years so I wouldn't hesitate to buy a clean unabused car.
Whatever you decide, GOOD LUCK!

 

Scotty is a strange fella, hahaha. I have 134,000 miles on my 2013 and the only issue I ever have is boredom.

 

One bit of advice I’ll give is to try to avoid the Ultra Lux model and go with an optioned up Lux to avoid the 18” wheels. Knowing the condition of your highways and roads over there I think the extra sidewall on the 17s will help protect your wheels. I bought a ‘14 with what I believe has the Lux pack on it in March (after having owned a bullet-proof Camry for 15 years), and just made a return trip to Vancouver Island. The ES 350 is a beautifully comfortable highway cruiser with the get up and go you need for passing those B-trains on the mountain passes. Really good fuel economy as well on regular gas. Per Consumer Reports, all Lexus models rank extremely high in reliability with the Gen 6 ES being (albeit marginally) at the top of the heap. One suggestion is to ensure that your local Toyota dealer is willing to handle most of the regular service and maintenance issues once you’re off warrantee...who needs a pedicure at twice the price for an oil change? The ES is a clone of the Avalon so really the only thing unique to the ES should be the “bits and pieces” (electronics) in the dashboard.

 

dang, you just summarized ES ownership in 1 sentence.

there's really nothing to break in the ES, and is not like the owners are going to go do donuts with these cars (i wonder if you could even do donuts with it)..
My only concerns are sensors going bad, you know the sensors on both front and back bumpers. Those suckers will eventually die and they ain't cheap.

 

I must not have a very calibrated rear end as I saw over and over about the 1 vs 18 wheels but when /i test drove both damn if I could tell the diff. Looking at the tire psi read out both had the same psi and they both had Micheline not sure which model. I ended up with the 18 just by chance but I did not care either way. So far so good but I do not have Ca roads thats for sure but I am just a few miles from west Va so might see an issue there as the must have the worst roads for a state on the east coast USA. I think tire quality and psi might end uo being the most critical to ride and noise not rim protection though. But I am not a sedan thin tire big wheel expert as I have mainly driven trucks and full size suvs that run tires from 31-40" and no rim larger than 20" and that was on the 40s on a 8500lb Excursion.LOL. So don't listen to be ha ha.

Actually are the 18" a different width (wider) rim? If so and used with the same width tire no question that will expose the rim to more possible impact. Is there a difference in tire cost between 17 and 18 for the top es tire choices ? What about weight does anyone know the actual weight of the OEM 17" and 18" wheels? That could also effect ride a minor amount but also tech mpg as well.

Good luck finding a Ultra /lux for a decent price at least in an 16' model year. I could not find one under $30k compared to a Lux with 30K for $25K No way shades on the rear windows and slightly thicker leather is worth that. Only thing I really wanted but could not find in a version I wanted was the power trunk.

I love my ac/ht seats and ht wheel. Also am really digging the auto high beam as I live in the country lots of country highway and windy back roads and zero street lights anywhere period. Also actually find the auto wipers for me work well. So far there is almost nothing I really dislike. The entertainment app choices suck with no android auto or pandora spotify. Can not believe I will need to add GROM V2 to get the functionality I want. Joystick took a little getting use to but I have no issues now after 2 wks. .

I will also sat Lexus has te shift strategy of this 6 sp trans almost flawless. Very few cars these days seem to get the shifts right for every throttle position or change. This thing is about as good as it gets for gear selection and no flaring. You can just tell this cars systems are very mature.

 

with regard to the 17" vs 18" wheels: when I test drove the ES, I did so driving a car with 17" rims. I thought it had a very nice ride... but stupid me.. ended up buying a different ES.. this one was on the floor in the dealership and I liked it better so I bought it. Within 5 miles of the dealership on my way home I immediately noticed a difference in ride.. the ride in the car I bought was not as smooth.. as soon as I got home I started looking and realized I had purchased an ES with 18" rims. Less sidewalls = less cushion = rougher ride... to be clear here, it was a rougher ride, but it was not a terrible ride by any means... fortunately for me, I checked the air pressure and all 4 tires were up around 40 lbs... dropped them to around 32 or so and the ride improved GREATLY... and finally, the car came equipped with those god awful Bridgeston Turanza tires.. they ride rough, and very noisy... as soon as they had worn down a bit I went with a set of Pirelli tires... MAJOR UPGRADE... nice quiet and very smooth ride... so yes, 18's are a little rough riding, but check your tire pressure and put on quality tires and you will be happy with the ride. I don't even think about it anymore.

 

Be intresting to see once you get new tires if you could go test drive a 17 again and compare. I swear the Lexus prep guys must love pumping up tires as mine to when I took it home had the tires up ar 39 in 3 and 40 in the 4th!?! I think they think you are suppose to pump the tire up to the amount on the sidewall LOL. If I did that to my daughters jeep she would be roling a 3K lb wrangler on tires with 65psi. They might as well be traded in for concrete oooch. They get proper contact patch and heat @ 25lb IIRC. My 18" I have set to 33lb and they are mitchelins which maybe why my butt-o-meter could not tell the dif. I have not tested for the ideal pressure yet. Have to carry the laser thermometer with me next couple trips and check front and rear. I almost always end up with different psi for frnt and rr for ideal but with the TPS have to go with the frnt psi in the rr.

 

I'd have to agree with Poppa. The type of tire and air pressure will for sure affect the ride more than an inch increase in diameter. I've actually noticed more of a difference in ride quality when changing wheel width. From say a 9" to an 11" aftermarket width. Not saying that is common especially on this car but that will affect turning and ride quality more than overall diameter.
But then again. Ride quality is subjective. So very hard to speak about in definite terms

 

The reason I suggested that lexuspleus should look for 17” wheels is, as he pointed out in the original post, Saskatchewan has notoriously cold winter weather.., -30 to -40 F and even colder (wind chill not included) is very common. These temperatures play hell with highways and, as the frost comes out of the road in spring, asphalt breakup and potholes can show up almost overnight. Roads are long, straight, and generally boring so cruising can be monotonous and its very easy to hit these holes without warning. Compound that with a provincial economy that isn’t exactly the wealthiest, a very low population density that is greatly concentrated in three cities, and the result is reduced highway maintenance. That extra bit of sidewall will come in very handy at protecting the rims.

I’m not knocking Saskatchewan when I say this (it is a beautiful province to visit in summer) but roads and highways there are considered to be about the worst in Canada.

 

For 3 1/2 years, I owned a 2013 ES with the 17" wheels. For the past 2 1/2 years, I've owned a 2017 ES with the 18" wheels. Both cars had the Michelin tires. The 2013 had the Michelin MXV4 tires, and the 2017 has the very similar MMX4 tires. I check tire pressures frequently, and, on both cars, I've consistently used the recommended pressure of 33 psi.

On smooth pavement, I would be hard pressed to tell much difference between the 17" wheels and the 18" wheels, but, on rougher pavement surfaces, there is a definite difference. Not only is the ride quality harsher with the 18" wheels, but more road noise enters the cabin with the 18" wheels. The difference may not be night and day, but it is easily noticeable, and, the less smooth the pavement surface is, the greater is the difference in both ride harshness and noise.