I respectfully disagree. I know some here have older ES models and I respect that some of them like the touchpad perfectly fine, but I have always found it a complete abomination. I would never buy a car that forced me to use it, which is why I ordered a '22 in 2021. I've had my car nearly six months and I still can't use it, don't expect to ever learn it, and find it a worse-than-useless waste of console space.

Lexus added a touchscreen for '21 and '22 as an emergency project by popular demand because virtually every tester (Car and Driver's HEADLINE: "A single frustrating flaw") and increasing numbers of buyers were rebelling. Keeping the touchpad while adding touch capability to the screen was a half-baked kludge fix done as a mid-model upgrade to multiple Lexus models (ES, LS, I think RX) only because there wasn't enough time and money to bring the new software to those existing models yet. To show Lexus's own thinking about it, the new NX has no touchpad, just a touchscreen with completely overhauled software. This system, with no touchpad, will be the standard for future Lexus models.

 

And that new software and design is already being criticized by some reviewers. For example, you can no longer share the screen with map and something else at the same time. There will always be proponents and opponents. I mastered the touchpad in a matter of days more than three years ago and find touchscreen so much more distracting.

 

While I agree their touchpad is far from perfect, it's at least 100x times better than that dumb joystick they used to have. Now that was infuriating. The new touchpad is at least more similar to the use of a touchpad of a laptop, but still it's mostly guessing where your initial input is and when driving does take your eyes off the road. The touch capability is a good bonus, but they kept the UI exactly the same, that needed to change. I have a long wingspan and even reaching to the far right icons, which are way too small by the way, is a bit of a stretch for me. Sure they threw in touchscreen, but it was clearly a rushed job and just so people can't complain that there isn't touch capability.

In general, this whole touchscreen UI for everything is a trend that I hate. I appreciate the actual buttons of the HVAC system and even some of the media buttons.

 

I agree with pretty much every one of those comments. Tesla started a toxic trend with their stupid iPad For Everything. The carmakers love it because the consumers think it's a "high-tech" benefit, when for the automakers it's actually a cheapout because mechanical switches are far costlier than one touch membrane and writing some software once that they then use 100,000 times. For control without distraction, they don't hold a candle to well-designed and differentiated physical buttons and *****. I don't care how how old-fashoined I sound, they generally suck.

 

The joystick is pretty awful I agree. My wife's RX has it 😥

 

I kind of like that they kept the touchpad. I have no problems with that touchpad and don’t have to stretch to reach it like I do with the touchscreen in our 21 RX. I don’t have to look at fingerprints on the screen all the time like I have with previous touchscreen equipped vehicles. Yes, I know I’m a bit OCD. This solution seems like a reasonable compromise to satisfy both preferences. To your point about the new NX, yes it is better integrated and looks like it brings the screen closer to the driver, so at least my “stretching” complaint would be mitigated. I agree this will be the new design for future models. Clearly Lexus wants to satisfy the reviewers. They are a powerful lobby.

 

I had it in our last RX and our last ES. We got used to it and it worked OK, but I won’t sing it any praises. The touchpad is definitely an improvement. And I have no doubt the touchscreen has some improvements, but the early implementation suggests it isn’t fully baked just yet.

 

Supposedly they wrote the underlying code in Linux to make it adjustable on the fly, so there's reason to hope for further improvement.

 

It really is a matter of trade-offs.

While moving a touch screen, for example, closer to the driver, makes it easier to use the touch screen without having to reach, there is a safety downside to moving the screen closer to the driver. When the screen is further away from the driver, the driver can glance at the screen by simply moving his/her eyes. When the screen is closer to the driver, glancing at the screen requires the driver to move his/her head, which means slightly more time without the driver's eyes being on the road.

That is why I really liked the screen placement on the 2 Generation 6 ES vehicles that I owned. The screen was far back from the driver, and that placement made it especially easy to glance at the screen with only minimal movement of the eyes. Also, the placement of the screen in a shaded alcove eliminated any issues with glare or reflections. But the trade-off was that such a screen placement requires use of a touch pad or joy stick. (I may be in the minority, but I really liked the joy stick in the Generation 6 ES and found it very easy to use once I got used to it.)

Like you, I find that the fingerprints and smudges that quickly accumulate on the touch screen are quite annoying.

Also, regardless of how any design technology seems, today, to be state-of-the art, it is almost guaranteed to appear to be dated 3 years from now.

(But these are all examples of 1st World Problems.)

 

I was thinking of making this point, but you beat me to it.

 

Agree that all engineering decisions are compromises, but some tradeoffs work better than others. The Acura RL I used to drive had a system similar to BMW iDrive, with a non-touch screen operated by a scroll-and-push wheel. This was much better IMO than the Lexus joystick or the Lexus/Acura touchpad, because it didn't test the driver's manual dexterity and made it easy to put the cursor where you wanted it. I've seen that some reviewers have said that Mercedes made a mistake by moving away from a similar system to touchscreens only. I can live with the Lexus touchscreen, but if anything, I felt the Acura system (released 18 years ago!) was better resolved. Progress seemingly isn't always forwards.

 

I had a few dealers jerk me around with this kind of bs, so I recently purchased my 2022 350 f sport from out of state (Sewell dealership in Texas). They sold it to me at MSRP, dealing with the paperwork was a little annoying but they were very straightforward, no weird sales tricks or upsells. I did have to pay to ship it, but that was only like $1k, which was much less than the markup other dealers were trying to charge, and frankly their shadiness was a complete turnoff for me.

 

At this moment, we are so close with 2023. "i hope" so getting a 22 would not be my pick