Don't Buy the Lexus ES!!

You need to read the articles in the Lexus owners newsgroup before calling out the troops. You would be better armed. I will attempt to retrieve that URL and put it here but if I fail, just search for it. There is a section that is 'pinned' which has almost the entire history of this.

It is:

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Uh, why not just force the transmission to downshift with the gear selector?

Granted, the adaptive transmission seems to be none to bright, but you can make it do what you want, right?

I've tried that and from that experience, I can give you 3 reasons why I don't want to do that. First, you really have to have presence of mind to do it every time. Second, it doesn't make sense to shift into third when you're going 55 and want to quickly accelerate to 65 to pass. Third, I didn't pay $35K for this car to have to do something so silly. This is supposed to be godarn automatic transmission.

As for "First", if you make it a habit, it becomes easy to remember (might be anyway, if you had a "thrilling moment" because of the lag earlier).

As for "Second", I assume you mean you are in 5th (overdrive) and don't want to drop down to third. OK, turn off the OD and it will drop to 4th. I don't think that dropping to third would be a big deal anyway. The V6 is a high-wider, isn't it?

As for "third", you are right. Somebody at Toyota screwed up and over-engineered this transmission. Sounds like making it adaptive made it worse than the earlier non-adaptive one. Keep bitching to the dealer and if they don't do anything, check into whether your state has a lemon law.

I hate it when a company has a perfectly good product and screw it up in the process of "improving" it. Technology for the sake of technology.

- GRL

Hmmm, I could be wrong, but I don't think my ES300 has an OD switch. If you're in the standard drive mode, OD will kick in when necessary. Otherwise, you're selecting gears 1-4 and it's going to be in that gear until you switch. As for complaining to the dealer, he's not going to give a flying ****. I'm voting with my pocketbook by never buying another Lexus AND giving concrete reasons to all friends in the market for a new car why they SHOULD NOT BUY A LEXUS. Plus, to tell you the truth, I'm pretty sick of seeing all those corny TV commercials with cars wrapped with a red bow. Is that where my premium purchase price is going? Why don't they plow those funds into designing a chip that works. I'm done with Lexus and do my best to ensure that friends don't make the same mistake. Really is too bad because it's otherwise a fantastic car.

i think lexus finally succumb to the old ego. they think they should be able to dictate how people suppose to drive with their computer s/w.

i love cumputer & technology but hated the way it is being implemented now a day. when it come to electronics technology, i do not trust the japaneses nor the germans. these two seems to have very illogical logic.

Bye. Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.

PS. The OD button is on the gearshift lever.

lexus is the best car i ever owned. i have is300 5 speed ,and gs 300. will buy more !!

Of all the cars I have owned since I began driving back in 1977, my 2002 Lexus IS300 has been the best of them all! Hands down too. The only other vehicle that I have ever owned that was of a similar level of initial build quality and reliability was also a Toyota product. A brand new 1985 Toyota MR2; which was an introductory model year vehicle. When I finally sold it to buy a new 1989 Nissan 240SX when they first came out, I quickly realized that I had made a mistake. I ran the absolute crap out of that little Toyota and really didn't even maintain it as good as I should have, but it still ran 100% flawlessly at all times. No rattles, interior component problems, or exterior trim and finish problems ever! I was pretty young back then and didn't maintain my cars very well. Of course that has changed now that I am older and realize just how important it is to maintain a vehicle properly. In 100,000 miles of driving that MR2 here is everything that I ever did to it: Routine oil and filter changes (1) Tuneup (1) Set of front brake pads Front brake rotors resurfaced (1) time (2) Driver's side headlight replacements (1) Passenger side headlight replacement

That's it! I sure do wish that I can purchase another vehicle that would be that cost effective to maintain for the first 100,000 miles of operation.

J. Perry

Do you even havce a Lexus ES300/330? On my 2003 ES300, there is no OD button on the gearshift lever.

It's on mine. But it's a 1992. When men were men and Lexii were Lexii.