Scoops

Ah rattles... I have had 5 Lexus including the ES which I have now (and is my second) and every single one has rattled or made some kind of buzz noise. Take the current one, somewhat intermittent buzzing from headlining, seatbelt adjuster, somewhere towards the front of the dash (who knows where), somewhere over the passenger side (might be seatbelt related) and somewhere in the driver's door... Over a smooth road the car is silent but as soon as the road surface gets rough, and most are, then at least one of them appears... or doesn't. It seems a bit fruitless trying to get to the dealer and not be able to replicate it consistently so I haven't bothered so far...

Just for the laughs, I put a quote though Lexus Insurance and the quote came out as.... £4277.57!!

My renewal quote has come through and has risen from £839.62 to £1197.41 which is through flow (LV) - you lot don't know you are born!

Sorry, I have had the Coolwalk update running for a few weeks now and haven't seen any behaviour like that apart from the usual janky handling of voice commands sometimes.

From quite a bit of experience... if you fill the car to full you will get around 100 miles before the needle starts to drop - probably a bit less unless you have brimmed it. The range drops quicker on the countdown once the warning comes on so if it says you have 30 miles, you don't get 30 miles before refuel appears. Once you are 'empty' you have around a gallon left, probably around 5 litres as I have never filled over 46 litres to full even after doing 20 miles on empty...

Insurance is a nightmare... I was paying 600 odd but when I changed my ES for another, the quotes I was getting for a year were around the 1000 mark with just about everyone... No change to any details apart from the car.... Currently with Flow which is LV until June...

I had a follow up call from the manager of the dealership but got the usual call from Lexus UK which was mainly about the dealer performance but did also ask about the car and any changes or comments I had about it... I have had this call for at least my last 3 Lexus...

Yeah it is an odd limitation but overall the infotainment is a step forward. As for the looks of it, apart from 'dark mode' there isn't much you can do about it apart from making using of the energy display in the drivers information display which is the same as it has been since forever... What I would like them to do is stop the display from blinding me at night when I turn the car off and it momentarily goes from a dark display to a brilliant white display...

Well I managed to do 430 miles over the weekend so here are a few hot takes: The car feels a bit more stable and smooth than the previous one. Hard to pinpoint exactly what it is but there seems to be a better degree of suspension control. New infotainment is better although I have had a few issues in getting the bluetooth to connect automatically and I couldn't figure out how to get out of Android Auto once in it as there is no longer a physical control to go to menu. I don't have to worry about the light coloured seats any more!! The wireless charging pad is more temperamental than the last one although I believe the power delivery has gone up. They could have included a cleaning cloth for the screen!! The gear selector throw is shorter. Too soon to tell on the fuel economy as the first tank is always rubbish on the readings. Not sure if there is a significant difference on the braking feel although I know they made changes to make it better. Looks great still!

Just thought I would pop a quick picture of the new ES (MY2023) which replaces... the previous ES (but MY2018)! This is now the 5th Lexus I have had... It might also be one of the quickest after changing my original order on the 18th Nov, it went through build shipping and transport to get to the dealer in just over a month! Picked up this morning and drove the whole mile home so not sure on the extent of the improvement yet apart from the infotainment.. Will be putting about three hundred miles on it this weekend though so we shall see!

The ECO mode will limit the throttle response so make it easier to get less revs but won't allow you to select the gear ratio. To be honest, I was surprised the snow mode selector was missing from the ES when it was included on the IS, and the RX as well I think. In the end, tyre selection is going to be more important that the driving mode - perhaps cars should come with mixed tyres as a no-cost option depending on where you live, assuming Lexus sell cars with summer tyres in all territories.

The original order was 7/9/22 and they processed the variation to it on Friday.

I had ordered a new ES to replace the old one as part of the Lexus, 'we want you to swap your car after 12 months' routine. Anyway, I had ordered metallic black (to keep it under the 40k) with the hazel brown interior and was given an ETA or March '23. After a change of mind, I have gone for a black interior instead and after initially being told that it would push it back to July '23, I received a notification the same day that my car has been built and it is heading to the docks - dealer is estimating the end of Jan now. Clearly the standard black/black has some spare capacity in their build slots!

Voice commands and the like sound cool and are fun for exactly 5 minutes before you realise they are unnecessary and often unreliable. I have used a BMW 5 series with voice and gesture control and, to be honest, it just isn't worth it. Telling your car, you are cold (5 times because it couldn't understand you on the motorway) rather than just adjusting the temperature, gets old pretty quick..

Although other makes such as Volvo offer this feature on their UK cars.