dutchie01

Check the manual?? Been some time since i last saw it but i can remember there was a separate book for the satnav only. Was this some 300 pages? Could be 400 not sure.. If you have to study a manual the size of a phonebook to operate a satnav there must be something seriously wrong here. I always found the infotainment system of Lexus THE weakest link of the entire car and that was in 2015 when i got mine ( the IS250 2nd gen was ok as the touchscreen was more or less on par with the competition of 10 years ago). However the IS300H system drove me crazy. Counterintuitive, labyrinthal submenus, impossible to operate while driving, graphics from first gen pacman and utterly unreliable in what it needs to do bring you from A to B. It frequently told me to leave the highway only to enter it immediately again. To me it is a total mystery that such a system is found in a Lexus, any Lexus. Any cheap runabout nowadays is better has apple carplay let alone the luxury competition with digital dashboards. Maybe it is better for the nerve to just accept and ignore the state of things and use your phone or buy the cheapest tomtom. Works fine and one can operate it without a 5 year study of Japanese IT.

Global forecast 2019 for the ES 300H is only 15% of total ES sales. Have not seen detailed US figures yet

Some background info on the performance of the new ES model. Global ES sales end March 2019 are up 25% compared to last year and in its biggest market the States it is the best selling saloon almost reaching NX volume. The RX remains the number one best seller. So far the car seems to receive a warm welcome in the markets.

New review out from Savagegeese.com on the ES350. I think this one exactly catches the spirit, the dna of the car. The best review i have seen so far, yes very critical but pinpointing what the ES is about.

that interior is fantastic and when you are inside you wont see the exterior! I think the interior is enough to sell the car ( in China).

Funny this as i was picked up from a hotel in a blacked out mercedes van recently. Sliding door and with a very luxurious interior, captainseats and all. I remember thinking - who needs a SUV when you can get this? And now Lexus introduces their version. Great if you live in an urban environment and are chaufeured around all of the time. Seems like a silent capsule that transports you around town. Seems wealthy Chinese cant get enough of them!

I dont think the motoring press is that important as the vast majority of car buyers do so without ever reading or viewing a review. Car enthusiasts like us ( we are on this blog so care about cars) will have their favourites, mine is Harry Metcalfe, but they write for an inner circle. to be able to sell a car nowadays it needs to look sporty, needs to be marketed as sporty and needs to be set up so it can "attack "the bloody nurburgring. 19'wheels seem standard now with wide 255/35 tyres to match, stiff springs so you wont get lean when taking that corner at 200mph. The car designers are pushed in this direction as well otherwise the car will not sell. Comfort and every day balanced chassis seem secondary. In the end you get cars that look sporty but in heart are not, prime example is the IS300H Fsport, a great cruiser but not a sporty vehicle by any means. Maybe this will turn around over time with citroen, volvo and mercedes marketing cars as "comfortable" nowadays. Time will tell. With regard to Lexus and the competition, well, just maybe, could it be that they are just better than Lexus?

The net is closing, according to the German Press there is now a majority for a maximum speed on the autobahn. The environmental and traffic safety clubs are leading but are now backed by the police unions and the general public opinion. Apparently people do feel " attacked " by fast travelling cars and it seems it will be a matter of time before a country wide limit will be enforced. Until now the car lobby was sucessfull in keeping the situation as it is but the situation apparently changes rapidly.

I dont think this will be about max speed only. The technology is now there to be used so it will be upon us faster than we all think. Vmax is only part of it. You can count on automaticreduction of speed to the set max speed on that particular road, propably will start at schools/hospitals as that will be more accepted by the public but why not use it in reduced speed zones at highways on ringroads etc, then in inner cities ( that you can only enter driving a full EV!). How about taxing? will be easy to implement a tax by use system or roadpricing whereby tariffs can be altered depending on time of use. i.e. on busy times twice the price!

Head impact zone enlargement for pedestrians and cyclists -safety glass in case of a crash (cars and vans) - don''t want to pay single penny for this.. you cross my way without way of right you die! Look where you going, especially if it involves crossing the road.. simple Vulnerable road user detection and warning on the front and side of the vehicle (trucks and buses) - don't make yourself vulnerable. Why choose to be Vulnerable and then blame others?  Keep it friendly we will not accept insults no matter different your thinking is to another member.

Times are indeed changing.. There will be massive changes in the motorindustry in the next 3 years all caused by WLTP and EU regulations. By 2021 the average output of all cars sold by a manufacturer may not exceed 95 grams. This is laid down in EU laws and will be monitored. When over the company will be fined. These fines are serious stuff and it is whispered that the VAG group could face 1.5 billion as it is not expected they will make the average of 95. Sounds easy want 95 or below? just build small cars and presto! But no, these minis cannot be engineered below the threshold, so the more you sell the faster you will reach the dreaded fines.. Basically the only way to get below 95 is electrification and especially plug ins or EV,s. So that will happen. Expect the C1ś, Aygoś, Pandas, Ups etc to disappear from the market, Expect the big engines to disappear as well unless it is a niche model with that sells in extremely slow numbers. Expect EV to hit the market in vast numbers, these will be pushed into the market if needed below cost, all to sink below the 95 average threshold. Times, they are changing...

get yourself a good healthy Saab and surf to www.hirsch-performance.ch this was the official house tuner of the Saab company and when using them the works warranty remained intact! Rock solid reliable, from light tuning to just mad with whistling wastegate when lifting off. Great fun ( shame the chassis could not always cope with the power haha)

The GS was axed because sales in the saloon market are melting away so apparently Toyota decided they could no longer be profitable with 2 saloons ( GS and ES) in a globally shrinking market. They upped the ES and made that the replacement of both GS ( which is more expensive to produce than the ES).and ES. A pure and in my idea logic business decision. I am not trying to justify anything but without the US market there would not be any salooncar between the IS and LS at all. Lexus UK expects to sell around 1000 ES cars in 2019 and if they reach that goal i guess it will be seen as a success. Growth will have to come from the new UX that expects to sell 6000 units pa and is likely to draw new customers to the brand. If the UX is a success the ES will be good for 5% of total Lexus UK sales.

I do think the ES300H is designed to be a relaxed cruiser, to waft through traffic with excellent fuel consumption and in silence. It will find some happy owners for sure. Some of them interested in cars and maybe on this forum but i think most will be non car guys going for the individual taste, the beeing different. This model has nothing to do with competing with a 5 series or even a 3 series. ES300H forecast for 2019 is 1000 cars only. BM sells that in ONE day. You want to drive something exclusive, away from the crowd and want to do this in luxury with full safetykit and great consumption this could be the car for you. Want to drive a car to the limits look somewhere else, it is as simple as that.

Really? Why isnt it good to drive?