STE041

Lexus Reading ask if you want to pay a £15 damage waiver, but don’t charge for the loan of the car. Agreed the UX is quite a bit noisier than the ES - not sure if the UX has acoustic glass on the front end of the car like the ES does?

So the ES went back to the dealer today for a new tyre, investigate the roof rattle and I actually got hold of a boot liner which are never in stock. Todays loaner was an NX F Sport with Tech and Safety pack plus pano roof. I’ve had an NX on loan before and thought they were ok but the MPG is a tad crap - maybe something to do with a heavy foot. Being on my 2nd ES F Sport with Takumi pack since 2019 I’ve been spoilt with having all the toys, so it’s immediately apparent with any loaner car that things are missing. Although the NX is OK, I missed the pano cameras and ML Sounds, but at least it’s had the panoramic roof (non opening type) NX Pros Driving position BSM works well but not as clear and obvious as the ES. For an SUV it drives a little sluggish compared to my boat. Totally different drive from the ES - this is the only time I remember the ES is FWD Although there were no ML Sounds, the stock sounds were not bad (See also Cons) Apple Car Play / Android Auto USBs in the centre console Pano fixed glass roof - a nice touch in an F Sport with a black headliner - lots of light coming in but not so much as to be blinded. Rear leg room ok. Shorter than the ES so can fit into a car park space without the front or arse end hanging out 🙂 NX Cons The NX spends little time in EV node even when in traffic. No HUD - I didn’t think I used mine that much but as it’s usually on it was missed. I am used to the F Sport moving dial dash layout - the fixed dash pod sucks. Small and shallow Small boot for an SUV, although you’d get a set of clubs in the back, I doubt you could get a baby buggy and much shopping in the boot in one hit. Not sure if the NX is a proper SUV or just trying to be one. Cup holders don’t hold a red bull can tightly once it’s open - coke cans tend to slop about a bit when on the move. Flimsy parcel shelf. Sluggish compared to my ES - 300h and MPG is absolutely crap. No ML Sounds - I tried Tidal Masters in the NX - it sounds ok if you’re not used to ML sounds but the sound is quite hollow. At Vol 40 the wing mirrors are having a bit of a dance. Multimedia Screen - seems smaller that the 12.3 inch screen in the ES but it’s clear on Lexus navigation and there isn’t much in it when using ACP/ Steering wheel buttons a bit plasticky - they’re the same type used in the 27/18/19 plate IS300h. Windscreen wipers - passenger side - lots of travel for such a small blade given the size of the screen. Although I missed the boat for a day, and despite the ES being a bitch to park due to turning circle and length I think I’ve been spoilt having an ES since a 69 plate. I didn’t miss the ES as much as driving around in a UX on the last loaner - The NX is quite a sold car. Looked around the NX350h plug in in the showroom - still think the screen is massive and the finger prints will put you off if your OCD kicks in. I still think once you’ve had an ES for a while it’s easily missed when jumping into a different Lexus model especially when you miss half the toys on your own model. The ES came back from Lexus with a new tyre and a new boot liner but needs to go back in for the roof rattle for a couple of days as they need to take out the roof liner 😞 I’m sure the NX is a good buy for those that are into that sort of thing, I much prefer the ES with the toys.

Last week saw the ES have its first service day. The loaner was a UX250h Takumi. It bugs me that 1 year of mileage at 6600 still needs an interim service (10k miles). Anyway, I spent a day in the UX advertising the Lexus 22 plate event - a there and back only gig. For a £43k car I don’t personally rate it. This one had all the toys as I have in my ES300h F Sport with Takumi pack. My F Sport was also £43k list price when I got it in May last year. UX Pros drives like a (sluggish) go cart compared to my boat. The amount of time the car jumps in and out of EV - even on the motorway - was getting 49mpg. ML Sounds - see also Cons. Apple Car Play / Android Auto USBs in the centre console Head Up Display - very clear and displays more than you can get the ES to display. UX Cons I am used to the F Sport moving dial dash layout - the fixed dash pod layout seems cluttered but I am probably biased - it’s clear to read. Small and shallow boot. How can this car be called a small SUV - just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Rear legroom - I’m 5’10, my knees are in the back of the front seat. Cup holders don’t hold a red bull can tightly once it’s open - coke cans are not much better. With a white leather interior - for a 21 plate with low mileage the white interior gets grubby really quick - particularly around touch points on the doors - the white is ingrained with, well crap off peoples hands - it wasn’t minging, but you know it looked like someone has cleaned it but not all marks would come off. Crap cloth parcel shelf. Sluggish compared to my ES - 300h dropping to a 250h (2.5l to 2.0l) is a huge difference despite comparing a large saloon to a small SUV ML Sound - I usually use Tidal Masters in the ES at Vol 40 on the motorways. In the ES you can feel the bass in the back of the seat, in the UX the door cards are trying to jump off the doors and I cannot seen out of the rear view mirror as it’s vibrating into next week. Multimedia Screen - it’s physically the same size as the ES but looks a lot smaller than the ES 12 inch screen - may be a different resolution? Top of the dash - not sure what material it is but it’s odd The air con buttons seem non intuitive at first to use Window and steering wheel buttons a bit plasticky - similar to the 68/69 plate ES. Windscreen wipers - passenger side - lots of travel for such a small blade Sunroof - with the manual cover back the glass isn’t tinted like on the ES F Sport - it lets a load of glare in where it’s not wanted. Also found it odd when sliding open, it sits above the roof waiting for a stone to shatter it. It also doesn’t open as fully as the ES. In all, I missed the boat for a day, and despite the ES being a bitch to park due to turning circle and length I think I’ve been spoilt having an ES since a 69 plate. Also saw an NX450h plug in in the showroom - the screen is massive but the first thing that went through my head was “how you gonna get all the finger prints off that”. Pics below of the UX Go Cart, plus 2 of my boat. I think once you’ve had an ES for a while it’s easily missed when jumping into a different Lexus model especially when you miss half the toys on your own model. The ES came back from service needing a new rear tyre (screw in side wall not repairable) and needs to go back in for a rattle that’s been developing since 1500 miles at roof level. I’m sure the UX is right for some but it’s not really my thing.

Turns out when I completed on line that this years effort with the April rule change was £510 for the year.

Higher VED this year on the ES300h FSport with Takumi Pack.

Last year I took my MY19 69 plate ES300h F Sport with Takumi pack in for an Apple car play upgrade. Within months they cut me a deal to upgrade to the same spec and model on a 21 plate (MY21) which cost no additional. I think they were after the 69 plate as there was a shortage of new cars and mine had less than 10k on the clock when doing the deal. Thing is now, I don’t like the MY22 if I get another decent deal - the dash looks unfinished to me and I don’t like the new lights which is a shame. In both ES’s I’ve had the ML sounds having test drove a base model - the ML system is hard to beat but to get good results you’ll need to wind it up a bit and have a high def source of music. I use Tidal and Apple TV - anything by Hams Zimmer (Live), all the way to The Who - Pinball Wizard thru to London Grammar - Strong with volume set at 40 really shows the ML sounds up compared to other brands.

Glad it worked for you - 35 - 40 I think is the sweet spot - if you’re playing something with really heavy bass like Billie Eilish then that is where speaker rattle happens. My settings are as per pic.

I had an IS300h Advance in 2016. Coming from company car territory it beat the likes of Ford Vauxhall VW easily. When looking to get into a Lexus I considered the likes of the BMW 3 series and Audi A3, A4 and A5 - the IS was all round the best deal in terms of reliability, build quality, fir and finish and MPG considering I didn’t want a diesel at the time. I had the IS 3 years and in 2019 got into the next lease for an ES300h F Sport with Takumi pack. I test drove a standard ES F Sport without any extras. The standard stereo is not good at all - I am comparing it to the standard sounds I had in the IS. The small screen looked lost in the massive dash mounted bezel and I didn’t like the standard grille hence going F Sport. Having learned at the time the only way to get the Mark Levinson System and a big screen was to put the Takumi pack on the deal, I took the plunge. Back then the 2019 ES didn’t come with Apple Car Play etc. having gone for the upgraded sounds in particular, if you play from a crap source on a decent system you will only amplify crap sounds. I used Tidal and started using their master files - awesome - haven’t found a system better in this price range that matched the ML Sounds. Later in 2019, I got an Apple Car Play upgrade for £80.00 from the dealer - although I cannot speak for Android Auto, the ACP interface is a lot better to use than the standard Lexus interface. Fast forward to May 2021, I was looking to put the private plate on the car, and having ignored the dealer on a good number of occasions with regard to trading up to a newer model, ended up swapping the 2019 ES for a 2021 ES300h F Sport with Takumi pack in then same colours. Effectively I reset the lease and parted with a £500 refundable deposit. I inherited 360 pano cam and blind spot monitor in moving from the MY19 to MY21. My original plan was to do a 3.5 year lease and get a loan and pay the balance on completion of the lease. Obviously that didn’t happen with the IS or my first ES but that’s the current plan with the MY21. What a will point out that despite what your budget may or may not be, my 2019 ES was £43.8k list. Less than 18n months later the trade in value on paper was £28.8k with 9000 miles on the clock. The car spent a month on the dealer forecourt at £32.8k and sold for around £31k ish. With this and your budget in mind, whether buying or leasing and I am assuming you’re looking at new cars, it may be an idea to look at a 12-18 month old model and ensure you land an ES with the ML sounds with ACP/AA. I would not look back myself - this will be a hard car to let go of unless another exceptional deal comes up. In addition to Tidal, I use YouTube, Apple TV, Apple Music and Amazon Prime for music in the car which all now provide Hi Fi / Spacial Sound depending on the tracks content - the system does the rest. The ML give you sound you can feel as well as hear - live music is like being at the concert wether your taste is classical through Pop / Rock to Metal and Alternative. Before buying/leasing go and have a play with an ES with ML Sounds even if it’s not in your current budget, cue up You Tube, search for Queen Live Aid 1985 and make sure you have a USB lead with you. Start the car with all doors shut plug in and play the track at Volume 40 - I use this level on the motorways when in the car on my own - Awesome. The above also works well with an HD source such as Apple TV, Tidal or Amazon Music with Strong by London Grammer and any tracks by Hans Zimmer (Interstellar / Inception / Pirates of the Caribbean / Gladiator) - I can guarantee if you end up with ML sounds in an ES in the 1st month of having the car you will spend hours in the evening messing about with play lists. Happy hunting - it will be interesting to see what you end up going with.

Looks misaligned to me

Black wheels in the UK back in 2016 were reserved for the entry level sport models - I don’t think they’re a good look - I much prefer the gun metal grey

Most of the colours don’t quite go with the black F Sport wheels, I prefer the gun metal grey wheels

Nextbase 522GW with rear camera into 2019 69 plate ES300h F Sport with Takumi pack

I used to have a Nextbase 380GW in a 16 plate IS300h - front only back then as a rear camera wasn’t available. I believe the dash cam in the link above is the next generation model which lets you connect a rear facing camera. If these are anything like the 380GW, they last about 2 years or so before you will need to replace it. It was good while it lasted. Since upgrading from the IS300h in 2019 to the ES300h F Spot with Takumi pack i changed dash cams from the 380GW initially swapped over to the ES to the 522GW with rear camera and fitted it myself. The wiring loom needed changing and with a rear screen sun blind you are limited to on of the top corners of the rear screen so that the sun blind does not get fouled by the camera. It works a treat. When I upgraded again from a 69 plate ES to a 21 plate ES - same spec and Takumi pack, i had the 522GW transferred to the new car and it is still in good working order I’d recommend the Nextbase 522GW with hardwired rear cam, and if i were to change cameras id go for the 622GW 4K camera. With both the 380 and 522GW having an internal battery for use when the car is parked, if you don’t use your car that much you will find that the front cam will need to be removed from the car for a rough 2 hour charge indoors via USB. I had to do this only once in the first lockdown (March 2020). I will try and post some pics of the install if I can find any. Bottom line is as others have said, a dash cam is a dash cam, so compatibility should never be an issue as all they need is a switched (ignition) 12V supply. The install into the ES took around a couple of hours for me to complete with no knowledge of how to dismantle panels in the car. For Lexus to install it in to the 21 plate took around an hour or so for both front and rear cameras Hope this helps

Mines Graphite Black - looks a totally colour different in showroom conditions, and yes FSport trim with Takumi pack added

Mike, I changed for the second time as my plan was to buy the 69 plate once the lease was up. I had 1 x no fault claim resulting in a rear bumper respray by Lexus, and soon after the start of the March 2020 lockdown, I hadn’t driven mine for a month or so, went to go move the car and nudged a tree with the passenger door while reversing - simply wasn’t looking where I was going. This resulted in a fault claim - passenger door replaced and painted - £4.8k repair on a cat with less than 6k miles on the clock. The door replacement was a no Lexus repair, and although it was a good repair, there were bit about that repair that I just didn’t like, including the finish on the paint. When Lexus called offering a no cost upgrade, I had a small chip on the crease of the bonnet (which would have been £700 to respray by Lexus) so I changed based on the March 20 repair finish and a chip on the bonnet to pick up the same spec model, same colours with a couple of extra toys.

I changed from a 69 plate to a 21 plate last month - F Sport with Takumi on both models. Picked up a few more toys - BSM/RCTA and a 360 pano camera. The deal cost me nothing to change as I lease and I agree; I like the MY21 as is. I’m not sure on the new front lights and the touch screen on the MY21 facelift.

Trade in was 28500, plus I has around 2k contribution on the deal for the new car plus positive equity from the MY19 to MY21. I’m not sure if the 28.5k trade in cost stated was reflective of the market as the number in the finance deal from old to new were worked so I didn’t have to part with any cash for the upgrade. I remember trading up from the IS300h I had to the ES300h that the gap between trade in figure and forecourt was around 4K, that said, it was a PCP deal again so the numbers may well be different is you’re a cash buyer

I bought mine from Lexus Reading - been with them over 3 cars now since 2016 - top service with no issues

Took the plunge....

How does the ES compare to the GS for you?

My old ES on the pre owned list

I didn’t have a GS450 - last one was an ES300h

So New Car Day arrived, pics below. Differences between MY19 and MY21: Brightwork on window buttons all round Bottle holder has push written on it Volume knob now silver instead of black - seems to work smoother than the MY19 Pano Camera added - neat toy, put it on auto and when in traffic it auto pops up - move along, it disappears Apple Car Play as standard - works smoother than the upgrade I had in the MY19 Wireless charger turned by 90 degrees - a little less storage in the centre, but the charger is easier to place your phone on and remove Engine seems to run smoother and quieter than the MY19 Graphite Black paint seems to pop a lot more than I remember my 69 plate doing - not sure if they’ve changed the make up of the paint Reader cross Traffic Alert and Blind Spot Monitor added - BSM indicators are really bright which is good. All in all worth the upgrade. 934A9E19-B377-492F-80F8-87F4B68C7920.MOV BEEA8B36-93F5-4E6B-AD4A-BA5A12EB23A7.MOV

Today will be my last day with this one. 10k trouble free miles since 2019. It will be interesting to see what this goes for on the forecourt. New car inbound tomorrow afternoon.

So, on the 69 plate the final payment was £15,615, on the new agreement for the 21 plate the final payment is £15,142. Not too much in it, however the monthly payment has also dropped by £20 per month also. Delivery date is currently 4th May 21.