e-yes

I think the VED threshold for luxury surcharge should also be moved up each year in correlation to price increase. Effectively, it is the same spec, how come with passing of time it became liable to luxury surcharge ?

You say Ultra Luxury, we don't have Ultra Luxury trim in the UK, we have Takumi instead. Ultra Luxury sounds like a North American spec ? I used to have an Audi A6 S-Line 2.0 TDI from brand new... started getting rattly by 3000 miles. When I took to the dealership they couldn't locate the original issue but I noticed when they gave it back, they has inserted felt tape in the door cards, AC vents and elsewhere in other interior trims ! Vorsprung der Tapenik I would say.. which anyways didn't fix the rattles I took the car in for 😞 It was horribly uncomfortable for me. Audi A6 (and other MLB) platform cars have a longitudinal engine placement but they still drive the front wheels. Which means the drive shaft connects to the front wheels and the shaft housing is naturally on the right side... which means for UK drivers, that eats into the driver side space and somehow that arrangement didn't sit well with me. This was sadly not discovered in the short test drive which Audi dealers give (if they let us have the cars for the four hour test drive which Lexus gave me, I would have discovered the issue) It was a diesel so there was that additional hassle of keeping AdBlue topped up (not that major of an issue... but one of those "one more thing to do" kind of thing). Being a diesel the best fuel economy I could eek out of it was 65mpg... but overall the term of ownership it was not more than 50mpg. The seats were hard. It was a handsome looking car though... but that is something which I wouldn't enjoy while sitting inside it. I didn't quite fall in love with it and was waiting for the voluntary termination period on the finance contract to come up. I have the Premium Pack ES which is closer to the Luxury trim from North America ie I don't get the Marky McLevinson stereo, heated and reclining rear seats, top grade semi-aniline leather and memory seat for the passenger (and I think there are a few other things which are missing between Permium Pack and top end Takumi) What I do get in the Premium Pack is the fully adjustable driver seat ie it has the extending under-knee support and 4-way lumbar in addition to other adjustments with seat/steering memory. That for me the is the best feature. For me it is a couch on wheels (in the UK it sometimes feels like I am driving my entire living room sitting on my couch) It is not the fastest car around but it isn't horribly slow either (unless I turn on the Eco mode) It is smooth... way smoother than I remember the A6. It is relaxing... there is way more NVH isolation than the A6. The A6 had horrible tire noise coming into the cabin. On the ES there is a active noise cancellation even on the base Pioneer audio system ! The long term fuel economy I think overall is hovering around 49mpg on Petrol... which is for me good enough compared to what I was getting from the Diesel unit on the A6 and I don't have to think about AdBlue. Overall, for me personally going from A6 to ES is a very satisfying upgrade.

Exactly my experience as well. Had a 2018 A6 from brand new, rattles started at about 3k miles. Had a used 2008 BMW 3er Touring for three years. Very sporty ride but spoiled by runflat tyres along with body/frame squeaks galore and for any drive longer than two hours would give me a back ache. I did consider E-Class and a 5-Series before deciding on the ES but based on my past experiences wasn’t really keen on getting into over hyped German brands.

Parking sensors also show a visual on the instrument cluster though ? (mine is 2020 Premium Pack) --E

Most likely Speed Camera or Speed Limit alerts. --E

I haven't been flashed at so far however I do know that the lights are B R I G H T ! Maybe that's what catches some of the oncoming drivers ? I was in a situation where I flashed my 3-LEDs at someone because I had the right of way, cars parked in the opposite lane however invisible to the enthusiastic driver in that very lane, had to wake that fellow up... the reaction on the drivers face was clearly visible and he was unpleasantly surprised to have the entirety of the inside of his car bathed in heavenly white light. I do however refrain from flashing since then. Might make the situation worse.

Might as well have been on the Auto Adaptive mode where the high-beam was indeed turned on but the Adaptive system placed a shadow in your path to not dazzle you. If it was a 2022 build ES then those come with the BladeScan 3-LED which are even more complex. Mine has the older 3-LED from 2021 and even on motor way I notice the Blue High Beam symbol illuminated but don't seem to bother oncoming or following traffic due to the adaptive darkening of the high beam.

Interesting discussion going on here ! I like the idea of electric cars in principle because mechanically it is a very "clean" arrangement. All four (or however many of them) wheels can be powered and controlled/steered/vectored individually without parasitic losses of clutches, clutch packs, differentials or cv-joints. That's why I like the Rivian design (it still is a complex "Rats' Nest", but I still went ahead and bought Rivian stock... hasn't gone well so far tbh 😕 ) However, no one so far has done a long term study or a long term simulation of what will be the effect on the grid if an entire town's cars were replaced with electric cars. Whatever "studies" I have seen published in popular media so far are closer to back-of-the-paper-napkin type basic arithmetic which are not good enough to prove or disapprove the case for electric cars. Not really sure how this all will play out. Trusting the government on this isn't really a safe "bet" because we saw how Diesel played out eventually. It is still not a bad option with AdBlue and what not... but a botheration when compared to using hybrids (not the plugin kind but Toyota/Hyundai/Honda non plugin types)

Is the ACC on the newer builds still setup to do 5mph increments/decrements ? Or did they update it to support 1mph changes now ? —E

Had my year two service yesterday and was advised the aircon service for £169. Didn’t go for it this time. Maybe next year ? Was given the UX300e Takumi as a loan car. The suspension is very comfortable on the UX but a relatively short wheelbase holding about the same weight as the ES300h it did feel a bit awkward. However, driving normally and dispatching the power gently it is very refined and serene. The Mark Levinson system although was a surround system ie I could hear the sound from behind me as well front … I have to say it was muddying up the high tones. I do turn up the Pioneer system in my ES into mid 40 volume and although the sound is projected just from the front, the “rendering” is clear, high tones don’t get muddled. I guess there isn’t space inside the UX to tune the system to the same level as an ES. I have sampled the ES Mark Levinson as well and that definitely is a few notches up from the base Pioneer one. Where the UX Mark Levinson has the ES Pioneer audio is in the bass dept. … it has a very pleasant and generous dollop of bass. Maybe I should have checked the sound settings… Anyways, when I got back into my big boat in the evening, I didn’t really miss the UX at all. I have the Premium Pack ES and the have to say the seats on Takumi UX are much less comfortable compared to the ES seats with extending thigh support. —E

Please do tell more 🙂 What a great car the LS is. Cheers, —E

I never turn off the aircon be it cold or hot. The car had been sitting unused for about three weeks and for the last week had been covered with snow sitting in sub-zero. —E

Hi, So, today I started up the car after the few days of freeze up. I noticed that there were water droplets on the inside of front and rear windscreens. Also, there was frozen water on the sunroof glass and the metal works behind the soft cover which started to thaw after the aircon was left on for a while. Is this a testament to how well sealed the ES is that any moisture that was inside the car before the sub-zero spell begun never got the chance to evaporate naturally and froze due to the weather conditions OR this indicates broader issues ? (One of which could be me not being a good enough carer for the car) —E

Yea that is an issue with the ES. The only other option is to put the car into ECO mode as that simulates cutting the power output. But even with that I guess it won’t go very far. But worth a try. EDIT: Oh and also, you can put the "gearbox" into manual selection mode. Go into "D" and the push the selector into "S" and try selecting a higher "ratio" and see if that sticks, might be more predictable if the drive mode selector (the Shrek's ear on the left side of the dashboard binnacle) into Sport mode as well. HTH, —E

+1 Was about to say the same. Likely they are obscured by the turn signal stalk.

Turning off TRC will not cut the power on wheel slip. That may come handy while moving off from stand still but imho must be turned back on immediately after. Also, not cutting power will most likely hit the torque limiting device’s limit and results in very uncomfortable jittering of the hybrid drive. And also, this is anyways beyond the limit for ES (and probably other cars) going uphill on icy/slippery surface. In short, if there is ice on the road the ES is not going very far unless one wants to take significant risk. It definitely is not going uphill.

Sorry I am being pedantic here but OP’s calculation of tank range seems a bit off although I still agree with the approximate 600 miles on a tank in the right conditions. They said on highway driving they observed 44mpg. The tank is 50 litres which is about 11 imperial gallons. That makes the tank good for about 484 miles and not 600 miles. My personal anecdotal estimate is just over 500 miles before needing to fill up (motorway summer miles, cold weather will affect that number and bring it down depending on how cold it gets) that would mean estimated fuel consumption of close to 50mpg ? Between January 2021 and 2022 I estimated my average consumption to be 48mpg. —E

Yes, the signal from car to key is tapped wirelessly somehow ! I think the tracker is probably defeat-able. If the thieves have devices which can tap the signal then maybe they know how to disable the inbuilt tracker. The real proper solution would be to time-code encrypt the signal between the car and the key… maybe a cost issue why it has not been done yet.

Hi, I would seek the forum members' recommendations on theft deterrents. I just found out that early last morning someone's relatively new (21 reg) RX got stolen not very far away from where we are. (Other than that quite a few car thefts and break ins have been reported on the Nextdoor social network's email updates, I don't use Facebook, Twitter etc but I am guessing similar reports would have been seen there as well) I was under the impression that Lexus are not as desirable as RangeRovers or the German branded cars. Also, ES is not an RX so maybe really not desirable ... but to me it is the best I have had so that has me worried. For now I have enabled the low-power mode on the key fob (while holding lock button, press unlock twice) and the keyless entry is disabled on the car. Is a steering lock recommended ? If so.. which one ? Any other recommendations ? Thanks, --E

There is a set of buttons to the left of the steering with up and down arrows which can be used to change the brightness for instruments. Have you tried that already ?

Hi, I have my Premium Pack (I think it is 3 trim levels down from Takumi which you are referring to as Ultra Luxury) Are you based in North America by any chance as that trim nomenclature is not use in UK. We have ES -> Premium Edition -> Premium Pack -> F-Sport -> F-Sport + Takumi Pack -> Takumi (I think there used to be a F-Sport + Tech Pack as well but haven't checked if that is the case currently as well) For the specific questions you asked. Does it feel slow ? NO. On the contrary I think Lexus are quoting the worse observed 0-62mph time of 8.9s. I have not timed it myself but it positively feels more responsive than the Audi A6 (C7) 2.0 TDI I had. That turbo engine in the Audi had significant turbo lag, that might be the reason. The ES just gets up and goes... no drama. Acceleration while on roll is no worse than other cars in its price point. If you are looking for sub 6 second 0-62mph then obviously the Hybrid is not going to do it. In fact no car in its price range will likely do it. For most of the use cases the ES Hybrid is plenty fast. Handling wise as well it feels more planted, steady and composed than the A6 I had. I also test drove a Volvo V90 and S90, I would say that the V90 was maybe a tad softly spring but overall the ES drives better than the Volvo. However it is not as sure footed and confidence inspiring as the BMW 3-series I had before the Audi... but then no surprises there, the ES is definitely not a BMW (and vice-versa.. the ES is miles ahead in terms of comfort and refinement) Boot space ? I think Lexus also underquote the boot space at 454 litres. For a family with two adults and two kids, the boot is big enough to pack for a vacation for week. I think it is possible to fit 3x cabin bags easily and some other "stuff" in the boot. The biggest features for the ES Hybrid are Comfort, Refinement, Fuel Economy and Reliability. Lexus in UK offer a 10 year / 100k miles warranty. If the car is serviced at a main dealer continuously then at each service the warranty is extended for another year up to 10 years or 100k miles. If you want a track car.. get a GR Corolla 🙂 HTH, --E

Hope That Helped 🙂 —E

I think the launch variant is an "acquired taste" ... but the overall lineup has a proper sedan as well. Seems like (or I am hoping) the next ES will be based on the sedan and not this half-car half-SUV total peacock. But the video I linked is interesting as it has some of the history on the Crown variant (and why several models in Toyota line up are just... Crown) --E

Speaking of Crowns...

Avalon on it's own is a very fine car, however where Lexus has the tangible edge can be seen in pictures here https://www.caranddriver.com/photos/g35789537/2021-toyota-avalon-awd-by-the-numbers-gallery/?slide=22 The interior, the touch points, the weighting of controls and the overall execution in Lexus products can be discerned easily having experienced Toyota and Lexus. Notice the piano black in Avalon and lack thereof in the ES... some people like the piano black... I am not one of them 🙂 The next main difference is in the driver seat. The Avalon I drove didn't have the range of adjustment as the ES (extending thigh support) and not quite sure I don't remember now but the steering didn't have electrical adjustment linked with memory. It definitely did not do the entry/exit "choreography" of moving the seat and steering in/out of memorised setting.(maybe that can be optioned... not sure though) The other differences are in NVH mitigation (in the Hybrid variant even more so).