Ques.: Does the jerking transmission problem discussed frequently in
this newsgroup shorten the life or cause costly damage to the transmission?

"Charles Brand" <cbrand (AT) erols (DOT) com> wrote


Ans: No, it just diminishes the driving experience significantly.
While some folks claim it's a safety issue, I think that's a stretch.

No, but it does decrease your life expectancy. As you jerk your neck
repeatedly, you wear down the bones protecting your spinal cord. Finaly
you have no bone protecting your spinal cord, and when you jerk the car
one too many times, you snap your neck and that is it!!!!! So you may
want to talk to your life insurance agent. Oh yes - get some blood
pressure pills from your cardiologist because your blood pressure will
increase as you step on the gas and the car jerks or doesn't go
anywhere. And you wouldn't want to stroke out before you snap your
neck. And don't really drive it in heavy traffic cause when you step on
the gas and the car just sits there, sometimes you can get crushed by
an oncoming truck. Again, the crushing could end your life prematurely
before the ultimate neck snap, and you wouldn't want that! So your
worries are groundless becaue these cars are bullet proof - virtualy
indestructible, barring unforseen crushing by trucks, of course.

It is a safety issue, your opinion does not correlate with ES drivers'
actual experiences.

The jerking behavior will definitely diminish the life of the transmission,
that's common sense.


"David Z" <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote

Uh, yeah, it is a safety issue. I have the ES300 (Especially Shitty). Do you
own it? I wish it were a stretch to say that one's life is not endangered by
this hesitation. If you put your brain to work for just 2 seconds and think
about it, you can see how transmission hesitation = safety problem. That's
about the amount of time it takes sometimes for the car to respond.

"David Z" <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote

"Mack" <ICH0R0426 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote


Yes.

OK, let's review the logic.

You believe it's definitely a safety issue and you still own it.

And you're suggesting that MY brain needs to be put to work?

Before this turns really ugly, please park the attitude. That's great that
you've learned how to diminish the safety aspect of the poor transmission
design and behavior, kudos to you that you are not an aggressive driver.
But the reality is that there are times presented in the real world where
you need to punch it to merge into a faster-moving lane of traffic, or at
times where you didn't see another vehicle coming when you turned a corner.
Those times require the vehicle to respond quickly. For many ES3xx owners,
that quick acceleration does not happen the majority of the time, if ever.
When presented that situation, if the vehicle doesn't move fast enough,
there can be a rear-end collision anywhere in the line of traffic behind
you, for obvious reasons. Now, regarding your deameaning someone for not
getting rid of the car due to the safety issue, some of us aren't blessed
with the huge budgets to be able to take such a large loss. It's easier,
and cheaper, to learn to live with it by completely avoiding the driving
situations that the car does not operate properly. My first priorities
relate to paying all my other bills, taking care of my family, keeping a
roof over their heads. I'd like to squander the bank account for my own
selfish needs, but I learned more about the value giving to my family first
after my son was born. So, anyway, chill out with the attitude, be a little
more patient with people who are terribly frustrated with their ES3xx series
cars, they may not have much choice but to live with it. The only way to
get a large corporation to improve on something is to keep the issue alive
and let the free market encourage change.


"David Z" <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote

"Rumple Stiltskin" <rs (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) com> wrote


No attitude here.

Take another look at the post I responded to. It drips with arrogant
condescension. I simply pointed out the obvious hypocrisy in his logic.

It's interesting that you saw that observation as MY attitude.

I don't diminish the jerky transmission at all.

I think you exaggerate it by calling it a safety issue.

I was aware of the jerky transmission problem before I bought the car.
After considering my alternatives, I selected the ES330 with full
knowledge of this issue.


I'm fully aware of this issue. From what I've read and from the various
ES owners I know, most of them either don't see it as a problem or
aren't even aware of the "problem." There's a guy with the same car who
parks near me. When I asked him what he thought about the jerky
transmission, he said "what are you talking about?"

The first time I experience the hesitation, it was disturbing. I soon
learned that the harder I punched it, the more it hesitated. So, I
learned to ease into the throttle until I feel the engine engage, and
then push it. This technique reduces the hesitation tremendously.

Again, reread the post I responded to.

It's fascinating that you interpret this interaction as ME demeaning
HIM. That speaks volumes about your ability to fairly assess a
situation.

Again, I disagree with this assessment.

I suspect that you are overstating the problem in hopes that Lexus will
do something about it.

So, you let your wife and newborn son ride in this "safety issue" car?

The point I'm making here is that, if the car had a REAL safety issue,
like occasionally faulty breaks, you wouldn't drive it. And you
certainly wouldn't let your family ride in it.

I wish you luck. But I won't spin the truth to help you achieve that
goal.

Um, no, again you've made the wrong assumption. The answer is "no", they
don't ride in this car. The child seat is permanently mounted in my wife's
car. When we go out as a family, we all ride in her car, not the defective
ES300.

There is no spin here. The transmission has 2 separate issues. First, it
does jerk a bit, especially when driving in traffic. This extra jerkiness
will shorten the life of the transmission. Second, the ECU has a
programming design bug that involves not only the transmission, but the fuel
system as well. This bug causes a hesitation on quick acceleration, most
notably in the 0-20 mph range, but also in faster speeds. I would ask why
in the world Lexus has wasted their time taking 3 or 4 stabs at getting the
programming right in the past 4 years, especially if there was no
significant problem with the car. Have you noticed how many more safety and
performance related recalls Toyota has had in the past few years? My
personal opinion is that this is a trend, and Toyota is having some quality
issues in their engineering group. Lexus just recently added a new quality
control position to their North American factories, because the defect list
was getting voluminous on new design releases. They never needed to staff
such a position because the quality was always impeccable. With the extra
complication of the parts, and with globalized manufacturing, they have less
control of the products that they need to slam out the door.

Ah, screw it, I'm sleepy and it's not worth explaining any further. Your
opinion is that it's not a safety issue. Great. My opinion is that it is a
safety issue. Great. My opinion is that president (GWB) is a moron.
Great. 30% of America thinks he's wonderful. Great. As always, opinions
are like a**holes. Everybody has one, and they all stink.

"Rumple Stiltskin" <rs (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) com> wrote


I made no such assumption. Reread my posting. My statement was
hypothetical.

And what's with your use of the word "again?" "Again" means there was a
prior incident. Perhaps, YOU need to park your attitude?

No need to go over all this again. As I said before, I understand the
issues.


I agree that the transmission design (a) is flawed, (b) sucks, and (c)
is way below what I would like to expect from Lexus/Toyota.

But my assessment, at the time I bought the car and today, is that, on
the whole, the ES best meet my needs and desires for reliable
transportation at the price I paid.

Perhaps if other car companies made better products, I would consider
buying another brand. Until then, I'll just have to choose from the
products available.