ES 330 Transmission Jerking & Hesitation

My wife's 2004 was very bad. I had even considered selling the car.
Two months after the update was released I had another "near hit" and
called Lexus AGAIN. They told me about the update. The dealer
installed it and the car is fine. I have a heavy foot (I drive a Jeep
V8) and I am very satisfied.

BTW its not a transmission problem. The original programming withheld
fuel at first to keep the emissions clean, its an engine management
program that is changed.

Considering that the ES is a hazard with the initial software I took
the risk that it might be worse and have no regrets.

What is sad is that neither Lexus nor my dealer kept a list of
unsatisfied customers so it appears no one got a call about the new
programming. If you complained then Lexus talked to you. Neither the
dealer or Lexus apologized in any way. In fact during the same service
I asked to have the trunk opening speed reprogrammed and the dealer
clipped me for $42. Funny since its the same scan tool as the
programming fix is used so the net cost is about 2 minutes.

During the 16 months we had the problem I spent time comparing my 97
Jeep to my 04 ES, interesting that other than water sensitive wipers
the Jeep has more features better executed. Such as coded key fobs for
each owner, etc.

Definitely a very slow pursuit of perfection!

my 2002 ES300 has the latest "fix", and it still jerks and hesitates. I
doubt the Lexus engineers have figured anything out to fix the problem once
and for all. This is the last Lexus I will ever own.

...

Me too! I'm not normally such a grumpy pisseater, but after spending close
to $40K for my 2003 ES, I'm more than ticked. When I move into the 750-il /
SL500 / LS class on my next purchase, Lexus is out due to their crappy
treatment of me and other Lexus owners. Come to think of it, both BMW and
Mercedes models suck in terms of reliability, especially at that price
point. Maybe I'll just stay in the $50-$70K range then.

The horrid thing about this transmission problem is that it is bad enough to
be dangerous, but not so bad that 60 Minutes or 20/20 would do an report on
it. Even if someone were to die or be injured because of it, which I can
VERY WELL imagine BECAUSE IT ALMOST HAPPENED TO ME A COUPLE TIMES, it would
be very hard to prove.

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It's happened to me too, scared me to death not less than a few times. I
don't have the money to step up beyond this price point, this was really a
treat for working so hard. I wanted to treat myself to a "near-luxury" car,
and the ES300 fit the bill, or so I thought. I had driven only Toyota
vehicles for 20 years, so I trusted that the ES300 would be rock solid. I
feel like I've been had.

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On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:36:23 -0400, "Rumple Stiltskin" < graced this newsgroup with:

...not EVERY Lexus or ES300 has this problem. Our 00 ES doesn't and
my 02 LS doesn't.

My '05 ES is fine as is my wife's '04 rx.

But I know this does happen, because I experienced it in a loaner from
the dealer.

Neither my wife nor I are lead footed. Who knows how the loaner was
driven. Could it be a problem for more aggresive drivers?

You bring up an interesting point. I don't know how old you are, but most ES
drivers are older and drive so conservatively that they never notice the
transmission lag. As for the fella who said he didn't have problems, we're
talking here about the ES only, in the most recent model years. I've never
heard of a '00 ES having the problem.

...

That was before the big engineering change that introduced all the problems.

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Yeah, the older ES didn't have the issue. The problem was introduced when
they put in the new drive by wire garbage, which, by the way, doesn't have
to be "garbage", my experience tells me that Lexus' implementation of DBW
was garbage. I am 40 years old, drive in a big city with lots of traffic
and hills, and I like my car to move when I want it to. Am I an aggressive
driver? By the standards of most all other Lexus owners, I would say
absolutely. If you have nowhere to go in a hurry, then the Lexus is a
terrific car. I'm just a little more busy than that. I'd actually like to
try out the new Acura TL in place of the ES.

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