Lexus ES 350 Audio
....Is everyone else as thrilled with this as I am? It essentially renders the in-dash CD changer irrelevant. Why would I bother loading in a few CD's with 10-12 songs per disc when I have a perfectly wonderful Ipod with about 700 of my favorite songs (and capable of holding 7500 I think...it's the 30GB photo) at my fingertips piping out CD quality music through the Aux input.
I do wish that they had put the seat ventillation/heating controls somewhere where they can be seen. I'm finding that located under the armrest I forget that I have them on and they just keep blowing (albeit, a minimal amount) air for days on end until I even realize that I have them turned on.
While the front seats are very nice I do have to say that I haven't been able to find that one real "sweet spot" and I don't think they are quite as comfortable as the seats in the '02. I wish there was a way to control the seat angle fore and aft. Alas, there's not and all you can do is raise and lower the whole seat. I seem to recollect that the '02 allowed for fore and aft height adjustment though maybe I'm not recalling this correctly.
The power of this engine is just thrilling. Gone are the doubts about your ability to scoot in and out of "holes" in the flow of traffic on the highway. Just point this baby, put your foot on the accelerator and you're there.
Steering is still nowhere near as sharp as it should be and you don't get the feeling that this car is going to be any too agile in any accident avoidance maneuvers but hopefully I'll never have to find out. Still way too much body lean in curves though I strongly suspect that this is something that could be improved by putting on tires with stiffer sidewalls (like a good summer tire). The all weather Michelin MXV4's they put on the car are mediocre at best.
Gas mileage contineues to amaze me. In combined driving I'm getting 24.5-25mpg! That's easily 8mpg better than my outgoing underpowered '02 ES300. Astonishing, just astonishing. All the more so that they're able to engineer in this kind of efficiency in a 3.5 liter 272hp engine.
I do wish that they had put the seat ventillation/heating controls somewhere where they can be seen. I'm finding that located under the armrest I forget that I have them on and they just keep blowing (albeit, a minimal amount) air for days on end until I even realize that I have them turned on.
While the front seats are very nice I do have to say that I haven't been able to find that one real "sweet spot" and I don't think they are quite as comfortable as the seats in the '02. I wish there was a way to control the seat angle fore and aft. Alas, there's not and all you can do is raise and lower the whole seat. I seem to recollect that the '02 allowed for fore and aft height adjustment though maybe I'm not recalling this correctly.
The power of this engine is just thrilling. Gone are the doubts about your ability to scoot in and out of "holes" in the flow of traffic on the highway. Just point this baby, put your foot on the accelerator and you're there.
Steering is still nowhere near as sharp as it should be and you don't get the feeling that this car is going to be any too agile in any accident avoidance maneuvers but hopefully I'll never have to find out. Still way too much body lean in curves though I strongly suspect that this is something that could be improved by putting on tires with stiffer sidewalls (like a good summer tire). The all weather Michelin MXV4's they put on the car are mediocre at best.
Gas mileage contineues to amaze me. In combined driving I'm getting 24.5-25mpg! That's easily 8mpg better than my outgoing underpowered '02 ES300. Astonishing, just astonishing. All the more so that they're able to engineer in this kind of efficiency in a 3.5 liter 272hp engine.
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Comments
One thing I hate is the armrest gizmo. Who thought to make a back-sliding cover? It is awkward to close and looks even more awkward while it is open. I also don't like that they put a little diagram on the underside that shows you how to close the lid. Just my $.02
SammyS
Go figure. I absolutely adore that particular feature and really thought that just showed how much thought went into the ergonomic engineering of this car. I find it makes the center storage area infinitely more easily accessable than with the old "hinged at the back" center armrest cover.
Oh well.
Nah. To get that same feeling you'd have to have the car in the shop about once a week (lol). And believe me, you'll never get that chance with the new ES.
About the Ipod connection. That's a piece of cake. Just go to your local Radio Shack and get a male to male stereo mini-plug. Should run you about $4.99. One end goes in your Ipod and the other goes in the little hole inside the center console. Just hit "Aux" on your stereo, turn on the Ipod and you're good to go.
Tell that to the ES owners w/ tranny problems. :P
Heck, for the most part they're getting brand new cars!
Maybe because not everyone out there necessarily owns or wants to own an iPod or similar device? Assuming that the CD changer can play MP3 CDs, 6 such CDs can hold 700+ songs/48+ hours (total number/length of songs can vary depending on length of song and encoded bitrate). Okay, so 6 MP3 CDs don't offer the same capacity as a 30/60 GB iPod...but unless you're going on a 48-hour drive, 6 MP3 CDs should definitely hold you over for a few weeks--if not even longer. That, plus you won't have to deal with plugging in the iPod into the aux port and/or finding a secure location to put it.
Not saying that the iPod isn't a viable MP3 option, but one shouldn't completely discount CDs as a viable audio source.
in MP3's from my music library on my computer. Each CD holds about 7 to 8 hours of excellent quality sound. In fact, I'm replacing the commercially recorded CD's with the MP3's. Not only do I have an enormous amount of music, but all the information such as the name of the artist and the title of the tune, plus any other bits of information are displayed on my NAV screen. I can control all this using my steering wheel buttons, unlike the iPod where you have to change tunes by working the controls on the iPod itself. This definitely is not as convenient and more dangerous 'cause you have to take your eyes off the road to make these tune changes.
Alan
A nice bonus is that the I AGREE nav display button is automatically selected when starting up (just ask for this free option when ordering).
Thanks.
forthill
i see it cycles thru mpg and you can see distance traveled but how do you set time clock.... the nav will tell you projected time and distance but not actual time spent driving... i had a es 300 and that was part of the info cycled that you did from the steering wheel but i dont see it on the new 2007 es 500
i don't like the center armrest either. it's located too far back that all i can rest on it is the tip of my elbow. and sometimes my elbow hits the button and the compartment opens up. The button should not be located at the top!! stupid design! closing the compartment requires some force too, and i'm afraid i'm gonna break the handle if i pull it too hard.
Other ideas?
Thanks,
basio
Besides DVDs, what audio formats are people happy with: CD with 5.1 surround, SACD, etc.
Thanks.
Can anyone confirm/deny this?
Another question, if I use an mp3 or iPod, will I atleast see the name of the song, artist etc etc on my stereo display ?
I've had this happen with two different home-burned CD's, (no label) loaded in different positions in the changer.
Once the CD ejects, everything works fine until the next time it happens.
Anyone else experienced this?
Thanks!
Also, does anyone know a way to modify the DVD display so you don't need to have the parking brake on, or have the car in park. This would be ideal to have for the kids to watch movies on those long drives... It really doesn't help me much when the car needs to be in park with the parking brake applied to get video!
Other than that, I love my ES 350!
(ES 350)? I have my cell connected to the car's bluetooth as well. I don't understand how the MP3 works, what I need to do? Thank you.
Z