Having owned 97 E320 and 01 S500, I went to a 01 740iL, and most recently to a 06 Lexus GS300 AWD for a daily driver...about 4 months ago...it was decked out with all the options and navi, upgraded stereo and the works...i think i was more impressed with the electronics than the rest of the car...i should have test driven the car more thoroughly (i also currently own an 02 911 Turbo and a 06 Cayenne S) but i think i was enamored with Lexus's track record and probably their ads...bought the car with 28k miles...

Brought it home (with the Mark Levinson stereo on LOUD)...and drove it over a street with some bumps (with the raido off) and started noticing all these little squeaks and rattles from the car.

Went to a Lexus forum on the net and saw all these posts complaining the same rattles and squeaks from dash, door, trim, the whole damn interior. In fact, i found out that there are service bulletins out for this very issue that were driving the picky lexus owners absolutely crazy.

So I took the car to the dealer and they immediately recognized the problem and took out the whole dash and put felt tape around all the ac vents, dash electronics area....when they were finished, the noise only REDUCED, and wasn't eliminated. I also realized that when you push on the door trims, the door would squeak. When you push on the middle storage area, the box would squeak. The whole car just felt CHEAP!

Four months of this and I just couldn't take it anymore. I should have known...having driven German cars most of my driving life...but i thought I'd give Lexus a try...sure they look pretty and the electronics will dazzle you...but there's nothing like the solid feel of a German automobile....

So I took the Lexus and traded EVEN with an 04 E500 4 Matic with the same mileage. Rock solid....i'm never going back to Japanese

 

Welcome. My same sentiments though my Acura's and Honda's of the past have been put together very well.

 

Same here, borrowed relatives Japanese cars and they feel cheap. just closing the doors on those things they sound so weak, seltbelts never wind back when you leave the car and so much other little things that I can not stand. I will only drive european. Welcome back to thr real cars.

 

wow you really like MB's ~ i hope to be one of those guys with 300k miles on the odo....NOT!

 

I feel the same way,although my Acura Legend left a lot to be desired when it came to security. That's why I went german,and never looked back.