2011 Lexus ES problems
The 2011 Lexus ES has 60 complaints on file with NHTSA. The largest share (47%) concerns air bags. Next are body & structure (10%) and electrical system (8%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 60 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 47% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 12 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 47,000 miles 23 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 4 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 2 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 23 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 47,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 53,000 miles (13 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 12 complaints mention a crash; 5 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 82% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2011 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Lexus ES with enough data (34 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
At about 2:00 pm on dec 26, 2011, while parking in a public covered garage, I turned into the parking space, positioned my car, and was about to turn off the engine when the car lurched forward, hitting the concrete wall in front of me. The passenger in my car, my 21 year old daughter, also a licensed driver, felt the car lurch and accelerate forward. Since I had reached a good parking position, I am certain that I had my foot on the brake and would not have been trying to accelerate.
The contact owned a 2011 Lexus 350. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, her vehicle collided with another vehicle that ran a red light at 50 MPH on the front passenger side door. The impact caused the vehicle to careen off the roadway and collide with a billboard support beam where it came to stop. No air bags were deployed. A police report was filed, and injuries were reported.
I have called and contacted lexus many times regarding the problem with my lexus car. I have followed up and done all the required feedback needed in order for lexus to assist me. I feel that customers do not really matter because of the length of time lexus is taking to ensure the safety of the people who drive the vehicles when there may be a serious matter. The car manual states one thing and lexus does not even abide by the car alerts and does not appear to care if the customer is safe or not.
Takata recall. Date of the recall is 5/23/16. Today is 2/27/17. Lexus' advice is to not allow anyone to ride in the passenger seat until the airbag is replaced. Lexus told me today they have no scheduled date for when takata will have the replacement airbag available for my model. 10 months (with no repair date scheduled) is unreasonable and unacceptable while having to avoid having a passenger ride in the front seat. And I see only 28% of the lexus vehicles have had the passenger airbags replace thus far.