Five problems related to power train have been reported for the 2017 Lexus RX350. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
There is a huge delay in acceleration. Sometimes, when merging or passing, there is a very noticeable dead spot where the vehicle will not respond when you need it to. Throttle response also is often very jerky and difficult to drive. This has been a problem since I bought it. Lexus says this is normal and offers no solutions. Many people seem to be having problems with this vehicle, please make Lexus issue a recall. This car was very expensive.
The transmission on this vehicle is bad! the dealer keeps saying it's normal in the learning phase, but there is no way all of this sputtering and hesitation is normal for any vehicle, let alone a luxury one. The tachometer jumps, jerks and sputters as well if you watch it. The pre-collision break system is also severely flawed. It has braked so hard that it screetched and no one was even around me!!!!! this clearly almost gave me a heart attack three times now. It has happened twice when slowly backing out of a parking spot, and one time while driving down the street at a normal rate of speed and no one was around me at all.
Vehicle roll over driver after being placed in park at the residence causing fatal injuries. Driver reversed out of garage and exited vehicle. Inspection at the scene by the sheriff's office revealed the vehicle was in park backed against some trees. This vehicle is equipped with a automatic transmission and a automatic emergency brake. The gear shift lever can be placed between park and reverse and not move. If the gear shift lever is moved slowly from drive to park or reverse to park the automatic emergency brake does not engage this condition is very dangerous.
The reaction of the vehicle to the gas pedal is extremely touchy at low speeds. It is so touchy, that if you hit a pot hole or bump in the road, it is difficult to keep your leg still enough to not fluctuate the gas pedal and send the car lunging forward. . This is a huge safety concern when driving in parking lots or areas where there are pedestrians, as the vehicle will lunge forward at the smallest movement of the gas pedal. This has been an issue since the day of purchase. Still an issue at 2,000 miles.
Car is unsafe as you never know how it will react when you press the gas pedal. Often times you press it to accelerate a little and it's like you let off the gas entirely. You then have to aggressively press the pedal down to which it reacts wildly. Sometimes you barely touch the pedal and it takes off but most times you get little to no response. Acceleration does not react linear in conjunction with the gas pedal. This issue only exists as the car learns your driving. Car drives fine when this learning is cleared from computer memory. Lexus says this is normal but how can rolling out into traffic and waiting to get hit be normal? they won't release or update the programming because this would then affect the mpg number they are claiming. To be clear, gently start to pull out to merge into traffic, press gas pedal to get out of the way of cars coming at you and no reaction from car. Big dead spot in the pedal range . Now cars are closing in so you have to stomp the gas to save yourself. Happens continuous once car learns your driving. This is all in the normal mode default settings for powertrain.
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