Now that this model has been around for a little longer problems begin to emerge (as with any new model car). In our car the problems have related mainly to trim and glazing installation, particularly excessive wind noise from the B pillar (the US owners club indicates there is a dealer fix for this involving replacement of the guides for the windows) failure of the sat nav screen to dim to night mode when the lights are activated (not sure what the fix is for this, will be attended to at next service) rattles in the tailgate (lexus have tried once to fix so we will see if they are successful next time, this problem seems to be related to installation of wiring within the tailgate) and binding of the base of the passenger side windscreen wiper arm on the trailing edge of the bonnet (some kind of installation problem, to be fixed next service).
There are also problems with rattling in the dash area which we have only noticed when the interior is cold, again the US owners club indicates this is a common problem and Lexus have a fix requiring removal of the dash and installation of buffers at certain contact points.
Nothing too fatal, really. Overall quality is comparable or slightly inferior to our other previous cars, all Volkswagens. The overall construction is accurate but doesn't seem quite as robust as some of the European makes, not entirely surprising given that the Lexus is also many hundreds of kilos lighter than many of these. Lighter weight is, however, a good thing for fuel efficiency and road feel/responsiveness. The impression of lower robustness is only a subjective impression, for instance if you lift the tailgate slightly when open you can see the C pillar flex quite noticably. However given the reputation of this make for long term quality it's probably strong enough where it needs to be!
