mikeavelli

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Sofyan used to be my go-to for car reviews a couple of years ago, but I think he's reached a level of success where he has become entitled evident by him complaining Lexus didn't send him a version with all the best options. Some of his complaints are valid, but he consistently overlooks the same issues with Honda and Acura. With car YouTubers, I feel like I'll get attached to a couple, watch their reviews for a couple of years, and then cycle to a newer car reviewer that is still in a phase that they can still appreciate the base models. My favorite reviewers currently are Driving Sports TV and TheTopher.

That complete B.S he pulled with the tlx type-s vs S4 at the Acura press event gave him a big dent in reputation. Can’t believe the guy. I assume he was born in a civic or something.

At least y’all know I’m biased hahahha
 

GoHuskers

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That complete B.S he pulled with the tlx type-s vs S4 at the Acura press event gave him a big dent in reputation. Can’t believe the guy. I assume he was born in a civic or something.

At least y’all know I’m biased hahahha
Damn...calling an asian looking guy born in a Civic? What if he was born in a Foxwagen?
 

Gecko

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I don’t know why he always hate Lexus…

Sofyan is a B - straight up. Met him in person in Plano last year and he's simply anti-Toyota/Lexus, and pretty stuck up and unapproachable. In his POV, everything Toyota/Lexus is old, outdated, not good enough, not sporty enough, not luxurious enough etc. My favorite is his "door sound close test" where every Toyota and Lexus product miraculously feels "tinny" and cheap, and the "Koreans and Honda are better." The sound and sensation of closing a car door isn't even something you can capture on camera correctly.

If you listen to him, everything from Honda/Acura/Kia/Hyundai/Genesis is the best, world-beater, etc. and Toyota/Lexus are "losing their touch."

Lexus isn't perfect, but his POV isn't rooted in reality.
 

mikeavelli

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Sofyan is a B - straight up. Met him in person in Plano last year and he's simply anti-Toyota/Lexus, and pretty stuck up and unapproachable. In his POV, everything Toyota/Lexus is old, outdated, not good enough, not sporty enough, not luxurious enough etc. My favorite is his "door sound close test" where every Toyota and Lexus product miraculously feels "tinny" and cheap, and the "Koreans and Honda are better." The sound and sensation of closing a car door isn't even something you can capture on camera correctly.

If you listen to him, everything from Honda/Acura/Kia/Hyundai/Genesis is the best, world-beater, etc. and Toyota/Lexus are "losing their touch."

Lexus isn't perfect, but his POV isn't rooted in reality.
Yeah met him there too and 2 minutes was all I could stomach.
 

maiaramdan

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Sofyan used to be my go-to for car reviews a couple of years ago, but I think he's reached a level of success where he has become entitled evident by him complaining Lexus didn't send him a version with all the best options. Some of his complaints are valid, but he consistently overlooks the same issues with Honda and Acura. With car YouTubers, I feel like I'll get attached to a couple, watch their reviews for a couple of years, and then cycle to a newer car reviewer that is still in a phase that they can still appreciate the base models. My favorite reviewers currently are Driving Sports TV and TheTopher.
You may need to try Carwow , you won't regret it
 

maiaramdan

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I like his idea honestly
Regarding his Lexus the most thing about his bashing is related to the body roll/ handling and performance

And this is only related to RX/ES
He loved the 2NX,

He loved a lot of recent Toyota as Yaris and Corolla and GR Yaris and even the GR supra
 
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That being said, him owning a R4Prime really comes into focus throughout the review for better or worse.
He used his connections at Toyota to get that Prime at MSRP
Eh, no. He's another car snob. You must have missed some of his Lexus bashing reviews.
Has there ever been a Euro based car reviewer that doesn't snub Lexus or any Japanese for that matter? To me, car culture in Europe tends to favor performance over everything. Mat W isn't too different from Clarkson I suppose. I remember Clarkson's special "How Japan Took Over The World..."
 
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CRSKTN

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It’s because “car enthusiasts” and reviewers are generally B and C students and the people at Toyota come across as “boring, conservative” A Students to them, so naturally when you see the quiet kid dominating, you start talking about things like their cars having no “soul”, or nit picking minor stuff. Add a layer of lowest common denominator audience to provide confirmation bias to, and boom, we have the current predicament.

At least it’s always felt that way to me.
 
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It’s because “car enthusiasts” and reviewers are generally B and C students and the people at Toyota come across as “boring, conservative” A Students to them, so naturally when you see the quiet kid dominating, you start talking about things like their cars having no “soul”, or nit picking minor stuff. Add a layer of lowest common denominator audience to provide confirmation bias to, and boom, we have the current predicament.

At least it’s always felt that way to me.
Toyota has always been conservative, and that's always worked best for the company. I'm glad that the "car enthusiast" Akio Toyoda took helm and broke the 'boring, conservative' stereotype of the company (to a very high degree, since Toyota still has to make normal cars). Would someone like the previous president Katsuaki Watanabe be developing a GR Yaris, let alone be part of its development? Akio Toyoda heard the critics and "No more boring cars" started with him.

Compared to 10-15 years ago, today's cars are more stylish and a departure from the era of conservative styling. Akio's goal is for the customer to want a Toyota (and Lexus) for everything and not just only the reliability as the reason you buy it. And he was probably why beige is no longer offered as an interior or exterior color for either Camry or Corolla.

Besides, Toyota never stopped building trucks and 'overland' SUVs that appealed to offroad enthusiasts; but of course, the mainstream American focus during the past two decades prior to Akio taking the helm was just that the Camry and Corolla were offered in different shades of beige. A beige GR Yaris would be fine to me.

Back on point, the NX isn't going to wow someone liking the handling of a Macan or X3, but the features are what the buyers asked for in a new NX. Shame that the chip shortage isn't help dealers get more of these now. Of all the subjective reviews, Mark and Jack of SG showed exactly this and why the NX will sell even more.
 
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Sofyan used to be my go-to for car reviews a couple of years ago, but I think he's reached a level of success where he has become entitled evident by him complaining Lexus didn't send him a version with all the best options. Some of his complaints are valid, but he consistently overlooks the same issues with Honda and Acura. With car YouTubers, I feel like I'll get attached to a couple, watch their reviews for a couple of years, and then cycle to a newer car reviewer that is still in a phase that they can still appreciate the base models. My favorite reviewers currently are Driving Sports TV and TheTopher.

Guys like TheTopher are always great. Redline Reviews used to be madly popular, especially around 2017 then dropped off after 2019. His videos barely get any views and I have no clue why.

Throttle House is single-handedly spanking most of these reviewers, getting to a million views in less than a week. They're dominating almost every single channel in North America. And what makes it really special is that they're Canadian.
 

ssun30

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These are qualities for "review optimized" cars: they have very sharp EPS steering setting, very edgy throttle mapping, loose traction control, hard springs, stiff sway bars, so reviewers get impressed with "superior handling" (even though these don't actually require competent chassis and powertrain tuning, it's just an illusion).

A regular person then go test driving this car on pothole-filled roads with another person in the passenger seat and probably back seats. Driver gets back pain and passengers throw up. Now you see why Toyota/Lexus or "boring cars" in general are actually popular to actual buyers.
 
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He used his connections at Toyota to get that Prime at MSRP

Has there ever been a Euro based car reviewer that doesn't snub Lexus or any Japanese for that matter? To me, car culture in Europe tends to favor performance over everything. Mat W isn't too different from Clarkson I suppose. I remember Clarkson's special "How Japan Took Over The World..."

It's honestly this. The only reviewers from the UK that ooze class are Clarkson, May, and guys like Sutcliffe. They speak with a certain perspective in mind because these people have not only driven a metric ton of cars, but they also understand the role of a specific given car. It's not just Japanese cars that they're very fair towards, they're like this towards all cars, and points out the genuine demerits and benefits of all of them. In short, they don't reek of bias, though there's nothing wrong with having preferences at all.

Other than those three (forgive me if I forget to mention some other good British reviewers as well), I notice Spanish and Dutch reviewers being extremely fair when reviewing a Japanese car. A great example of the latter is AutotopNL. They just get it. And ironically, there may be a reason to that as Toyota sells a lot of cars in those two markets. So, I wouldn't be surprised if culturally they're more open-minded and like to try out all sorts of cars. The French and the Italians are all right too.

Generally though, the absolute worst are the Germans and almost all British car reviewers. They're d*cks. Period. And we've seen many examples of them just dismissing Japanese cars without any reason and create plaster these weird stigmas against them that has never existed.

Back on topic now though. My apologies. :^)
 

Smychavo

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The value of a vehicle to an individual doesn't come from it's metric merit most of the time. It's typically more to do with the emotional connection to it that one may or may not form while interacting with it, plus preconceived notions that a person brings to the table when reviewing it, or, bias for that matter. 'Course, that isn't new, but suppose it's hard for me to trust reviewers for that very reason. A sense of credibility to their words is difficult to ascertain without a clear showcase of their abilities, or sheer experience with the automotive world, as purist as that sounds.

So when met with wildly different impressions of the car's more nuanced attributes it's hard for me to really know whether a given reviewer is over-exaggerating, or telling the truth. That said, I'm glad that the more prominent features of the vehicle such as its technology, platform, and powertrains are accepted as great improvements. It's more the differences in opinion regarding interior feel, and ride quality that are of interest to me so far. To be clear, I'm referring to some of the impressions from SavageGeese's video a few months back.
It's been months now but I had a chance to sit in a display 2022 NX back in Long Beach, along with an IS 500 and an LC convertible. Neither one of which felt to me drastically different in build quality in feel sitting there as-is as far as commonalities are concerned. They all felt to me like they came from the same company, compact, well-put together, and great ergonomics and use of materials in and around the cabin. Hope I'll get the chance to drive one for myself and see what these reviewers are talking about.
 

qtb007

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I can't handle most of the youtube reviewers. Number 1, the format succccks and burns up way too much time watching ads and listening to the presenters talk about themselves. Number 2, even the ones that are decent technically, savage geese for example, are getting unwatchable for me. Way too much "I'm an authority and my opinion is fact" going on. I still quite enjoy Alex on Autos because he's very straight forward, data driven, and seems to do a good job of separating facts from his opinions. His reviews are so long that I tend to only watch the ones for cars that I'm really interested in, though.
 

mikeavelli

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Toyota has always been conservative, and that's always worked best for the company. I'm glad that the "car enthusiast" Akio Toyoda took helm and broke the 'boring, conservative' stereotype of the company (to a very high degree, since Toyota still has to make normal cars). Would someone like the previous president Katsuaki Watanabe be developing a GR Yaris, let alone be part of its development? Akio Toyoda heard the critics and "No more boring cars" started with him.

Compared to 10-15 years ago, today's cars are more stylish and a departure from the era of conservative styling. Akio's goal is for the customer to want a Toyota (and Lexus) for everything and not just only the reliability as the reason you buy it. And he was probably why beige is no longer offered as an interior or exterior color for either Camry or Corolla.

Besides, Toyota never stopped building trucks and 'overland' SUVs that appealed to offroad enthusiasts; but of course, the mainstream American focus during the past two decades prior to Akio taking the helm was just that the Camry and Corolla were offered in different shades of beige. A beige GR Yaris would be fine to me.

Back on point, the NX isn't going to wow someone liking the handling of a Macan or X3, but the features are what the buyers asked for in a new NX. Shame that the chip shortage isn't help dealers get more of these now. Of all the subjective reviews, Mark and Jack of SG showed exactly this and why the NX will sell even more.
After having the NX two weeks and this isn’t an F Sport, the steering feel is really really good. The issue is it takes some good speed and corners to really feel it. I couldn’t believe how nice and decently weighty it was.

i also could tell it needs better tires. Throttle also could be better.

It’s obviously made for its audience but now I’m going to check on the F Sport and hopefully 450h +.

And in the past I said no need for torque vectoring but now I wish it did have it. The AWD system is good but just not as sporty as the steering to me.

This is such a step up from the last gen. Great work Lexus.
 
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How've the in-cabin electronics held up for you during your ownership so far? Is wireless carplay stable? My folks own a 21' Pacifica, and it feels like a cointoss on whether it wants to connect or not on a given trip.
We have had our 450h+ for 10 days not. The CarPlay is not at all stable. Profiles some times load some times not. Basically that part of the infotainment system is buggy as all hell. We are going back soon for the 3rd time to see if they can figure it out.
We have had 2018 Lexus NX, 2021 highlander hybrid platinum, 2015 lexus lx 570. And a couple of BMWs (2017 and 2018). This is the worst infotainment issues we have ever dealt with. It’s maddening. The vehicle is brilliant otherwise.
 

Benito

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Sorry to hear that, hopefully it will get sorted soon for you. I assume you’re on the latest iOS version?