I just purchased this car (Lexus ES 300 2002 sedan) for my daughter less than a week ago on 4/11/2014 from a private owner, with 267,000 miles and it ran well for a transportation vehicle, seems to have been well cared for mechanically, interior and exterior is in great shape and was checked out my friend a longtime mechanic. My daughter had just left the dmv which was closed today 4/18/2014 and street driving back home. The car made a loud popping sound, smoke started from under the hood and soon flames and she had to pull over and ditch the car. Soon it blazed and the whole front end, engine, windshield the front tires all burned. Fire and police departments showed up, extinguished the fire and did traffic control. The fire damage was control to the front and engine, the firewall did it's job. All the interiors, dash and console are all in tact and in good condition no smoke damage. VIN:[xxx] Lexus ES 2002 information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Altadena, CA, USA

I was driving my 2002 Lexus E300 on rte95 in providence R.I. I was in the middle lane traveling at the speed of the traffic--65mph. Suddenly T check engine warning light came on and without warning when I stepped on the gas pedal there was no response. I was in the midst of heavy traffic losing speed rapidly. Fortunately I was able to coast to the edge of the road. The chip which feeds gas to the engine failed.

- Milton, MA, USA

On June 15, 2009 we were driving home and my husband felt the car almost stalled. Then we smelled gasoline and saw smoke coming from the bottom right under the engine. We exited the car and it was already on fire. The car burst into flames and was completely destroyed. It was a 2002 Lexus 300es with only 44,000 miles. Toyota has been extremely rude to us and took almost a month to inspect the car. They say they cannot determine the cause of the fire. How can a car start on fire while you are driving it over straight roads.? we never had an accident or any other problem. I read of a couple of other lexuses that caught fire. Something should be done to make Toyota fully examine this problem.

- Boca Raton, FL, USA