Dust Posted August 27, 2006 Posted August 27, 2006 http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/clips/lex...iew-196551.php
Rx330driver Posted August 27, 2006 Posted August 27, 2006 at first, i thought it was a cool feature when i read about it when the car was introduced, but ive been reading other car mags that have driven the car. there is a bad part to the system. the car will not keep moving back and forth into a spot like how we drive. it will only reverse into it, thus the car has to know that the spot is big enough in one maneuver. so its not very practical. still its cool to have
SW03ES Posted August 28, 2006 Posted August 28, 2006 Yeah I wouldn't be concerned about getting this feature personally.
producer97 Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 if you are rich enough to be able to afford a new LS, chances are you are going to park it in a garage instead of on the street. I find it so rare that one can't find either a regular parking lot or a paid garage and is forced to parallel park. I've lived in NYC and Philadelphia and seems more common for rich people to just park in a garage, even for a 30 minutes for $10. Besides, who wants to leave a new LS on the street in these cities? I personally find Distronic Plus 1000 times more useful than this parallel park feature. Imagine sitting in bumper to bumper traffic only holding the wheel? Man, MB might suck in reliabilty, but its innovations list is surely is impressive (first 3-point seatbelt, first ABS, first airbag, first distronic, first ESP, first distronic plus,etc). The latter would be the reason why I might trade the 05 LS I just bought for another car with this feature on it. Hopefully, it will be a Lexus!
SW03ES Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 if you are rich enough to be able to afford a new LS, chances are you are going to park it in a garage instead of on the street. I find it so rare that one can't find either a regular parking lot or a paid garage and is forced to parallel park. I'm rich enough to afford a new LS, and I park on the street all the time. Street parking doesn't only exist in cities, it exists on suburban streets too. I see paralell parked S550s and 760Li's all the time here. More expensive than a new LS. And how can you say you find distronic and the backup camera 1000 times more helpful than a feature you've never even seen?
Rx330driver Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 where did he say anything about the backup camera... i personally would not be able to drive without my backup camera...its one of the best inventions out there. I also think that the distronic plus feature is great, but lexus cannot utilize this feature because it would be a solid copy from the s class. also...some people are forced to park on the street, and a garage doesnt always mean your car will be safe from being hit. i think i would get this feature just for the fun of it. i believe i read somewhere that this cost was under 1000. lol yay
blake918 Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 And how can you say you find distronic and the backup camera 1000 times more helpful than a feature you've never even seen?That's easy. I can parallel park pretty easily, so the distronic plus would be a far greater convience feature to me. According to Car and Driver, it took them about 20 seconds to set the boundaries for the parallel parking (it was obviously a preproduction model, so it could, possibly change.). I couldn't imagine sitting in a busy street for 20 seconds setting this up when I could be parked and out of the car in that amount of time. Would I rather have some worthless (other than impressing your neighbors) parking do-dad, or something that I can actually use like a cruise control that can bring my car to a halt and then accelerate it back up to speeds exceeding 120mph such as MB's distronic plus? I'd pick the Distronic Plus in an instant--it's an amazing piece of technology.
producer97 Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 i personally would not be able to drive without my backup camera...its one of the best inventions out there. I also think that the distronic plus feature is great, but lexus cannot utilize this feature because it would be a solid copy from the s class. also...some people are forced to park on the street, and a garage doesnt always mean your car will be safe from being hit. The reason why they don't have Distronic Plus is because they haven't engineered it yet; I doubt it has much to do with copying. They thieved the backup camera from Q45 in an instant, they could have done the same with D-Plus. personally, i think the backup camera has very limited utility. I think it should be looked at once immediately before backing up, spending the rest of the time looking back. I am so used to (properly) looking only backwards while I am backing up, that when I look at the camera while backing up, it makes me really nervous. Note to self: that's not how it's supposed to be used. What would be really cool is if Lexus built a head up display in the back around brake light projecting a view from the backup camera onto the rear windshield when the car is in reverse.
Rx330driver Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 it might not be the way it is suppose to be used, but let me tell you how I use it and so far no accidents backing out in a busy street, its wide angled so you can see if there are cars coming, esp if you have a truck next to you parking, how much farther i can actually keep going obviously I seriously dont think its that hard to make the D plus software. havent you heard that car companies buy cars from other car makers to see how they made something? lexus could have easily bought an S550 and took the technology.
producer97 Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 it might not be the way it is suppose to be used, but let me tell you how I use it and so far no accidents backing out in a busy street, its wide angled so you can see if there are cars coming, esp if you have a truck next to you parking, how much farther i can actually keep going obviously I seriously dont think its that hard to make the D plus software. havent you heard that car companies buy cars from other car makers to see how they made something? lexus could have easily bought an S550 and took the technology. I don't know much about it, but I don't think it's software. I think the hardest think is to make the car that can apply 40% of breaks w/D-plus instead of just 20% on D. I don't see what else is different. It seems that it might be pretty easy to make hydralics to do this, but I guess it's very difficult. I wonder how long it took the second Distronic car company to put out this feature. Audi, btw, also offers plus in one of their cars: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2393487043048006933 Man, this video just makes me want this feature SO BAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!
indiasfinest Posted October 4, 2006 Posted October 4, 2006 are their any real videos of distronic plus? EDIT: found one on the mercedes S600.... skip to 6:57 and watch the rest of the 2 minutes...i love this show (top gear) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fba8QN0dUi8&...ted&search=
Rx330driver Posted October 4, 2006 Posted October 4, 2006 theres also one made by fifth gear, another british auto show
producer97 Posted October 5, 2006 Posted October 5, 2006 Thanks for posting. The first part is actually very funny.
producer97 Posted October 5, 2006 Posted October 5, 2006 are their any real videos of distronic plus? EDIT: found one on the mercedes S600.... skip to 6:57 and watch the rest of the 2 minutes...i love this show (top gear) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fba8QN0dUi8&...ted&search= Well, it seems MB voice recognition stinks just as much as it does on my LS. The funny thing is that I almost bought this car on ebay, 4 years old with ~35k miles for $35K. Then I read nightmare reviews of the V12 engine on mbworld.com forums and that ended my idea of toying with buying a MB without a factory warranty. I later found a newer model (500hp) that still had a few months of factory warranty on it, which would allow me to purchase a 3-year extended warranty for just $6,000!!! From what I hear it's pocket change comparing to what maintenance of that junk would cost.
indiasfinest Posted October 6, 2006 Posted October 6, 2006 wow those are steals. yes top gear is a halarious show. i love that guy...does it even air in the US? its great, i laughed pretty hard with the voice recognition problem. my dad has a little accent :D and the bimmer has a hard time understanding him, its funny because there will be a long pause and it will just say "i'm sorry, please repeat" and it will happen like 8 times. haha
Rx330driver Posted October 6, 2006 Posted October 6, 2006 i love top gear too, no it does not air in the US but last year, it did for a while on the discovery channel....they never brought it back. on the RX350 i had as a loaner, it couldnt hear what i was saying too. i would say volume down, and it would go POI RESTAURANTS selected.
indiasfinest Posted October 7, 2006 Posted October 7, 2006 yea i never use the voice commands, really annoying.
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