RX in NC

That's an accurate statement, but I still play ball, box, and trail hike with hundreds of the 20-something and 30-something whippersnappers around here and beat them 9 times out of 10. So it really is true that you're as young as you feel....

Now wait just a minute there, Skippy - I'm not old....

I like the current Castrol TV ad campaign as well (in a somewhat masochistic way, I must admit). I'd let Jessica Alba put on that kilt and smack me with that dipstick until I couldn't feel my lower extremities anymore....

I would not contact the dealership/leasing company at this point. Your circumstances could change significantly again during the more than three years that you have left on your lease. However, I would never lease a vehicle without having another vehicle available to me. That is strictly due to the mileage cap that all leased vehicles come with. That cap is negotiable, but you may not be willing to pay the price of bumping up your mileage limit. We leased a vehicle 20 years ago primarily as a business experiment for me, and I'll never do it again. Even though we had four or five vehicles in our household at that time, I did not like the mileage restriction that came with the lease (12,000 miles per year). I made sure that we never exceeded it, but I did not like being confined by it.... If you choose to lease again, make sure you have a second vehicle available to share the mileage load. Or, be willing to pay to up the mileage restriction to cover your needs....

Wrong assumption. I didn't buy the OxiClean laundry product but my wife tried it a couple of years back, hoping it would get her dogwashing towels and my athletic clothing cleaner. Just another merchandising rip-off. Made absolutely no difference compared to her regular laundry products and processes. Didn't even come close to removing my bloodstains as regular ol' bleach does. Another sucker fell for the infomercial pitch, but at least she learned from the experience and has never purchased another Oxi-product since....

Your cup of tea - not mine. As I said, I'm relieved that his commercials are off the air. And yes, nc211, I'll admit to being as twisted as you can get without being involuntarily committed to the funny farm....

Sorry, but constantly yelling at his audience and showing fake demos with multiple camera edits to hawk ridiculously-overpriced, very mediocre merchandise does not constitute a "class act" in my book. I'm sorry for his family that he succumbed to undiagnosed heart disease, but I'm also grateful that no more of his blathering infomercials will send me scurrying for the remote to turn down or mute the sound until his barrage is over....

Sorry, but I have to ask.... If you have an Aston Martin, why in the world do you want a Lexus IS? That's like dropping from filet mignon for dinner all the way down to canned Spam....

Anybody seen the new TV commercial yet with Billy Mays selling OxiCaskets? "GUARANTEED TO GIVE YOU THE CLEANEST PLOT IN THE CEMETERY OR YOUR MONEY BACK...."

NAPA oil is made by Ashland Oil Company, the same folks who make Valvoline. In fact, NAPA oil is probably Valvoline in a NAPA bottle. Valvoline is a highly-respected supplier, so your NAPA oil will be just fine....

Take the wheel off the vehicle and take it somewhere other than Costco to have it patched, not plugged. Many chains around here patch tires and in this down economy, they'll take all the business they can get and are even offering coupons for free or discounted tire patching. Just Tires, Precision Tune, and others have been sending out coupons in our local newspapers for months. I keep a stack of them to use as needed or give to family and friends who pick up nails in their tires. Never had a properly-patched tire blow out on me. Plugging is a different story. I have a plugging kit and use it from time to time primarily as a temporary fix until I can get the tire patched.... If your blown tire is still in good shape with the nail hole in the tread pattern and not in the sidewall, call around to these various tire chains and get it patched properly (meaning the tire comes off the rim, the patch is applied from the inside with strong bonding cement, the tire is then remounted on the rim, inflated to your specified pressure, the wheel is balanced, and you're out the door for no more than $25 and often less).... If you need to get a replacement Cross Terrain and Costco can't sell you one, check with tirerack.com....

SW03ES is on the right track with his point about preferences and values from an automotive standpoint. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in a family that favored GM products. I remember having Chevrolet Impalas, Pontiac Fire Chiefs, Oldsmobile Delta 88s, 98s, and Vista Cruiser station wagons, and Buick Regals among others. GM is what I grew up knowing, some of those vehicles were classics (I'd love to have our 1966 Vista Cruiser wagon again), and some were forgettable. In high school and college I was exposed to foreign cars of various persuasions and developed a preference for some of them as my knowledge base grew and my experience level increased. Combining and processing all of that information and exposure helped me to eventually develop what has long been my mantra for motor vehicles brought into our stable - they must deliver significant bang-for-the-buck with enough performance and utility thrown in to make them multi-taskers that I am willing to accept the long-term depreciation on. Too many folks still think that their cars and trucks are assets or even more foolishly, investments. Dead wrong. Vehicles are essentially providers of transportation that lose value with each passing day. It costs significant money to operate, maintain, insure, and protect them. For me, it is strictly a financial decision, not an emotional one. Sure, a fast, gorgeous vehicle brings a smile to my face as compared to a slow, homely one, but if it can't deliver the bang-for-the-buck value I require as part of my formula, it doesn't make it to our stable....

Lenore, This letter is nothing but right-wing opinion ramblings. You could also find opposing left-wing opinion ramblings to post here. Neither are factual. Both are intended to influence and persuade, period.... It is far too early in the Obama administration to judge how it will ultimately affect U.S. history and our grandchildren. I'm a registered Republican and I've realized for years that the previous administration was among the most incompetent and dangerous regimes in the history of our country. The Obama administration could turn out the same way but it is far too early to tell at this juncture. A couple of years will need to pass before the country truly has a feel for whether our general health and well-being (both business and personal) is improving or continuing to decline....

You didn't state where the rattling sound appeared to be coming from, but one possibility is a failed catalytic converter. The easiest way to isolate this particular failure is to lower your drivers window, go through a drive-up lane at a bank or fast-food joint, and listen for a substantial increase in the rattling as the sound waves bounce off the building wall back to you. 95% of the time, this indicates a failed catalytic converter....

I agree - I believe that speculation is responsible for about 85% of the price spikes we're seeing now.... So I'm back playing crude oil options for the first time since last summer. No sense missing out on the profits to be made. I can !Removed! and moan about the artificially-escalating price of gas or I can jump in and play the options and make some money off of the inevitable.... Back to my options charts.... Later, guys....

Wait long enough and your wiper arms will indeed begin to oxidize and lose their paint. Unfavorable atmospheric conditions in your particular area have much to do with your problem (acid rain, pollution, bird droppings, tree sap, etc.), but so does the relentless sun beating down on black-colored surfaces. The sun is always black-painted metal's worst enemy, even on the underside of your roof rack rails. Black absorbs and conducts more heat than any other color. Park in the shade when you can....

I think the jury will be out on Obama's domestic business tactics and their measure of effectiveness for at least another year. Gotta get through the collapse and re-emergence of the American auto industry (or more accurately, what's left of it) first, and then see what happens to the stock markets, the banks, the insurance companies, and everybody else on down the line.... By summer 2010 we'll probably know whether Obama will be sweating it or not from a domestic standpoint. Of course, the GOP has to come up with a short list of viable national candidates by the end of 2010 as well. Right now, it's smooth sailing for Obama from that aspect because there's no serious, immediately credible GOP presidential candidate anywhere to be seen. Anyone who still believes that Palin will be elevated to that position needs to be hauled off to the funny farm as soon as possible....

Sorry about your situation. What a stupid approach for Lexus to handle what is simply a trim issue.... If you can't find the trim pieces through aftermarket sources or online Lexus parts sellers (some can be found right here as sponsors of this forum), try your local salvage yards....

Model year? Mileage? I agree with Lenore - start with the coils and hope you get lucky.... If your RX300 is a 1999 or 2000 with a ton of miles on it, there's no way that I would dump $5,600 into a 10-year-old, rapidly-declining vehicle. If I couldn't get it driveable and able to pass inspection for less than $2,000, I'd be cutting my losses and moving on to something else.... Good luck to you....

We had a set of BBS wheels on our 1989 Acura Legend 5-speed L. They came with the car. The car was in our family for more than 13 years. My wife drove it the first 5 years or so, I made it my office commuting vehicle the next 5 years or so, then we gave it to our daughter for its final 3 years or so with us. By the time I donated it to charity at about 250,000 miles, the BBS wheels were still worth more than the car.... As a previous poster pointed out, these high-end wheels are just too damned expensive, particularly in the middle of a recession. I would never waste money on upgrading to these ridiculously costly wheels (of any brand) and then have to get rid of a perfectly good set of factory wheels. The only reason we had the BBS wheels on the Acura is because they were on the car when we bought it, although my wife did indeed like the way they looked and rode....

Unfortunately, if you choose to pursue this as a crime you start by reporting it to your local police or sheriff. They'll send out an officer to take your claim, or they may just take it over the phone. Usually, that's about as far as it goes.... My wife does a lot of online shopping and a little more than a year ago, one of her credit card numbers was stolen and of course we had no idea. The thief attempted to make fraudulent online purchases within a day after stealing her card number but our card company's security system recognized these attempts as fraud and called me immediately to notify us. We canceled the account number on the spot, and new cards were sent to me within three days. So we didn't lose a penny, but the thief continued to try to make fraudulent purchases using the old card number for about 10 days until he finally gave up and moved on. I talked with our credit card company on how to report this crime because I wanted very much to nail this guy. I was told that I would have to start with our local authorities even though this was an online crime. So I did, and our case was assigned to a detective within about two weeks after I reported it. He did some investigation, found out that the thief was using an IP address in Houston, Texas, and told me that he would be contacting Texas authorities in an effort to get them to make a visit to the physical address tied to this IP address. To get my case this far took me 3 or 4 months, and I had to push this local detective to keep moving with it. He never called me with updated information - I always had to call him. He always remembered me, he was professional and courteous, and I think his intentions were good. But his priorities always involved dealing with shootings and killings and more traditional major theft rings that steal valuables the old-fashioned way, by breaking into houses and businesses and taking them. He admitted to me several times that his department is not very experienced on dealing with cyber crime, but when I asked who else I could get involved to help pursue my case, he didn't have any answers for me. I even asked him multiple times for the physical address in Houston, but privacy laws prevent him from giving it to me. It's a shame when the criminal is protected more by the system than the victim is.... So finally around Thanksgiving last year, I decided that I was unfortunately wasting my time trying to pursue this case any further. We were fortunate that our credit card company's security system stopped this guy and shut down our card number before he could make even one purchase on our card, so I was certainly thankful that we didn't lose any money. But I still wanted this guy caught and prosecuted. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen because there is so much crime out there that does indeed result in innocent people getting badly burned and there are simply not enough law enforcement personnel who specialize in handling these types of cases to go around.... I encourage you to report your situation to your local police or sheriff. Just realize that even with an IP address, you may not get anywhere. Persistence on your part certainly helps, but it is no guarantee....

I don't remember which part of the exhaust manifold was cracked (this goes all the way back to November 2003). I had read about cracked manifolds being a persistent problem on early RXs and asked the dealership to check ours when the vehicle was in the shop for our failing transmission. They found a small manifold crack and replaced the manifold under warranty as a result. No codes were ever thrown and I didn't notice any strange noises, either. I was simply fortunate to catch the issue before it became a real problem.... So keep in mind that your manifold could indeed be in the early stages of cracking even if you are not hearing any abnormal sounds and your ECU is not throwing any codes....

Tire sellers insisting on V-rated tires for rather pedestrian sedans do so for one reason and one reason only - to maximize their profits (and commissions) on the tires they sell you.... You'll be absolutely fine with H-rated tires on your ES. I've backed many vehicles down from V-rated to H-rated tires over the past two decades and I've had exactly zero problems after doing so. I've saved money, extended my tire treadwear, and enjoyed absolutely no change in vehicle handling or safety. If you're driving your vehicle responsibly and not attempting to turn it into an Indy car, you'll be just fine with a set of H-rated tires....

Treadwear tire ratings on Z and to a lesser extent V-rated tires are crapshoots at best. If you think that Z-rated or V-rated tires with a 500 treadwear rating will outlast a good quality H-rated tire (with proper tire care, of course) that carries, say, a 420 treadwear rating, you will be very, very disappointed in the real world. Tire care by the owner is always critical, but I have found that good H-rated tires will always outlast Z and V-rated tires even though the higher-speed tires carry inflated treadwear ratings. There really needs to be more regulation in the tire industry on treadwear ratings for higher speed tires. Those ratings are usually very artificial in real-world applications.... The vast majority of folks driving luxo-barges would do best from an all-around driving perspective with a good set of H-rated tires. Notice that I said H-rated. I never mentioned T-rated - you did. I wouldn't put T-rated tires on anything except a riding mower....

There's no way your LS even remotely needs Z-rated tires. In fact, it doesn't even need V-rated tires. It is not a sports car - it is essentially a highway cruiser. Z treadwear will be short-lived, and V treadwear probably won't be a whole lot better. If long treadwear life is important to you, find a good set of H-rated tires that also delivers a great ride and is highly rated in the rain as well....