RX in NC

I put a set of Alenzas on my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD approximately 38,000 miles ago and they are great tires in all types of weather conditions, no question about it. They may very well come close to the 65,000-mile treadlife warranty given my wife's light right foot and my propensity to check all of our tire pressures every weekend. But for an RX300 with 16-inch wheels, I recommend the Firestone Destination LE. It uses most of the same technology as the Alenza and is essentially the Alenza's close cousin for just over half the price (the last time I checked) as the Alenza. I had a set of Destinations on my wife's previous 2000 RX300 AWD and currently have a set on my daughter's 2000 Grand Cherokee - best SUV tire value for the money, hands down. The only reason I put Alenzas on my wife's current 2004 RX330 AWD instead of Destinations is because the Destination is not built in an 18-inch wheel application. If the Destination LE is eventually built for 18-inch wheels, I'll go back to that tire when my wife's current set of Alenzas finally gives up the ghost....

I do not expect a return to $2.50 a gallon gas. But keep in mind, I'm no prognosticator - I make my judgments based on what economic indicators are telling me.... If you need a truck, do not let gas prices keep you from acquiring one. I do a number of major home and landscape projects when I lose the periodic battles with my HGTV-addicted wife, and without a full-size pickup there's no way to haul the materials required for the various jobs. The key is to be smart about acquiring and using your truck. Don't buy new, stick with the Big Three domestic trucks (cheaper to insure, easier and much cheaper to repair, and they are all built for the long-term), keep it well-maintained since there are times you will push its limits, and have a smaller, more fuel-efficient car in your household to use when you don't need to be driving your truck.... Most households with DIY folks need a truck. Perhaps you can get by with a smaller version such as an S-10, a Ranger, or a Dakota, but be forewarned that the little guys are not built to the standards and specifications of their big brothers. In the long run, you're better off finding a full-size pickup, being smart about using it, and having a more fuel-efficient car as your primary vehicle when you're not hauling. Keep in mind that you'll probably keep your truck for 10 or 15 years (assuming gasoline-powered vehicles remain viable that long) so its economic impact on your household will be amortized over a long period of time. My Dodge Ram will be 10 years old next February and I hope to keep it until it is 15 or 20.... Now is actually a great time to find a relatively late-model, well-maintained truck. Tons of guys in their child-raising years who purchased their trucks new are now struggling with higher mortgage payments, higher gas prices, higher food prices, potential job losses, and pressure from their spouses to get rid of their trucks as a first step towards getting through the recession relatively intact. These guys are proud of their trucks and most have kept them well-maintained. Many have never had more than a bag of dog food and a big box of Pampers in their beds, much less towed a boat. You are poised to take advantage of someone else's hardship - sounds cruel I know, but he needs to sell his nice truck and you can help by taking it off his hands, probably for quite a bit less than it is actually worth. Just be businesslike in making your decision and keep your emotions out of play.... Take your time finding the right truck. You'll have it a long time if you take care of it because it will take care of your needs. It is a tool, not an ego-driven toy. Treat it like that and you'll wonder how you managed without a truck for as long as you did.... Good luck to you....

I truly hope that your predictions for oil and gasoline prices come March 2009 are spot-on. But I actually believe that you're dead wrong. Only time will tell.... P.S. - Think McCain is privately begging for a do-over on his VP pick? What a bonehead. I'm no Obama supporter either, but the very last thing this country needs is Dumb following Dumber in the White House....

Good luck with your vehicle. I sincerely hope that after a year or two of dealing with it, you don't turn into an "old crusty guy" yourself. If you do, we'll send you your very own monogrammed cane....

Yes, the fuel filter is in the gas tank. It is not designed to be routinely changed. No way would I ever even think about changing this fuel filter unless I was having problems that are definitely attributed to it. You're talking about some serious, serious (and dangerous) work here....

Re-read the e-mail that you received from Michelin and you'll find your answer.... All manufacturers of anything that pertains to automobiles are being hit hard by the recession, including the tire companies. Factories are being scaled back, shifts are being cancelled, workers are being laid off, and products are being shelved or discontinued. Profit margins are under the greatest scrutiny they've been exposed to since the 2001/2002 timeframe. Your Michelin e-mail states that this tire in your size is a "temporary" discontinuation - that may or may not prove to be the case and only time will tell.... But you're correct about the S8 version - it is definitely inferior. If you can't get the Primacy now, I would either continue to stretch your current tires or look for something other than the S8. Perhaps a Dunlop tire....

When I say "maintenance history", I'm not referring to just the transmission maintenance. I'm referring to the entire vehicle's maintenance history. Since I cannot physically lay my hands and eyes on your potential purchase, I cannot help you other than to say, once again, "buyer beware". With all of the uncertainty expressed in your posts, you may want to consider finding yourself a trustworthy local mechanic to assist you in finding your next vehicle. We can't offer reliable advice to you through an internet forum when we can't be there to inspect the vehicle for ourselves. And by the way, assuming that the vehicle has been properly maintained throughout its lifespan when you don't have access to any of the records to prove it is a very dangerous assumption indeed....

The Goodrich Long Trails are long-known as more of a truck tire than an SUV tire. Several of my friends and neighbors have installed them on their vehicles such as Dodge Ram, Chevy Silverado, and Ford F-150 pickups. One of my good friends recently put a set on his very cool 1969 Ford Bronco that he is gradually restoring. You are correct - they are noisier than some of the other tire choices you could have made. Hope they work out for you in the long run. I've never seen a set of Long Trails on an RX in our neck of the woods....

Previous posts from multiple members offering advice to you on your original thread have already answered these questions for you. Namely, if you don't have access to the maintenance history you're just rolling the dice and the deck is stacked against you. There's really not much more any of us can say to you. It's "buyer beware"....

GoldenState, If you don't want other folks' honest opinions, then don't ask for them. What part of that concept did you not understand the first time? Allow me to rephrase my response to be a bit more gentle and less apt to bruise your feelings: "Yes, Skippy, you definitely overpaid for your services. But that's okay - you get a rainbow sticker and a smiley face anyway, and there's milk and cookies waiting for you in the kitchen...."

You didn't get killed but you definitely got mugged.... Especially on the timing belt....

In a nutshell, there's no way I would purchase this vehicle.... My wife's previous vehicle was a 2000 RX300 AWD. I took meticulous care of it as I do with all of our vehicles, but it suffered from ALL of the common serious flaws that are prevalent in the early RX models: transmission failure, exhaust manifold failure, rear main oil seal failure, rubber strut mount bushing failure, and premature multiple oxygen sensor failures. Some of these failures occured during the warranty period, and some occured after the warranty expired, but ALL of these failures occured within 80,000 miles. I thoroughly researched these issues and challenged our local Lexus dealer on every single one of them, refusing to let them off the hook. Bottom line - they fixed every one of these failures on their dime, provided my wife with a loaner vehicle every time, and treated us well. But they knew that I had spent significant time researching the problems inherent to these vehicles and they also knew that I wasn't going to back down. If I had been required to pay out of my own pocket for these repairs, it would have cost me more than $9,000 over the period of time that we owned the vehicle. That is RIDICULOUS for a vehicle as supposedly "upscale" as the RX series. We sold this vehicle at 130,000 miles and I was glad to finally dump it from our garage. I fully disclosed all of these problems (and fixes) to my buyer and was somewhat surprised when he bought it anyway.... I've been driving for more than 39 years and this 2000 RX300 AWD was by far the worst vehicle I've ever owned. My wife's current 2004 RX330 AWD (now with about 78,000 miles on the odometer) is a better vehicle than the 2000 RX300 AWD was, but keep in mind that the bar was set extremely low and that's not saying much in my opinion. But I think Lexus learned from the mistakes they made with the early RX design flaws and upgraded some of the components, especially the transmission. I still change the transmission fluid every 30,000 miles because of being snakebit by my wife's previous RX300, however.... I continue to find the RX series overrated, underpowered, and way overpriced. My 1999 Dodge Ram pickup has a much smoother-shifting transmission, is far more durable and much better engineered, never needs anything but routine maintenance, and is head and shoulders better than either RX we've owned. The only reason we still have an RX is because that is my wife's primary vehicle, it's her choice, it's her money that bought it, so she gets to drive what she wants just like I get to drive what I want. But unfortunately, I'm the one getting stuck with all the maintenance issues, not her.... My advice? Take it back. I can't advise you to do anything else based on the terrible experience we had with my wife's first one. I know it is not what you want to hear but I have to be honest with you....

I keep our largest chunk of cash (about $275,000 right now but the balance fluctuates depending upon what I decide to do in the options market from month to month) in a State Employees Credit Union money market account that we've had for nearly 20 years. I don't worry about that account one bit - it's probably the safest money in our total portfolio. SECU is a stodgy old-fashioned organization that remains extremely slow in migrating to new technology, but it's as well-run a financial operation as you're going to find these days and has been for decades. Even if I doubled or tripled the balance of our money market account there, I wouldn't worry one bit about the account's safety and security.... And yep, if Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae go under, the U.S. does indeed slide from recession into depression. I am greatly concerned about this issue and am following it very closely because I know it will affect my entire options game that I've been steadily building during the past five years. But I must say that I would be much more frightened if I still worked in the now very shaky corporate America - at least I will still maintain much more control over our future than those who continue to work in the corporate sector and will consequently suffer from the most massive wave of layoffs and business failures that this country will have experienced since the early 1930s....

Goldman Sachs is far from being alone in its trials and tribulations with the potential to go under. Lehman Brothers could fall through the cracks just as easily. Even ol' warhorse Merrill Lynch isn't assured of getting through this with only a few broken bones and a heavily-bruised ego.... Closer to home, Wachovia won't go belly-up but how the mighty have fallen. 'Course, it's not really Wachovia anymore - it's First Union. If the real Wachovia folks had been left in charge after the merger, Wachovia would be far better off today. Ken Thompson got exactly what he deserved a couple of months ago.... Serves 'em all right as far as I'm concerned....

Using an RX300 as a tow vehicle is just begging for transmission failure. Early RX transmissions, particularly all-wheel-drive versions, are weak enough as it is. Add towing to the mix and you're flirting with disaster.... Search the RX forum on this site using "transmission failure" as your key words. You'll come up with enough reading material to convince yourself very quickly that "RX" and "towing" are mutually exclusive....

I agree with you and would avoid flushing altogether. Far too much risk involved, especially with older transmissions. I'll stick with drain-and-fills on all of our vehicles....

So did you go ahead and get the new tires? If so, what are your impressions thus far? I continue to assume that you'll notice no difference in performance between the H-rated and V-rated versions....

Sorry to hear of your experience and I hope they make it right for you.... Every tire store within the national chains is vastly different in care and competence. There's a Discount Tire store in Cary, North Carolina that has the best management and crew that I've ever encountered anywhere. At least it did back in February 2007 when I dealt with them. They obtained and installed the current set of Bridgestone Alenzas on my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD and did a wonderful job being careful, courteous, professional, and timely to both of us. I would recommend them again in a heartbeat assuming the same staff is still there....

It will be interesting to see how Mobil 1 synthetic transmission fluid holds up in this vehicle. Those of us who've been through RX300 transmission failure wish you good luck and please keep us posted via this thread.... My wife's 2004 RX330 AWD is now pushing 78,000 miles with no apparent degradation of the transmission system thus far. I've stuck to the 30,000-mile drain-and-fill program that I began on her previous 2000 RX300 AWD after its transmission failed under warranty at about 48,000 miles back in November 2003. I continue to use Toyota Type T-IV fluid simply because I don't yet trust this transmission and want to ensure that I continue to hold all the cards if the RX330 transmission fails and I have to challenge Lexus for a transmission rebuild once again.... In comparison, I had to spring for the first non-warranty, non-routine maintenance repair costing more than $50 this week on my nine-and-a-half-year-old 1999 Dodge Ram 1500-series pickup truck. I had to replace the still-original serpentine belt and the associated belt tensioner assembly because it had just begun to rattle a bit. Got both parts at NAPA for a total of $137 and did the job in about an hour with a neighborhood buddy assisting in routing the new belt. JP Powers can publish all the quality results they care to, but I've never owned or even heard of another vehicle that can come close to matching the service this truck has provided to me over the years with virtually no problems or out-of-pocket expenses required. Lexus and every other so-called premium product provider out there could learn a thing or two from studying this truck - it just doesn't break or fail and it hauls everything from me and my dogs to loads of lumber, tile, bricks, stones, and firewood. This truck has been absolutely amazing. I hope I can keep it for many years to come.... By the way, have you decided how often you"ll replace your fluid? Will you drain-and-fill or flush?

You obviously didn't choose wisely, nc211.... I will have been married 29 years come October, and I just got one of those "special" toe-curling things this morning when I stepped out of the shower and she was sitting on the edge of the bed and told me that she was looking forward to some sausage for breakfast. It's taken me most of the day to recover, but hell, I'm not complaining.... I suggest you try approaching your wife when you're right out of the shower - it's amazing what some soap and water can do for getting you what you really want....

Like you, I'll never forget the Lorena and John Bobbit story. It still brings back the memory of some mighty close calls for me.... But my wife wouldn't have been satisfied with just chopping off my tallywhacker like Lorena did to John. She would have plunged one of her 15-inch butcher knives right through my chest and pinned me to the mattress in mid-snore. I wouldn't have had a chance....

C'mon guys - suck it up and act like you've got a pair.... I can look all I want but I long ago agreed that I can't touch. I tried the "look AND touch" method way back in the early 80s and that approach came far too close to getting me butchered in my sleep....

I wouldn't even consider it. There's no way that a 2000 RX300 would be worth more than $12,000 which is what you say you'll have to spend in order to buy it and then get it in driving condition....

You won't be returning your H-rated tires. You'll like them and keep them with no hesitations, especially knowing how good they are for your wallet compared to the V-rated version. Trust me on this one....

Regardless of which tire brand and model you decide to go with, get the H-rated version. You'll never notice the difference from a performance standpoint and will probably enjoy longer treadlife as well. These midrange Japanese sedans simply do not need V-rated tires regardless of what the manufacturer wants you to believe - I learned that with the rare 5-speed manual Acura Legend that we had in our family for 13 years. It came from the factory with V-rated Michelins but I changed to H-rated Dunlops (the warhorse D60-A2 that Dunlop no longer makes, unfortunately) after the factory set wore out and stayed with them for the duration of ownership. Handling was identical, wet weather performance was identical, treadwear lifespan increased substantially, and it saved me at least $150 to $200 on every set of tires I purchased for that vehicle (probably four or five sets over our 13-year ownership period). That was significant....