RX in NC

Toyota is in full-scale crisis mode right now. Before they can focus attention on quality improvement for new products, they have to fix what they already have on the ground and in their showrooms. Sales have fallen off the table and current owners are watching their Toyota/Lexus vehicles depreciate like rocks falling down a chute. My point is simply that the company must spend 100% of its efforts right now on fixing the current problems before it can turn its attention to improving future products.... In the long run Toyota has no choice but to improve its quality if it is to remain a viable market leader, especially here in North America. Its reputation is in tatters, it is generally perceived as unwilling to comply with national safety regulations until forced to do so by the government, and its executives are now overwhelmingly viewed as untrustworthy liars. But one fact remains in its favor - Toyota has deep enough pockets to eventually right itself. It will take years and billions of dollars to do so, but it is financially capable of digging itself out of the maelstrom it has created. Given the financial state they're collectively in, GM, Chrysler, and probably even Ford could not have survived the magnitude of this debacle.... But during Toyota's inevitably long upcoming probation period as they try to prove themselves again to the car-buying public, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, and even Kia get an unprecedented free pass to shine like never before. It will be interesting to see how these various manufacturers take advantage of their windfall to cut into Toyota's previous market share....

There's no "may" about it. The walls are caving in on Toyota on a daily basis, and rightfully so. They are on course to become the most heavily fined and penalized automaker in U.S. history. While their U.S. market share will suffer for years, they may be able to make up that lost volume in less regulated environments around the world (China, India, and right there in Japan)....

But don't lose sight of the fact that Toyota brought this situation squarely on themselves. Refusing to acknowledge a potentially serious problem for nearly two years and then rolling out a strategy blaming floor mats and accelerator pedals as a diversionary quick fix are self-serving, customer safety-risking corporate tactics that will punish Toyota for years, and rightfully so. Knowing a bit about Japanese culture, I'm surprised that no suicides in Toyota's executive offices have been reported yet....

Given your example of "doing 100 mph on a busy NY highway with an 18-wheeler inches in front of you" scenario, this country could certainly use some thinning of the herd out there on the highways and byways. Unfortunately, sometimes those who don't deserve to be thinned out perish along with or instead of those who do....

As I've mentioned before, my mom (age 80) traded her trusty 1997 Accord in on a 2010 Camry last summer because Honda took her for granted, assumed they would automatically get her repeat business with a 2010 Accord, and didn't offer her nearly as much on her trade as Toyota did. While she's now regretting her decision and wishing that she had stayed with Honda, I've had her practice driving her Camry, slipping the gearshift into Neutral, and braking to a stop as well as coasting to a stop. Braking to a stop is for neighborhood driving while coasting to a stop is for "main roads" driving (she no longer drives on the interstate highways).... Simple practice like this will serve as a full rehearsal for anyone who may unfortunately be struck by this acceleration flaw and will certainly provide a level of familiarity and perhaps even confidence to those who may find themselves in this situation. A little preparation and practice can go a long way towards helping Toyota owners (and anyone else) learn to properly react immediately and preserve their safety as a result....

First things first - check your transmission fluid level....

Get the Bridgestone Alenzas. Long-proven with a great track record for longevity as well as handling inclement weather and the best choice if you have 18-inch wheels. Plus a 65,000-mile treadwear warranty. My wife's 2004 RX330 AWD is on its second set of Alenzas (installed October 2009) and they handled our 7 inches of mostly sleet with some snow mixed in with absolutely no problem a week ago. And that's on a vehicle with "pretend AWD" at best.... I'm also interested in the Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires for our 2005 Jaguar S-Type sedan when new tire time rolls around for that vehicle later this year, but the DWS tires are far too new to have a real track record at this point. The most common complaint about the DWS tires, especially by folks with heavier vehicles, is that the sidewalls are too soft so the handling is mushy and they can't take even the most minor curb punishment that lousy curbside parkers typically dish out. Also, the treadwear warranty is just 50,000 miles....

Well put. I've fired horrible customers in the distant past, but I've always done it with a cool head and a controlled tongue. No business can afford the repercussions of a damaged reputation from even it's worst customer....

Yes, it's a Q7. I believe it's a 2008 model. And yes, maintenance costs can be very high with an Audi (or our Jaguar S-Type) if you are not a do-it-yourselfer due to the proprietary diagnostics and cost of parts. But this Audi Q7 has been essentially troublefree thus far. And since they business-lease their primary vehicles, they don't keep them for more than 3 years. They're gone and replaced before any major issues strike, plus they've been under the factory warranty for the entire time. An expensive ownership experience for most folks, but it provides significant tax advantages to them. Not as good as a few years ago before the leasing laws got stricter, but still good enough to be worth it for them....

The pump is not the most significant transmission problem on the early RX models. It's the poorly designed and fabricated planetary gears. Search this forum using "RX300 planetary gears" as your search phrase and look for Lenore's threads about this issue from the 2008/2009 timeframe. After reading the threads, you'll have a much better understanding of the size and scope of the problem....

With each passing day Toyota shoves their sword a little deeper into their own abdomen. More and more organizations from the media to consumer safety to regulatory control to private citizens are questioning their honesty and integrity. Given Toyota's blind, all-consuming charge for growth and market share the past few years, I don't believe they have the culture or the humility necessary to properly handle this growing crisis and stop the bleeding. There's apparently been a tremendous amount of lying within Toyota over this issue and it is now coming back in full force to haunt them. It's not a full-blown Firestone Tire/Ford Explorer debacle quite yet, but it soon could be....

Audi has indeed stepped up their game. One of my sisters has had the top-of-the-line Audi SUV for the past couple of years and has really enjoyed its all-wheel-drive capabilities during our recent and current rounds of snow/sleet storms. She likes it better than her previous couple of Jeep Grand Cherokees which she was also very pleased with....

I agree that simply replacing mechanical parts will not resolve this issue. I believe some significant ECM reflashing/reprogramming will have to take place before this matter finally can be considered fixed....

The recession is far from over. Sit tight with your current vehicles through 2010 and wait for a potentially better economy in 2011.... or 2012....

I don't eat chicken chow mein any longer because of potentlal mercury poisoning....

Don't panic and don't lose your financial shirt making rash decisions to dump your vehicle. Stay calm and wait for the cascades of updates that Toyota is now forced into offering. We'll soon start to see these updates almost daily. In the meantime, if your vehicle suffers an accelerator problem, simply shift into neutral and stand on the brakes. The engine will continue to rev, it may even blow, but you won't be going anywhere. If drivers know what to do and keep their heads when it happens, the vast majority will be fine. The biggest problem will be if this happens to you while you're in heavy freeway traffic at 80 mph and you're boxed in by other vehicles....

It's more than a floor mat issue and going forward, Toyota's future may very well be determined by whether or not the floor mat issue was used as a cover-up story to mask the much more serious potential problem of faulty accelerator design.... My mother traded her trusty 1997 Accord in on a 2010 Camry late last summer and now sincerely regrets not getting a new Accord instead. I tried to convince her to let me find her a nice 3-year-old just-off-corporate-lease Accord, but she wanted new. You just can't argue with your mother sometimes....

It's not just a "floor mat issue" any longer. My hat is off to Toyota for biting the bullet and deciding to cease sales and production of the affected models, but they may be looking at a potential public relations nightmare that could haunt them for years. It depends upon how quickly they can discover the cause, engineer a permanent fix, and then get it installed on every affected vehicle out there. This will take months, and the million-dollar question comes down to whether Toyota has been using the floor mat story as a cover-up to the real problem.... My 80-year-old mother traded her 1997 Accord in on a 2010 Camry late last summer because her local Toyota dealership was far more aggressive with their trade-in offer than her long-time Honda dealership was. Once Mom worked her best deals at both dealerships, a new Accord and a new Camry were within $200 of each other so her decision came down to the trade-in offer. Honda took for granted that they were going to sell her a new Accord and didn't work hard enough to keep her business. But now Mom is wishing that she had chosen the new Accord instead....

Yep, your best best would be a good local upholstery shop, one that does car interiors and convertible tops. They'll be able to source some leather that comes pretty darn close in color and texture to your 10-year-old car.... My guess would be less than $100 to do both sides, which you may want to consider for matching purposes even though I'm sure your passenger-side arm rest is fine....

At 95,000 miles, I guarantee you that your throttle body can do with some cleaning. You're going to have some carbon build-up in there regardless of the quality of gasoline you've used throughout the years. But you can do this yourself with some screwdrivers, a can of throttle body cleaner, and some clean rags. Search the forums using "throttle body cleaning" as your search phrase for the do-it-yourself process - I'm sure that someone has posted an excellent set instructions on here somewhere....

Do a simple drain-and-fill. You'll need about 4 quarts, but get 5 just to be sure. If you research this forum and others like it, you'll begin to understand that you've been very fortunate to get that kind of mileage out of your transmission with absolutely no maintenance on it. These transmissions are the weakest link of the early RX models. Oh, and quit complaining about paying $5 a quart for Type T-IV transmission fluid. You'll find it somewhat cheaper at a Toyota dealership rather than a Lexus dealership. My 2005 Jaguar S-Type sedan's German ZF transmission runs M1375.4 mineral oil as its fluid, and a drain-and-fill usually results in about 6 litres of fluid exchanged. Jaguar's price for this stuff? $57 per litre....

Nothing sad about it at all. Contracts run their course, other companies offer higher pay, etc. etc. etc. It's called "business", and I'd take the better offer as well if I made my living that way....

Very well done. From a NEW car standpoint, I believe the Genesis may be the best bang-for-the-buck sedan value on the market today. But I don't purchase new vehicles - I usually wait three model years until the bulk of the depreciation has safely passed me by. It remains to be seen how the market will treat the Genesis over that period of time, but I think that Hyundai has clearly hit a home run with this car. The Genesis employs the same world-class German ZF transmission system that our wonderfully smooth and fast highway cruiser Jaguar S-Type has (along with BMW, Mercedes, and a host of other performance luxury brands that use this transmission). The Genesis V8 rear-wheel-drive power capabilities will be difficult to duplicate by the other luxury brands for anything even remotely close to the same money that a typical Genesis costs. We'll see how the first few years of the Genesis unfold but given this still-lousy U.S. economy, Hyundai couldn't have picked a better time to bring their flagship to market here. The Genesis will steal buyers that previously would have been considering Acura, Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes, and others....

Be aware that when coils are in the early stages of failure, they often throw misfire codes. Usually P030X with X being the affected cylinder (therefore P0303 would indicate a misfire in cylinder 3). If you have an OBDII code reader, you can diagnose these issues yourself....

nc211, Who's 1985 S-Class were you driving? Is this a company car that they hand the keys over to when road warriors such as yourself are in town?