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If these Japanese scientist are successful, you could be using Laser spark plugs to increase the efficiency of your combustion chamber. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/24/laser-spark-plugs-bright-idea-or-flash-in-the-pan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29 Paul

Very cool stuff! You mentioned Social Security numbers.....ahhh......there was that little piece of time between 01' and 04' ...well..I meant to file a 1040 return, but there was a small problem with my funds in the Caymans and one thing lead to another.....and...well...ah...you probably know all this.

That is one hell of a grill!! That is industrial strength. A great concept for ribs and brisket, etc. Call us when dinner is ready.

Don't think so CD, they are different? Just a TROLL... You know me LEXIR, I never miss an opportunity to show off my ignorance, but how do you find someone's IP address? (Is your Village missing it's idiot?)

Yeah cause GM didn't try to hide it's defective ABS systems for years, and years, and years...and I think they are still battling out. And that issue may or may not over shadow the spark plug ejecting cover up, and Ford has known about it's cruise control issues for way longer than it was covered in the news. Heck, Lincoln/Mercury paid millions in advertising hush money to keep their "unintended stuck accelerator trajedy out of the news when their car killed it's driver and passenger 7 years earlier. You do remember the media flogging they got right? Just like the one Toyota just got? Oh, that's right, it never happened. Toyota pulled their advertising dollars instead. That was Toyota's huge mistake here! Well, it's good to see all those billions of dollars GM took from us to pay the magazines to recreate a new image for themselves is getting through. The only problem here is it's complete BS. If you take away just fleet sales, I'm talking car sales to Enterprise car rentals and Budget and those that purchase on short term price and by contracts alone, GM, Ford and Chrysler can not compete in sales, even in just the US market, or especially in the US market. It's the crippling labor unions that have locked up the car companies and hence they will never be able to truly level the playing field. When was the last time american car company innovated something? or lead the technology advancements in true automotive design? Not since the 60's.Unless, you count Lee Iococa's K car concept that did help bring the unibody construction to the forefront, but then again it made car building cheaper, so of course the american car companies jumped on that one! LOL!! take a real look around, for example, the 4 door mid size sedan market. Lexus GS Mercedes Benz E 350 BMW 5 series Acura TL Audi A6 Hyundai Genesis Mazda 6 Toyota Camery Volkswagen Passat Honda Accord Then we look at us, Ford Taurus, really, this car just came back last year. It was discontinued for almost 10 years! Where's Ford loyalty? Ford Thunderbird, (gone, discontinued.) after being turned into the retro POS!! and completely ruined the legacy. Chevy Malibu ( You've got to be kidding me right? Until 2 or 3 years ago this wasn't even considered a real car any more. And even now, while yes, it does look alot better, it's still the same POS underneath!) Buick Regal ( this just looks like a bad imitation of a real luxury car and what is up with the "retro" modern grill contraption thing? Cadillac STS/ CTS This is the best I think we are doing right now, but it's still no where near to their Asian and European counterparts. Dodge Charger I'm sorry, but these cars are just designed for kids. There is just no sophistication in anything here. Chrysler 300- Look, it has 22's!!! Frod Crown Vic- Discontinued. The real american car of all time, ended. with No evolution. Why do all the american cars have to be a "gimmick." Look at the Camaro. Why does the interior of that car have to look like a matchbox car interior? Slide into a Nissan GTR and look at that interior! NOW YOUR TALKING! Even the Ford Mustang was all hokey until this last year it finally is starting to look like a real car inside! Geeze, where to start with this one.........first mistake, Taurus was replaced by the Five Hundred for ONE year, not 10. Thunderbird was on most recommended lists because of its quality. Lexus? Innovative? The first Lexus looked EXACTLY like a Mercedes. You know it, we all know it. And the first ES? A tarted up Camry. Sophistication? No. The Lexus can't self-park on declines.......hell, even a Focus can do that. Cadillac is now considered by the press as being equal to Lexus. Charger? It fits its market. Crown Vic, being replaced by the Taurus. Lincoln? A 3 year-old Lincoln is more dependable than a 3 year-old Lexus. Lincoln was #1 in reliabilty. Read the study. The government will probably MAKE money from its loans to GM. Lexus is made in the US. Toyota/Lexus engineering is not what it's been hyped up to be. Too many recalls, too many deaths. I'll buy American from now on. Keep the money, jobs here. Please get your facts right before you make such untrue comments on this site. I for one am not drinking anymore Toyota/Lexus Kool-Aid. Too many have died. Actually, they discontinued the Taurus, then came out with the 500, which was a completely different chassis and drivetrain, then renamed the 500 with the Taurus name again. Which it's been the "500" ever since. So, ok, about 6 years. This thing? Oh, that's right, you probably wanted to forget this travesty as much as the rest of us! Which even today is still years ahead of anything GM, Ford and Chrysler have done! Maybe the Detroit 3 need to pay attention! What you just said is exactly part of the problem! American cars are ugly! Even to Americans! After Lexus showed them it was possible in the first place. Lexus atleast had an original idea. Well, funny you should bring this up, because in 2007 the only american based Lincoln Murcury factory closed down, and the only two left are 1 in Ontario Canada and the other is in Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico. So, I would imagine that in the last 3 years their reliability rating have gone up. And by the way, the Ford Focus you mentioned is imported by Ford from Hai Duong Vietnam, Azambuja Portugal, Santa Rosa, Laguna Philippines, St. Petersburg Russia, Norlane, Victoria Australia, Valencia Spain, and also in Sonora Mexico. That car isn't even made in the US! Here's the Wall Street Journals report on total car sales for the last 30 days. http://online.wsj.co...-autosales.html Now heres the Fleet sales reports for the same 30 days. http://www.automotiv...Up-in-July.aspx So if you subtract those numbers from their total sales, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai would all be kicking GM, Ford and Chrysler's butt in sales by people who actually CHOOSE what car they want. And guess who's buying those fleet vehicles to keep the numbers up? You and I are! We buy them with our tax dollars as we HAVE to use Ford, GM or Chrysler for all the police cars, mail trucks, government vehicles, etc. etc. So how exactly did I make any money off the whole GM bail out thing again? Just think about the 1,000's of cars and trucks we buy from companies that know you have to buy them. Yeah, this formula never works and their line up shows it. GM and Ford have catered to the Fleet vehicle sales for years. While all the other car mfgr's have been evolving thier ergonomic designs, actually responding to the consumers like real families and the next generation car buyer. Advancing safety and technology and making them appealing to us. The service centers and the dealership themselves need to be completely revamped and a new philosophy needs to be established. I don't wanna haggle with some coffee breathe chain smoker in the parking lot! I don't want to look forward to cheap hard plastic chairs in the service waiting room and a cheap 19'' TV with rabbit ears pulling in Oprah reruns, while getting my side messaged by the vending machine I need to lean on to make room for the mom and 4 kids and a baby buggy. The Lexus waitng room is paradise in comparison! Yeah, I bought all this with the car just as much as I bought the niegborhood my house is in! Our Lexus dealership in my opinion is a model for how I think all dealership service centers should be. The next time I go there I'll take pictures of the waiting room. I'm not kidding. I'ts like 2 really huge living rooms! Big screen Hi Def TV's with cable, all carpeted and softly and warmly lit. Huge couches and recliners with pillows. A seperate internet cafe, and they provide the computers at seperate stations, or you can use your own laptop, theres a glass "quiet" room for book readers, and there's a seperate "noise proof" room for the kids to go in and play. They have a cafeteria with complimentary drinks and snacks, heck they've even brought and offered me warm baked cookies while I was in the waiting room! and then went around and offered everyone else that was there as well. This is a car service center? Man does GM and Ford have alot to learn. So what in the last year or two, suddenly GM and Ford and Chrysler now really care about me huh? And I'm just supposed to jump right back on and buy for the purpose of american pride. Well, where's the pride in making a car that I actually want to buy? I pay my taxes. So I already buy american cars because they make us. Where the spirit of free market in that? How is this more American? They made the game rules not me. I now refuse to buy a GM period. Ford atleast is trying, and Chrysler will hopefully let Fiat "design" a car for a change. You know, I'm not going to sit here and tit for tat over adjacent points. The truth is we taught the Japanese everything we know, and they are kicking our butt's with it, and using the same tactics we showed them back against us, and now we're sniveling and crying fowl as a tool to try and talk people into buying american made cars again. And somehow if your the "largest car mfgr. then that must mean your the best" mentality will continue. It's the only way GM can survive. Let me say something here about myself so when you need to insult me you have a little more insight. I am an old Chevy man! My dad is one of the areas most respected Ford race engine builders around. We have a 7 second Mustang. There is nothing more that I would like to see is a real car roll off the GM or Ford lines again. But the truth is the truth, and I live my life in the real world. So I drive a Mercedes Benz ML 350, a Lexus IS 350, a Lexus IS 300 Turbo, and a Volkswagen Jetta 2.5. I have a 1969 Camaro convertable in the waiting to rebuild some day rack, and a 71 Cuda that was wrecked and sold to me cheap. Why is it that when we all talk about american cars, the conversation always goes to the 60 and 70's? Well thought out and expressed Smooth.

I skipped the Lf-Gh. Wrote a check on petty cash account for the LFA instead. Suits my needs better like going to the store for bread and milk, beer, etc. Also will probably have more horse power to tow the tanker for the extra gas I'll need! The Lf-Gh is just so yesterday man! LOL Pulling your leg guy's. Paul

Did a search of this forum and found this thread. Not sure if this will help, but there are other threads under this topic. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59040

FLF, Where is all this deep seated anger/hate coming from? Your appearance on this forum, just for the sake of venting your frustration at people you don't know and a piece of sheet metal and rubber, is irrational. Were you turned down for financing or something for a new Lexus? Did you personally have a floor mat rub against your gas pedal? All of your anger and grievances seem to be second person or from press re lease's. Your continued attacks on members of this forum speaks volumes about your stability and your inability to separate fact from what is manufactured by publicity. IMO join a "I hate Lexus Forum" or get some therapy. Paul

DO NOT DO IT YOUR SELF. See a professional detailer and let them work the leather. As one person said, there are to many variables to take a chance on ruining you leather and having to pay a fortune to fix. Paul

Welcome to the LOC!

If you ever lived in the country during a Midwestern winter, you quickly find that when the weather first starts turning cold the fury little buggers start looking for a nice warm home. Some times that home is the top of an engine block overnight. I recall a thread on a Volvo forum telling of a nest built on top of the manifolds of a Volvo that had been sitting out for a week or two. The little mice had stuffed grasses and twigs and such in and around all of the moving parts on top of the block and it all had to be cleaned out. I've also heard of mice huddled up in farm machinery and older model car heaters during cold nights. As to the issue of soy based insulation versus Petroleum based, there is some conflicting opinions. I found this thread regarding other makes of autos that report the same problem. MB, BMW, etc. It seems that squirrels and rats are also culprits in this caper. One of the common denominators of this dilemma is not driving your car often enough. In my experience living in the country, just leaving your car out overnight is not long enough to start a problem with "Mickey's" cousins. http://www.slkworld.com/general-discussion/16618-wire-harness-made-out-soy-material-new-porsche-911s.html

So what's your point? Take your conspiracy theory and your Lexus and buy the Ranger. Paul

Elaborate further about your rodent problem. Paul

Precisely.

Welcome to the LOC!

Surprised to see this thread resurrected after all this time. But, no time like the present! The most important word in your post is "fun". As with everything in this long thread it's almost all subjective. I Like the quiet cabin and smooth ride. On a long trip the ride is soothing to me and the quiet lets me enjoy the sound system I've tweaked for all types of music. For you, the feel on the wheel of the road and the response of the car in all aspects is fun. Viva la difference!

Todays announcement of parts shortage effect on North American production. Not sure about Lexus or Japan production. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/21/toyota-drastically-cuts-north-american-production-through-may/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29 Yes Lexirx...it's from AOL> LOL! Paul

That's a good one!LOL!! My chuckle for the day.

Also looking for the same information. Bump. You could probably have your present radio/tuner/OEM system replaced with a Satellite capable one by the dealer, but it would cost you a fortune!!! Your best bet is to add a aftermarket Sat. tuner. Your dealer will not do this for you. There are many good qualified auto sound/radio shops that can fix you up with almost any configuration you need. Ask around for the name of a quality shop,(even ask your dealer, they know these things). When your looking at adding equipment to your Lexus, be cautious about swapping out speakers and amplifiers. Lexus uses a system of matched crossovers and speakers that is difficult to match with off the shelf equipment. Paul

I think it is the class action law suit that has brought on the backlash against the the legal eagles. Turn on the television and you can find a guy asking if you were ever prescribed X, then you should sue before you die from it!! I have a chronic illness for which I take several medications. Over the last few months, I have seen TV solicitations from lawyers for class action suits based on two of the medications I take. LOL!! Should I feel worse now? LOL The class action suit has merits in some narrowly defined situations, but as you say it has become a get rich quick scheme for the attorney and pays out only pennies to the little people bringing on the action. Yes, the attorney has to win first and fronts the cost, but come on, share the spoils. On the other subject. For people who have never owned their own business, it always looks so easy. Heck, you open your doors, advertise a little, have nice merchandise, and you sit back and buy a Lexus with all the money that comes in every month. If you have never dealt with the public from the other side of the counter you've missed a part of your formal education. Customers are the greatest people in the world. Customers are the biggest *BLEEP*s in the world. If that sounds like a dichotomy it's supposed to. The notion that the customer is always right was never right to begin with. If you as a business owner have integrity and really do care about your customers, then you have an obligation to educate and demonstrate to your customer the best and proper and safest way to use your product. Selling a left handed fishing reel to a right handed customer without first asking them which hand they crank with, is giving your customer poor service. Explaining to him or her the benefits of a interchangeable reel is educating them. The *BLEEP* customer doesn't want your help, your knowledge, your suggestions, or the ream of experiences you know about other customers problems they've had with this particular product. They just want it NOW, CHEAP, and oh, CHEAP! They always know more than you do and they always take every opportunity to let you know just how much they know. (There information always turns out to be from some infomercial.) The customer is not always right, but it is the job of a good business person to insure the customer leaves with EVERYTHING RIGHT and the customer feeling they were treated absolutely right.

The government is out to get you. The tire manufacturers are against you. The lawyers are against you. The environmentalist are against you. The forum is against you. How about trying something positive for a change? Paul

I see you've learned well, everything I've been teaching you!! LOL!!! What a great synopsis for all of us. I did not know that the Range indicator was influenced by the mpg factor. The tank avg. obviously. This explains the phenomena with my ES330. I hope this solves the persons problem and thanks for the well done lesson. Paul

It is doubtful that a gasoline mixture would account for a drop of 120 miles difference. Even using a blend of 10% ethanol (which I run all the time) and accounting for a 10% mpg difference that Lenore is suggesting, that would only account for 40 miles off of the 400 miles you say you originally were getting. Take you car to the dealer FIRST. Explain the problem and see if they can provide some insight before you go swapping out parts or trying home made remedy's. A drop in mpg of this magnitude, if your numbers were correct in the beginning, is significant. I had an 05' ES330 and when I filled up, the range meter would always read about 280-295. That is a bout the range of miles I would get until time to fill.

Just the fact that you were able to pull that little factoid out of your cerebellum is amazing to me. Your post are full of information and facts about not only Lexus but other brands as well. Your friends must remark on what seems to be an exceptional memory. That, or you make a lot of *BLEEP* up!

We've got to stop meeting like this. While your typing, I'm typing the same thing. Yours post at the same second mine post. Is this the old "Great Minds" trick...... Nah....just mine ..LOL