Paulmj

My mother has purchased 2010 RX350 back on November. I just found out she has replaced 5 tires, 4 rear passenger and 1 front passenger. All had sidewall damage. My guess she's bumping into the curb, however she's never had this issue with the previous RX she owned for 10 years. I'm wondering if the difference has to do with the new standard tires being 19" while the previous RX had 18" as a standard tire. It may also be Michelin's new model has more fragile sidewalls.

In any case, each replacement was $350 and she wasn't buying tire damage warranty. Getting into discussions with your mother as to why she didn't buy the warranty is fruitless so my suggestion she goes with 18" tires all around (which the standard rims appear to support) + damage warranty.

As simple as it looks to pin this on the driver, the sudden change is hard to explain. Not a single damaged tire in 10 years and then 5 busted sidewalls in 6 months? I did some calling around various tire places such as tirerack and few local dealers and learned they're seeing more than a usual number of people with '10 RXs having similar problems. So maybe it is the new size that people are not used to when parking/driving, or the sidewalls are a bit flimsier.

In any case, we'd like to get to the bottom of this. It may be a tire defect or change in specs, or something else about the car that previous owners didn't adjust to yet. Would be nice to know if anyone else has experienced or heard of this issue.

Thanks

Dave

My RX has these tires. I have more than 5000 miles on the vehicle with no problems whatever.

Even more interesting is that Tire Rack quotes these Michelin - Latitude® Tour HP tires @ $155. Costco is $263. Where did the $350 come from?

No problem at all playing music from the iPod function on my iPhone. Automatic start-stop, etc.

However, the BT navigation screen provides no information whatever on the music being played. In fact, the only thing on the screen is a pause and a play button. On the other hand, the iPhone screen is showing the song and artist name as well as the album cover art while the song is being played.

Is this all that is to be expected on the Lexus screen?

I presume our 6-week old RX was factory delivered with synthetic oil. The service manual that was given to us with the vehicle states 10000 mileage interval between oil changes. Nevertheless, I just received the Lexus letter and revised manual, which I guess reflects the system catching up with what was already in place.

Question: How important is the non-oil change 5000 mile service interval? It seems to me this is nothing more than a make-work for the dealer. We have a Mercedes where you never have service other than at 10000 mile intervals.

Besides it being a PITA to have to go to the dealer any more than necessary, why spend money if not needed?

A second question: We had a 2000 RX300, and we had routine maintenance preformed by a Toyota dealer. Not as many bells and whistles as in the Lexus dealer's lounge, but the prices were a lot more appealing. Are there any warranty issues with having Toyota do routine maintenance?