Linda

Any idea what they installed ? I am looking to do the same to my 2007. I had an iPod adapter installed in my 06 GS300 yesterday by a local Lexus dealer. It is a SoundLinQ2, model SL2i by Vais Technology (www.vaistech.com). The price quoted in this thread sounds about right for the retail price of this gadget, which Lexus charged me about $500 to buy and install. I'm guessing they didn't really pay $375 for it. If you know what you're doing, it looks to me like you could do this yourself (I couldn't, though). The website has all the instruction manuals posted as pdfs. The thing works pretty well with a couple of drawbacks. Running in "CD-emulation" mode the iPod playlists show up as if they were CDs on the screen (each playlist is a separate "CD" with room for 99 total playlists). It will show the name of the playlist and the name of the track on the screen when it's playing. It will NOT however access the podcast menu on the iPod, which means if you download a lot of podcasts (like I do), you have to use "simple mode." This means control reverts to the iPod itself and you don't get any information on the screen. Not so bad, but not worth $500, either. The other issue I'm having is that the audio quality is a little disappointing. I'm still working on it, and it may be that comparing the sound of MP3s on the iPod to the original CD running through the same speakers isn't quite fair. Nonetheless, I think the sound is less than ideal. If anyone else has installed this gadget and has insight into the sound quality issue, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Oh, and they have a new model specifically for the video iPod that will show videos on the console screen. Looks cool. Thanks.

If by "sport mode" you mean the power option, it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. This surprises me, because in my Camry it made a big difference on acceleration, allowing the car to get to a higher rpm before shifting up. Do you think the problem is that the first 1000 miles on this car were entirely in the city? Is this something that can be reset? Thanks for your help.

About a month ago I bought a new 2002 GS300 (sportdesign version). My previous cars had been a Camry SE (95) and a Supra (85). I was very happy with my sporty Toyotas. Decided to treat myself to a sporty Lexus. I have a very odd problem. The car has a tendency to shift up to too high a gear in city driving, so that when I go around a corner, coming out at 5-15 mph and try to accelerate, the car stays in 3rd gear. I’ve also noticed it cruising at 20 mph in 4th gear! Needless to say, the car has no pep whatsoever under those circumstances. A couple of times I’ve nearly gotten myself in trouble when I expected the car to accelerate and it didn’t. I can, of course, get it to downshift if I floor it, but that seems way more aggressive than necessary for the circumstance. Also it drives fine when I drive it in manual mode and shift for it. The longer I’ve had this car the worse the problem has gotten. I’ve taken the car to the dealer (in Atlanta) twice. They say “they all do that.” I doubt this. Could you folks help me with this problem? Is there something electronic that isn’t set right, or that can easily be reset? I’m grateful for any suggestions. Linda