Uncle Ben

Ditto here. I brought some leaves and yard waste to the recycling yard yesterday, which is about 7km or so away from home; and on the way back, I decided to try out the sport mode. Zoom zoom alright! It's no Beamer by a far stretch, but the sport mode does kick things up a notch or two, that's for sure. Congratulations! Enjoy!

I once had to return a Garmin 260--the screen was still in perfect working condition, but nothing else was working. I couldn't get the signal, no matter where I stood. There are a number of GPS forums where you'll find plenty of evidence of GPS units going bad, again for a number of reasons. The chief reason has to do with people trying to hack their system - the HP iPAQ 310 was famous for that. The second reason is static shock. Another reason often cited is heat and cold exposure. Anyway, I just offered an opinion and since this is off topic, perhaps we should both leave it just at that for now.

No, no, Steve. GPS's do go bad, chipsets get fried for a number of reasons, a slight static shock being one of the primary ones.

Me, I just go: "Hey, Bea my darling, would you mind switching this to xx." So for me, the knob/my darling combination works great!

We went shopping this morning and instead of joining my wife to the store, I stayed in the car and played with this a bit. I never keyed in any presets ... but it looks like the dealer did it for me, they're all there. When I press an arrow key on the steering wheel and hold it until I hear a beep, it moves to the next preset, up or down, depending which key I used. Isn't that what you're looking for? If not, the next best thing is to use the knob, which works very fast. :D

What happens when you give the arrow key two quick taps instead? Don't hold it, just click it twice. I'm shooting in the dark here, cause I don't have presets and don't care to set them up either. I know the 5 stations I like and just use the knob or the arrows to dial them in. But I'd be curious to know if two quick taps on the arrow keys would allow you to tab through your presets.

Yeah, haptic mouse system... The manual does not explain it very well, but you can Google it and you'll find lots of info on it. You can play with these settings and see what setting, if any, works best for you. A lot of people have problems with the mouse. I like it. It took me a while to get use to it, but now I like it. It's a lot better than toutchscreen IMHO.

That's strange, because I have no problem with it at all, I'm serious! I think I mentioned this in an earlier post but I'll say it again. I often had to input a destination address, done entirely from the voice commands/steering wheel. I often played specific album/artist from my thumbdrive library, all with voice commands. I had problems with it at first, but once I understood to cut off ambient noise and speak loud enough, I have no problem, as long as my wife zips it while I'm giving the voice commands. :P That's not to say that I do not have to occasionally repeat the command; but by and large, I find that the system works fine.

I probably missed it in the setup - could you tell me where to find the sensitivity adjustment? Page 60, Navigation Manual, "Pointer Sound Volume Settings" and "Setting Feedback Force". Have fun!

...and that's why we have voice commands available at the touch of a button on the steering wheel. And even if I had to use the mouse, I find it hard to believe that this gesture would present any more of a hazard than reaching out to touch the screen. But this is a new 'gadget' and I can understand why people are resisting the change. But as I said in an earlier post, once I adjusted the sensitivity of the mouse, it works fine for me... But I seldom use it while driving, happy to use the voice command functionality.

I realize that opinions vary on this one; but for me, it works fine and it is much less distracting than reaching out to touch the screen. I think we have to understand what Lexus tried to accomplish here. The screen is recessed and set far away from the driver, such that the screen remains clear, no matter what the ambient lighting is. Yes, there's a learning curve, but the mouse works. Thanks to voice command functionality, bear in mind also that the number of times one would have to use the mouse to do anything while driving are minimized. Once I adjusted the sensitivity setting on the mouse to my liking, it works like a charm.

...and there's also the quick reference guide for those of us who don't want to kick back and read for a couple of hours.

Yes, but in all fairness, it's pretty smooth reading. Most of the pages are half pages, lots of graphics ... I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can work through all this within a relatively short time, wouldn't you say?

Thanks for your comments. And yes, perhaps I did overdo the coloring (meant as approx. example). But it definitely did not look close to the brochure or website representation... not just to me, but also my wife saw the same. I am glad to hear that your parchment color was accurate. I will visit the dealer again and let you know how it goes. Perhaps I will take my camera... just for the fun of it. I will let you all know how it goes. Thanks again guys(gals)! Jon But you know what, notwithstanding all of the above, it could also be that you guys were right. The leather dying process may have played havoc with this particular vehicle. I don't know how fussy the folks at Lexus plants are about these things, but I do know that the dying process can produce slightly diffirent shades of the same color; but as long as the same shade is used for the entire vehicle, it's will likely be given a pass.

Wow! That's really yellow, I don't think I'd like that. Let us know how it turns out. Good luck.

It may not be for zooming in and out, but it sure his smooth, isn't it? Congratulations!

When we bought ours, the salesman told us that Ivory as it's called in Canada is the same as the former parchment color; and it sure doesn't look yellow to me. If you go on the Lexus web site and look at the interior colors, that's a pretty good rendition of what it looks like in real in my opinion. It's like a cream color, nothing yellowish there at all. But we all see things differently ... best thing to do is to go back to dealership and see for yourself. If it looked yellow at the dealership, perhaps the lighting had something to do with it.

Yes, I looked at the A6, the MB C and E classes, and BMW 3-series. Once you add up the options, the price of competing models exceeded my budget. The legendary reliability of Toyota/Lexus also played a big part.

Really! That's news to me. Did he say why?

"Issue is everything is controlled via the screen, so you would loose your ability to use basically all the car's functions. You would HAVE to repair the nav unit if something went wrong." Not quite, as many functions, if not all, are also available with buttons. But you're right, if the whole screen went dead, I think I would have to get it fixed. I comment referred to the GPS module per se which could, theoretically, go bad and still have a good screen. The map data for example could get corrupted, or the GPS chipset getting fryed somehow ...

Congratulations. Good luck!

I see. Well, that's good to hear and perhaps I should have given the 300 a second glance. That being said, I don't regret my purchase, as I feel more secure with the V6. Besides, most car reviews I've read claim that the 300, while adequately competent off the line, is not nearly as capable as the 350 in the passing lane. But again, that's a matter of opinion. So the best thing to do it to take one for a spin on a stretch of highway and kick it down at 60 MPH. When I do that in my 350, I have plenty of pull and have to release the gas pedal PDQ to avoid the flashing lights closing in on me. And one last point - I like the dual exhaus pipes! Without them, the Lexus then has even less chrome! :cries: Cheers!

But Phyl, if your only concern is the NAV, I doubt very much that it would cost $4,000 to fix it. I have two GPS units that are now gathering dust on my library shelf. If my NAV gets a heat stroke or sea sickness ... the price to fix it better be to my liking; otherwise, my Garmin friend will come out of the dusty zone. Yes, it is true, you don't have to buy the extended warranty right now ... at least, that's what my sales rep told me. Cheers!

I just realized that this thread is already 20 days' old. Have you already bought your 300?

For me, I was involved in two potential highway mishaps that would for sure have resulted in death or at the very least very serious injuries. In both cases, the extra power to get you out of the trouble in a split second decision kept us out of harm's way. I didn't even try the H... but I read the reviews. Even though the reviews are excellent, it is is a 2.5 litre engine which, coupled with the electric motor, gives you a total of 200 horses. At highway speeds, the extra 68 horses of the 350 make a big difference. If you take one for a spin, my advice is to take it on the highway and see for yourself. If you're comfortable with it, than the 300H is a winner for sure and well worth the small price premium, there's no doubt about that. HTH. Good luck with your purchase.