blake918

....And the 5% off code for Carson is "CLOEM"

Great job, Josh! That's an awesome car too! B)

Looks outstanding, Bren! The '05-'06 ES330 is one of my favorites, and I really like that color too! B)

When I need new OEM parts, I compare prices from Park Place, Sewell, Irontoad (Thompson Lexus), Lexus of Brookfield, and Carson Lexus (I think they are somewhere in Southern California), and whoever is cheapest gets my business. Most of the time the prices are the same, but sometimes the difference in price is startling. Also, Sewell and Carson post discount codes on Club Lexus's vendor forum, so look for those codes if you buy from them. Park Place Lexus: http://www.newlexusparts.com Sewell Lexus: http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/ Thompson Lexus: http://www.irontoad.com/l_home.htm Lexus of Brookfield: http://www.lexuspartsmall.com Carson: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...m?siteid=214915

Happy Birthday Robert! Hope you are having fun!

I'd try a procedure or two from the PDF Jim posted before taking it in to the dealer; perhaps reprogramming the remote will do the trick (provided that the wireless system isn't shutdown via CBES). Maybe the remote is bad? I just replaced my remote key since the buttons didn't always work right. The new key works perfectly. Congrats on your new car! B) Wow, 23k miles, that's unbelievable! What color is it?

How's the call quality on both ends? Cnet says it's not full duplex, have you noticed any ill effects because of that? All of the user reviews I read seem to say nothing but positive things. The only complaint I read is that some people aren't fond of the power saving features (I'm sure these would also be the people complaining about battery life if those features weren't in place. lol).

That sounds about right. When I drive only inside the city (5-10 minute trips, not going more than 45mph, lots of red lights, etc.), my LS400 gets 14mpg. On the hwy, I get 27.5-28.5mpg at 80mph with the ac running.

Thanks so much for the concern guys! My family and I are fine. I wish I could have responded sooner, but I've been busy with my gang here. I've got a whole bunch of family members (6 people, 6 dogs, and a cat) at my house here in Ruston. We had a lot of rain here and some power outages, but otherwise, all has been well. My parents and sister's houses (in New Orleans) are 100% fine. My grandparent's house in Houma did fine. They were very lucky since that area got hit pretty hard. Only a tree and their back patio awning got blown down. We're all dog people here, so when my sister saw this little Boston Terrier runt on her street, she picked him up and is here with us. He's only 15lbs! I thought my 40lbs Cattle Dog was small, but wow, the Boston is tiny! He's got some pale, pale blue eyes, and a touge that is so big it hangs out of his mouth 98% of the time. He likes to sleep, A LOT! He is surely for someone, and not just a stray since he is neutered, house trained, and had a current rabies tag on. We got the owner's number from the vet that did the rabies shots and are waiting to hear back from the lady who owns him. The vet told us his name is Bugsy, wow, that's a bad name. LOL Oooh, Robert, a road trip sounds like fun!! I've been putting 3k miles on a month, but I've been dying to take a real road trip in it!! My dad's new GMC diesel got a bit of water in it. I thought it was quite funny to add this problem to the list that he's had so far since I wanted him to get the Ford, but he didn't see it as funny as I did! haha It looks like the sunroof is leaking--soaking the headliner and then working it down to the carpet.

Josh, I'd defiantly go for it at that price. It should make a fine beater! Did I read right that you are coming to Louisiana sometime soon? Isn't Ft Polk near Alexandria? If so, that sucks! LOL That's not too far from me though! :D

What did you think of the DTS? I have to say that I've always loved the styling even though most people don't! Thanks for the write-up on the MKS. I think they are great looking cars, and it's good to hear they are well built too!

Jordan, Ray, Denny, Wes, and Robert, thanks for the birthday wishes! Ray, I didn't do anything exciting on my birthday, just work, but I did celebrate my b-day a week early in Las Vegas and had a great time!!!

I finally had the chance to put a new Malibu through its paces. I picked one up for a one way rental in Las Vegas and ran it all the way back to Louisiana. I put more than 2,000 miles on it in the 3 days I had the car, so I feel like I got to know it pretty well. My car had 3800 miles on it when I picked it up. It was silver with black interior, 3.6l V6 with 6 speed trans, 2LT options, etc. I built one out just like this, and it came to a little under $25,800. I'd been wanting to try one of these for a while now, so here's what I came up with (and it's quite different from Rob's experience!).... For starters, I think it's an outstanding looking car. It looks unique, and it's not awkward from any angles. The suspension tuning is superb. This baby just glides down the highway; it's so, so smooth. The handling is quite good. Body roll is almost nonexistent. The seats are awesome; they make me think of a German car. They are nearly rock hard and quite supportive. The steering is a bit numb at turn in; surprise, surprise, a GM with numb steering???? The sound isolation is great since it had laminated glass everywhere but the rear windshield; it was extremely quiet 90% of the time (more on that later). This car had power pedals and no sunroof, so I was quite comfortable due to the abundant head and legroom. Hiproom was great too which surprised me since the car looks to be quite narrow. Only real annoyance I had with the interior was that the gear shifter was located too close to the power outlet in the dash, so you can only have something in that outlet when the car is in drive....so annoying. The dash looked great too, great form and great function. Ergonomics were great for me. I loved the little details like lights built in to the interior door handles in the front, and two blue-green lights that shoot down to light up the console area at night. The AC is powerful without being deafening which is tough to find! The stereo was average, but good enough. Power from the efficient 3.6 VVT engine is smooth, plentiful, and quiet. The 6 speed is smooth, and what was really cool, in manual mode, it truly acted like a manual. You put it in 6, and it isn't going to downshift until you hit the paddle shifter. Being able to force the car in 6th gear was really nice when you go up hills so that it doesn't downshift in to 5th. Drive by wire was quite good. It seemed that regardless of how I drove the car, it always got right around 28mpg, calculating the numbers myself. The onbaord computer always added about 1 mpg to the pen and paper calculations. Top speed of this beast is a measly 115mph. The brake pedal feel is outstanding. The pedal was quite firm but never over-sensative. And, the other shoe drops. This car could easily be a grade A+ automobile, but the build quality is only slightly better than mediocre even though the materials are good to excellent for the price of the car. The front passenger's door was loose. When the door is shut, gently pressing on it, it would move a 1/4" or so. I'm sure this contributed to the wind-noise. There were some intermittent rattles too--could have very well been my laptop and luggage in the back seat. There was a rattle in the front passenger side, but it was a speaker. The doors open very wide. I've got long arms, but it was still a reach for me if they were open all the way. It was pretty difficult getting in and out of this car. The door on the ashtray was broken when I got the car. So that's pretty much it. It all comes down to a fantastic looking and driving $25k family sedan with some little issues due to careless UAW assembly. I'd certainly consider this car against the new Sonata and Taurus. Wow, I didn't have any of the problems you had Robert! Your car must have been a lemon. I did have a problem with one of my doors, although it would open and close smoothly and quietly. I didn't have any trouble with engine vibrations, throttle lag, blind spots, seat heaters, wandering/getting blown around by the wind (and I had some wind in NM and W Texas), wide turning circle (mine needed two lanes to make a turn--on par with just about every car I've driven that was this size.), and what really blows me away is that I found this car spacious and roomy and I'm much larger than you! You can't blame the wedgies on the Malibu....that's what you get for wearing boxers!! Some pics and videos.... Light up door handle: Start up sequence

Thanks so much yall!

Certainly, the factory repair manual for my former '95 says that the coolant only needs to be ethylene glycol type; never do they make any reference to a specific brand or color coolant. I'm sure if the engineers thought the green coolant was going to harm the engine/radiator/etc., they'd say to use only the red Toyota coolant. The doom and gloom stories about what might happen if you don't use the Toyota coolant are somewhat comical to me since I've had green coolant in my past '95 for over 150k miles with no cooling issues at all--it'll idle all day long in 105* with the ac going without over heating. Around here, green coolant is less than half the price of Toyota coolant even if you buy it at the Toyota dealer.

I agree. When I replaced the wires in my old '95, I went with OEM, and the fit was too perfect to consider any other option. The OEM wires are not just a bunch of wires in a box like you get with most manufactures.

Thanks JA!! I miss my 95; it was just a wonderful, tough old car. I drove it up to Dearborn, MI last summer, and there aren't many old cars I'd want to try that in. I look forward to seeing how far this '99 can go since we all know the non vvt-i 1uz-fe can do 300k-500k miles with no problem at all. I, too, am amazed that my almost 10 year old car still looks so new! B) LOL Sounds like you had a great party planned out! I'm surprised and not surprised at the same time that I bought another LS. The only other car that trips my trigger is the diesel W211 E class, but the used ones are still >$30k. Plus, I know what's going to go wrong with the LS since I've had a model that is pretty similar for 4+ years, and that is a HUGE benefit. I think my '99 is just a tiny, tiny bit more comfortable than my '95 since the leather is much, much, much softer, so I can sink down in to the seat a little more. Thanks! That's too bad you had to get rid of your '00 LS, but it sounds like you will be back in one pretty soon!! B) I agree that the LS loves miles! I'm hoping to spend some time on the car today or tomorrow, and polishing the tops of the headlights is on the list! The green doesn't really bother me, plus if someone finds it too much, you can turn it off. Thanks Steve! Thanks! :D Aww, I would have loved to have sold the car to a fellow club member. I had intentions of putting it in the buy and sell forum, but I just never thought that it was going to sell as quickly as it did. What's odd is that the guy who bought it bought it because his Honda had a blown tranny (he said $2,000+ in repairs) and decided to replace the car instead of repairing the Honda.

Thanks Ralph! Hopefully, before the summer is over, we can find the time to check out each others new LSs! Interesting points, and I have to say I mostly agree. However, one thing that I hated about my '95 is that the little crevice where the time and temp were was just a big dust collecting pit, and I think you are right about the colors of the text display, but it sure is a fun toy to play with when you're on the highway! I wasn't interested in nav either, thanks to my Garmin.If you like the X50, then, you'd like the V1 since I find that they are very similar except the V1 has the wonderful arrows. B) I always laugh when I see people who have their radar mounted at the lowest possible point on the windshield. I keep mine to the right of the rear-view mirror, nice and high.

Congrats!! B) There's nothing better than a road trip in a new car too!

That's what I'd want too. It's a real shame Vaistech doesn't make adapters for our LS400s.

Thanks Bren!! Thank ya Ed! I'm curious, what are the two things you'd take from the 95-97? I've been using my dad's (while he is out of town) V1 radar that I bought him for Father's day, and it makes me sad to go back to my arrow-less X50!! hehe I'm 6'4" without shoes and would take the extra headroom over the sunroof any day of the week. I greatly prefer the ac to open windows unless the weather is perfect, and that's very, very rare here in Louisiana. I know that it is next to impossible to find a LS without a sunroof, so I just live with it. Thanks BT! Thanks David! :D Thanks Ray! Couldn't agree more! Thanks Jordan! I sure this one will be as good as my '95...I'm glad that the starter was just done, that's a relief! I'm looking forward to bringing this car up to 300k+ miles! I was hoping that this 5 speed was going to have a real overdrive, but no dice. It's still 2,400-2,600 rpms for 75-80 mph. Passing on two lane roads with the extra hp is more exciting though! haha B) I sold my '95 for $2600. I don't know if that's good or bad since it's not everyday that a super high mile car sells. If I remember correctly, KBB says $2500 or $2600 is trade in value. I wanted at least $2k for it, so I was happy with $2600. I was asking $3,000, and the guy wanted me to come down since the windshield was pretty bad and the tilt steering gear was stripped. I was fine with that. I knew that the windshield needed to be changed, but I never bothered since the cracks didn't bug me, and I knew that if I'd have a new glass installed, a day and a half later, I'd get hit by a rock on the interstate.

I started a thread explaining it so that I don't hijack this thread any further... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=49823

I wasn't really looking for a new car, but my friend was having a tough time getting the money he wanted for his '99 LS, and told me that if he's going to get screwed, he at least wants the car going to someone who will take care of it and enjoy it, someone like me. I've always loved the 98-00 styling. It's probably my favorite design Lexus has put out, so I couldn't resist taking it off is hands. He had it in the newspaper for $10k, but I bought it for $8k. The '99 had 161,0xx miles on it when I bought it 2 weeks ago, and I'm now at 163,000. For the options, it has the cd changer, factory xenon lights, and sadly, the sunroof. It's my favorite color too, mystic gold. It really suits the LS quite well since it is an understated and very elegant color. The tires, timing belt, starter, and rear main seal are all less than a year old. I was surprised that I sold my old '95 so quickly. I wasn't in a huge rush to sell it, so I put it on craigslist first since it is free to list there. I sold the car to the first guy I was able to meet up with (6 days in to the craigslist posting). She had 315,0xx miles on it when I handed the title and keys over. It was a truly wonderful car; it served me extremely well during the 4 years I had it. Here's the new '99 about a week after I bought it.....

Ya b*stard....That is the one I was going to buy if I think it is the same one. When I made it to Covington the guy was like, oh I just sold it to a guy from North Louisiana....LOL Blake's think alike. LOL that's too funny! Yep, that sounds like the same car since I do live in North Louisiana. I am friends with the seller, so I guess that's why I got a good deal! You wouldn't have liked this one though, no heated seats!! ;) hehe

No way would I pay that for a '97. I just bought a very nice '99 with 160k miles in Covington 2 weeks ago for $8,000....