blake918

AustinGT is not present in that thread. I'll search later when I get some free time. Austin is in there; see posts 16, 21, and 24 where he discusses the problems that he had with the fuel pump relay. ;)

Personally, I'd want someone who works only cars--my guy only works on cars. This is just me, but it seems like patching a hole in a sofa is quite different from patching one that is in a car. I was going to send my car to the dealer, but when I called to set it up, they gave me the name of the shop that they refer all of their customers to. This guy just so happens to be magical with auto upholsterey. Give your local dealer a call, they might be able to help you the same way that mine helped me. If not, ask some friends whose cars have leather or check your yellow pages. ;) I think your seat could go a while longer before needing serious attention, it just doesn't look that bad yet.....

Sure, that'd be an easy fix for any competnet upholstery guy. What they will do is remove that bottom seat cushion cover, remove the damaged panels, sew new leather in its place, and dye it all to match. I couldn't imagine that would be more than $100-$200 to fix your issue. I had some work done in my old ES that brought the interior back to showroom shape (there were gaping holes in the driver's seat before the work was done.):

If you are going for an Avalon, go for the '98+....they look so much better than the first half of that gen. ;) I think they are one of the only Toyotas that you can find with bench seats too--it's very rare to see in a Japanese car! Also, I'd run the opposite directo of a company/rental car. . .

That's it snugglebunnies, you've been warned twice, but you continue with your comments. As stated before, we will not tolerate this here, so this thread is closed, and we'll be in contact with you. Doug, I'm sorry that your thread has come to this. Please let us know when you find a replacement for your ES. ;)

actually, if you look closely, there are some similarities. But how much can you really change on a back of a large sedan.I'm not really seeing any similarities other than the Lexus, L, and LS badges on the top of the trunk lid. The tail lights have completely abandoned the style of the 400 and 430 that have subtle row and column dividers in them. The led third brake light is up at the top of the back windshield whereas it used to be at the bottom. We no longer have traditional dual exhausts; they've since adopted some heinous pass it through the bumper rice rocket style that has no place on a luxury car, imo. The overall shape of the rear is different. The trunk lid now dips in to the bumper which is new. This is what I'm talking about: . I don't really care for it, but it seems to be the new style. The trunk lid itself is slightly "Bangled" too.You can change the back of a large sedan a lot--almost everyone but Lexus and Jaguar radically change their car designs with each generation (740 looks nothing like a 745, S500 and S550, A8s, Q45s, etc.). I guess the lack of radical change over the past 17 years is making it so hard to accept the styling cues of the new 460.

On the wheel end. I'm having a hard time remembering all of this since it's been such a while, but it looks like the two bolts that were loose on my car hold the ball joint to the steering knuckle....

This is quite old, but we found this noise while installing new struts a little while ago. As it turns out the driver's side lower ball joint was very, very loose. I'm not sure how it got that way, but we fixed it before anything bad happened!

I like Volvos; some of the new ones like the S60, S80, and C70 look really cool! I don't think I'll ever get one though since I think you either have to be a college professor or a physician to actually get the dealer to sell you one. LOL I'm sure a Solara would be a great choice--but the exterior style looks a little odd to my eye. I'm sure I could get over it with the bolt on TRD supercharger! LOL Mustang GTs are actually very reliable provided that you find one that wasn't owned by a maniac. That's funny about the priest with the SL500 AMG! My uncle was a priest, and I think the rule is that as long as you don't take a vow of poverty you can buy and drive whatever you want. Their was a priest that used to speak to my school as a motivational speaker, and he showed up in a shiney new Jag XJ each time he came. LOL

:whistles: Well, since my tenure in office. LOL I know you were harassed on a regular basis to get carfaxs. I didn't know it was frowned upon either until I looked it up.

LOL I've only come across one in the LS forum, they are few and far between. And, now that there are decent number of mods, they are going to get closed very quickly! :D

That seems like an awefully high payout since the book values are in the $12-$15k range. Did you have to argue with them to get to $18,700? GS300s look and drive wonderfully, so that would be my first choice, but they are slow! LOL

You probably did see it on this site since we haven't had a full set mods in a while. I always close any of the carfax threads I see as well. ;)

Alex, my black '95 does bleed when I polish it. It sounds like there is nothing wrong with your paint since Lexus black does easily scratch and etch from hard water or bird droppings--that's the nature of the beast. My car looked horrible before I bought one of the Porter Cable buffers. Today, it looks 100x better than before, but it's not perfect--I'll say that I'm satisifed with the condition of the paint for it having 283,000 miles and a neglectful previous owner as well as some neglect of the paint from me as embaressed as I am to say that!Polishing is amongst the very first steps in the detailing process. It is very normal that your car's paint got hazy after only polishing it. It is important to use the least abrasive products first and work up from there to achieve the results that you are looking for so that you don't remove more paint or clear than you need to in the process. And once you find the right pad and polish combo, it is important to work your way back down in abrasiveness of the pads and polish to minimize haziness of the paint. Then, finish it off with some good coats of wax, and your paint should appear to be wet, deep, and reflective. After Steve convinced me that clear coatless cars are not the anit-Christ (that they are in fact easier to detail) and to buy a Porter Cable polisher, cleaning my car up was pretty easy. Here are a few pictures from along the way: Starting point: 250,000 some odd miles, hellatious swirls, etchings, chips, and just about every other paint defect known to man other than orange peel! A half and half. The left side has only one pass with the Porter Cable speed 6, yellow LC polishing pad, and SSR 3 polish: Here she is after my first full detail with the Porter Cable (probably from October or so of '05). The etchings are still there, but they are definantly less noticeable and the paint has much, much better depth and shine sans the oxidation and swirls. Sadly, I don't have any good current hood shots other than the one that's in the S&S forum--but I don't care for the dim lighting of that first picture. I'll be sure to photograph my next detail to show the progress. Trunk lid: Before: swirls, etchings, and just ugly..... And many, many hours of detailing later: I suppose one day down the line I'll have the car repainted (and the 2 tone is definantly staying!), that's if I decided to keep it long enough to recoup a $3k-$5k paint job.

Certainly! Moved to General Maintinance.... The prices you've found so far sound about right. If you like ebay, you can sometimes find good deals on there.

Hucked on Fonics Werked Fur Me, so give it another try! ;) IIRC he told me that he'll be back in September '07.

I couldn't agree more! ;) It's a shame the W220s are so troublesome because I don't think you'll find a better looking 4-door car out there. I have to agree with everyone else, Lexus dealer service is tops, but some dealers are much better than others.

Wes, you can't go wrong with either of them--they are both quality tires, they both provide a very smooth ride, have similar tread wear ratings, etc. Just flip a coin! LOLYou still thinking about a LS?

I'm much too lazy to argue about this--well, maybe that's a lie, I just don't care (they are not overloaded (load rating wise) nor do I exceed their limits.), so I'll leave this as it is. I'll post back from the hospital and let you say I told ya so when I blow these tires up and severely injure myself! LOL Pat, you'll love them. Just wait until it rains, they are fantastic!!

Other than relocating the seat, there isn't a whole lot you can do. I owned a '94 for a little while, and I've also driven/sat in all other generations of ESs (even the ES350), and I found them to all be equally small. If you're tall, Lexus isn't the best option for you, which sucks since they make such good cars.

The seatbelts don't unbolt until you take the bottom seat cushion out. ;) My bottom seat cushion comes out very easily (just a swift tug on the driver and passenger sides and it's out.)--and absolutely don't use a crowbar! Then you will see where to unbolt the seatbelts and the seat back. I think there are 4 bolts (driverside, passengerside, and each side of the arm rest) along the bottom, and 3 at the top (where Thread said they are, plus one more at the top of the arm rest compartment.

I was referring more to the interior than exterior. You slide your seat forward 4" or 5" from where you like it, and your car will become little as well! LOLOh no, I am well aware that most cars are not built to accomidate someone who is as tall as I am. However, it just pis#es me off that a little tiny car like a Jetta or Saab 9-3 has dramatically more head and legroom (enough for me to be very comfortable) than a car that is 2x its size, like, ohhh, let's say a LS. The seats in the S classes (and E's too) go all the way back, so Lexus, it's about time you do the same. I should write them a letter one day just to see what they say about this! LOL The Germans have a completely different philosophy as far as seat placement is concerned. They bolt the seat tracks to the side (not to the floor), and let the driver's seat slide 1/2 centimeter off of the back seat so that you can get a wide range of drivers behind the wheel. With the seat all the way back in my LS, there is still plenty of room back there which you'd never find in a S class. I was driving my uncle's E320 CDI the other day, and it was just bizarre to not be sitting on top of the dash while getting 30mpg! B)

I can tell you first hand that you don't have anything to worry about as long as you aren't on the Autobahn. I was going 85mph in the middle of no where, Arkansas when I swerved to miss a skunk. I, my tires, and car are all still here to tell the story--they performed flawlessly. Very, very rarely do I go more than 85mph, so having a tire that is capable of 150mph is very unimportant to me. The T and H rated Traction TA tires where the same price, the Z's were $5 or $10 more/tire. The T rated ones have greater tread ratings, so that's why I picked them.

I guess I'm going to add this to my to-do list as well! I don't what the technical term is (lateral support?), but the lack of support under my hamstrings near my knees is what does me in. I've driven with a little pillow under my right leg, and it helped, but then, my head was rubbing on the roof. You just can't win with these little cars. Several thousand dollars for two new Lexus seats. The leather covers alone cost in the thousands. I feel you pain, Craig! When I get out of the car, it feels like someone secretly replaced my legs with 2x4's when I wasn't looking. I look like a damn idiot when I get out the car--hobbling and limping while waiting to regain feeling in my legs (and it isn't a health issue because I've driven other cars for longer durations with no pain at all.). I'm still hoping that Lexus will one day build us a car that will accomidate guys up to 6'5 like the folks at Mercedes or Lincoln. I can appreciate that they don't want to spend the extra $20 in steel to extend the seat tracks and lower the seating position because most drivers are under 6' tall, but make it a special option package or something and charge through the roof for it because people would pay for it. I think the worst thing other than cars that aren't designed for tall people are airliners. It's just aweful no matter where you sit--I find first class just as uncomfrotable as coach, but at least you are taken care of in first. LOL

Thanks Ralph! I couldn't agree more about the self satisfaction; when my LS is clean, it ALWAYS drives more smoothly and quietly than when it was dirty! LOL :D I'm leaving to go on a road trip this weekend (and meeting up with a fellow LOC'er), so I guess that means I've got to go out there in the heat and start cleaning the car up again! haha