blake918

Welome aboard!! Have any pics of your '430?

I too was a little dumbfounded that they put bondo on my LS4. It was an $1850 job, but their labor rates were in line with the other shop I spoke with. They used a Lexus dealer that charged them $725 for the lower cladding. :o As a follow up on the defective work the shop did, I brought it to them Monday morning, and I had the car back by lunch time. They buffed the scratches and somehow they are completely gone. I want to call the shop back to find out what products they used. There was some white paste residue near the grey cladding. What do yall think...a really strong compound with a rotary buffer?? The work done to my car now looks great!!

I'd rate the rest of the wheel as mediocre at best. About 6 months into having the new wheel, it started to develop these little white specs; I tried everything to get them off, but nothing seemed to work. I have no idea! I was browsing their website, but they don't make any specific claims to one, but they did quote that less than 1% of the wheels they do come back for warranty work. That does inspire some hope! Hmmm...I guess I just had some bad luck. I'll keep yall posted! When I saw you as the last responder, I figured your teeth were probably cringing!! lol I remember the enthusiasm I had; I dug up the old thread to remind myself what I paid for it during my intial rant. lol I paid a little over $305 for mine, so I'm sure you were looking at $400+ for the wood inserts. I don't find that my hands sweat a lot-it's kinda hard when I never set the a/c over 70 lol- or are very oily. I've been gripping the 10 year old wheel in my LS for the past 21k miles, and it shows no signs of wear whatsoever. The leather from AS seems to just have fallen apart. You can see on my old wheel that it gradually broke down...you can see the frayed edges...this one seems to have cracked away. Here's the link to my origional post. The second page has the best pics.... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...topic=3464&st=0

I had American Stitches recover my steering wheel a little less than a year and a half ago(August '03). Just recently, I noticed that the work they've done is looking like sh$t. The leather is actually chipping off the top. I don't wear rings or any kind of jewelery that could cause damage like this. Not to mention the color match from the get go sucked big time. I bought a wheel for my LS from a junkyard and wish I did the samething for my ES; no to mention it was about a third the cost of AS, and it still looks great after almost the same time. I've sent AS an email to see how this situation can be rectified. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up...

Yeah, it's very cool!! :D

New Orleans saw it's frist bit of snow in about 15years, and it just so happened to come down on Christmas day! ... ^that's an interesting ice formation on the bumper of my ES. lol ^nice sized chunks of snow considering it was 80degrees 2 days before ^I love this pic!...it's the L on the hood of my ES ^I aspire to be the Toyota freak my neighbor is(4Runner, Highlander, LC, and a sweet RX)!!

Thanks for your support Andrew!! I know the joke was made on a very high intelectual level, but atleast you(and the others in this post) caught it too! lol not to mention the smilie " " and the "all joking aside" part. I can fathom what Denny is going through. My family has 6 cars; our house only has a 2 car garage, so it's not always as easy as pulling the car inside.:chairshot: My nieghborhood has specific rules about building a warehouse/6 car garage on one's property. Your generalization about an owner not caring for their car because it isn't in a garage is anything but the truth. Besides, if Denny did want to poision the pests that are irritating him, a shovel and garbage can were invented quite some time ago, so he could dispose of the rodents and what not. I have to agree-fly !Removed! is probably pretty disgusting under a scanning electronic microscope.:whistles: Don't you think Denny would have pulled his car in if he had the space?? Save your condescending remarks for other people; this kind of bs is not tolerated by LOC's members administrators, managers, and moderators. This is supposed to be a fun site; don't ruin it for us, please.

Take a look-see at the used LS400 buying guide pinned at the top of the LS400 page for everything you should check out on a used LS. ;)

I bought an OEM Lexus water pump from irontoad.com for $90 for my LS400 for it's second tb change at 235k; local dealer wanted $165...lmao. Monarch, the water pump is part of the timing belt service along with the tensioner and idler pullies. Dealers are actually looking out for their customers when they say that it needs to be changed! lol They aren't manditory, but on our LS's it's a 6-8 hour job(that's what the dealer will bill you for) to replace those items since they are burried under everything.

I got it right the first time!! lol I bought H4's for my '95's low beams as per VMF's recommendation which I later found out is what's printed in my owner's manual. I want to upgrade my fog's to PIAA also; I love my low beam Xtreme whites! The difference over stock is amazing-so much whiter and brighter! B)

We have a few computers.... -Apple Power Mac G4 Cube with 15" LCD--this thing is amazing, 100% satisfied. -HP Pavilion-don't know the #....pretty decent desktop. -Dell Inspiron 8600-real POS and would like nothing more than to set it ablaze to collect the insurance $$ under our homeowner's policy -Dell Inspiron 8500-cheaply done, but not as bad as many problems as the 8600 -Dell Inspiron 8200-same as above

The interior is simply amazing!! B) I can't wait to see what kind of demensions(head, leg, hip) the driver's area has. I'm seeing a little Maxima from the front with a hint of BMW 7 in the rear; somehow, the car looks pretty darn good with that combo! lol

Thanks! :D I always thought dual zone climate was kinda gimicky too(same can be said for heated mirrors, but I'll never buy another car without them. They are awesome at clearing everything-dew, ice, etc.), but I use it all the time in my LS, and I love it. I'm always hot, and most of my passengers are cold, so we get the best of both worlds since one side can be on heat while the other is ice cold(my side!).

Just curious, what kind of features does the Century have that your ES doesn't(I think dual zone climate might be one, yes?)? <_< ...even better is the radio display in size 16 font. lol 412k is quite a feat on origional pwrtrain!! My LS had better do atleast that. :)

That's a small price to pay to keep your car clean! lmao

Nick, I'm also the nonconfrentational type...most of the time! But, when I'm really put out, I'll speak up. When my LS was hit a few months ago, I got into it with State Farm because they wanted to stick me in a pos rental. I sternly told them that I'm 6'7(I'm really only 6'3, but it stretched it a little to make things sound more severe.), and a Cavalier simply won't do; not to mention that a $55k, Lexus flagship status LS was damaged, and they wanted to give me an economy car. They ended up paying for a LeSabre class car, so my 5 phone calls and raised blood pressure did pay off. Don't let them take you for a ride...you spent a lot of $$ on your CPO ES. Don't give up on your ES-she's not a lemmon; mine had about 5 different problems the first few months of ownership, but things have been perfect for almost 30k miles and 2 years now. Think of the dealer as robbing you and argue with them until they cave-you could have bought a nice, non CPO '98-'00 LS with a few more miles for what you paid on your ES. Telling them that you won't come get the car until other things are investigated is a good first step. Tell them what ever kind of stories you think are necessary(whether it's never comming back or anything else you can think of) until you get a new alternator. Don't let them tell you "to take a number." SK, I don't know if that's the right terminology; I thought that's what they told me at the dealer when I brought it. What was wrong with my ES when they told me I had a "bad spot" on the alternator...it acted normal almost all the time, but randomly, the battery discharge light would come on while driving and the battery would be dead when I'd go to start it. Other times it was totally fine-putting out ~13+ volts. The alternator acted like normal most of the time, but it was actually bad. If that makes any sense?? lol

I'd re-explain the issue you are having and tell them what you want done-a new alternator. Try to be polite first, but since they'll probably say no(from your experiences thus far), your car is fine, you'll probably have to argue with them until they give in....tell them you'll never buy or do service from them again, you'll call Lex corporate, etc etc. Or if they try to work with you, ask them if you could leave it with them for a x amount of days so that they can experience it themselves. Make them give you a loaner too; this is a CPO car-you shouldn't be going through this.

Nope, a spot won't show itself on an AutoZone/Lexus test; I tried both places. They are the same services, but one is free and the other costed me $100. Sadly, there isn't a sure fire way to tell if there's a spot on the alternator-I could be wrong, but there wasn't anything available when I had this problem.

The seagulls can be easily fixed once and for all...buy some bread and alka seltzer. Stuff the seltzer in the bread and despense. They'll only fly so far until their stomachs literally explode, and the seagulls fall out of the sky--no more bombings on your LS4. lol For the rodents, I suppose a high power pellet gun would do or some poison. All joking aside, you should get a group of homeowners that aren't happy with her and talk to her about stopping what she's doing. Maybe file a complaint with the police if talking to her doesn't work. Luckily, in our neighborhood, we have a handbook the size of an encyclopedia and an uptight homeowner's association to prevent crazy people from doing things like that.

An opposing view isn't the issue here. The war in Iraq has nothing to do with the tragedy they are experienceing in Asia. His post was just taking a stab at the Bush admin.

Just save yourself the hassel and get the alternator changed. You probably have a bad spot on it. I had a similar story for my '94 ES. A few times, I'd get in the car to go, but the battery was completely dead-click, click, click sound. It would be fine most of the time, then, in traffic or something, the battery malfunction light would come on; I would throw it in neutral and rev it to keep it running. The next day I made an appointment to have my local Lexus dealer trouble shoot; their service dept is pretty incompetent to begin with. They say "everything is fine." But a few days later, the same thing happens again. We changed the alternator and all has been fine since then. Good luck...

What a tragedy. :( Sadistic, I don't think it's just your opinion....and well said! ;) Most of us here aren't interested in this left-wing hogwash. Also, to instantly pass off the deaths of 25k people to take a stab at US foreign policy under the Bush administration is just pathetic.

I'd go for the '98-'99. To me, their looks will never get old. The only reason I'd go for the 430 is the vented seats because it gets so damn hot down here, but I'd save the extra $10k-$15k over the 430 and go with the 98-99. ;) I put 20k+ miles on my LS this year, and I've enjoyed every one of those miles...btw, '95 LS4 w/ 245k miles. B)

I agree with the others. Though, I think that the '00+ S class is a gorgeous car and is one of the two Mercs that I really want. Getting a flashy car to catch the attention of a !Removed! girl is a bad idea. I would hate the thought of being used for my money which is represented by an expensive car-it's not cool. Why chase a woman that just wants a relationship with your bank account??...she should want the relationship with *you.* Personally, I'm not very fond of the attention that I get from my Lexus. I just turned 18 a few months ago, but have been driving Lexus since I was 16. The stares at stop lights from other drivers, comments from friends, etc. it just gets old. People at school would rag on me all the time because of the cars I drive; I'd actually laugh at the comments I'd get since the money spent on the two Lexi is close to $20k which won't get you much in the new car market. If anything, I wish the Lexus wasn't regarded so well because of the flack I get because I'm so young, but I find that 20% tint gets the job done for me(I don't like a lot of attention drawn to myself or people staring at me). :D Luckily, my cars have never been vandalized(knock on wood, but that's what insurance is for should it happen. lol). The few millionares that I know don't drive the most expensive cars in production(contrary to popular belief); they have Lexus, Infiniti, and Lincoln in their garages, but their daily drivers are very old and undesierable-like old Accords, Chevy trucks, and Broncos. Go for the GS430! I've driven my neighbors '01 before, and it's just an awesome car-reliable, fast, sporty, and very nice looking in and out!! B) Lexus., I thought you dumped your '95 LS for a Sorrento, no?

Thanks guys for all of the info...I'm crossing my fingers that they'll get it right this time!! :D