nc211

Hahhaa... They're the two drunks on the back, saying "fish on, fish on"!!

Hahaha! How do you miss $2 Trillion dollars! I like your posts Lex! I wouldn't necessarily say we've been spending too much for the past TWO decades, just the last decade. Remember, when Clinton left office, we actually had a surplus! But, Bush gave it away as a "stimulus" right before 9/11 happened. There's simply no way to avoid the raising of taxes on anyone over the $100k mark anymore for a while. Those above that threshold in the 90's will certainly say how painful it was. But, the end result was a surplus. I'll tell you the thing that is also starting to tick me off, and I predicted somewhere on this forum earlier, is the fracturing of the security departments (DEA, FBI, CIA, NSA) to a point where neither one trusts the other and can't/won't talk to them anymore. That's exactly what's going on now with the CIA and this witch hunt from Congress. We're going RIGHT BACK TO the Clinton days, which in some part, is to blame for the allowance of 9/11 to have ever been pulled off in the first place. Bush was spot on the money, spot on the damn money, to clean up the lines of communication between the agencies and to remove that cloud of red tape b/s that Clinton had put into place between them all. They all have the same goal = protect the country. But, if one knows something, and the other has the ability to do something about it, then why in the heck shouldn't the one who knows, have the ability to call the one who can, without having that Condor looking crook of a !Removed! !Removed! Pelosi in the middle of it? That woman makes Celine Dion look like Robert E. Lee, and coming from me, that says something!

I like it, I think it's leaning more towards the "stately" side of it's heritage. I'm still not in awe of this design for the LS though, as I still think it mirrors other models too closely. I don't think I could see myself being lured into one. Now, the smaller IS, that's a different story....after we "escape" Chicago in another year or so, I could see a used IS350 with about 30k on the clock in my garage.

The mark levinson is like the old Nakamachi head units in the LS400. You could have the standard Pioneer system in the LS, or you could have the upgraded Nak system. It's all in the ohm's of the speakers, and the tuning "and imaging" of the sound. I had the standard Pioneer system in my LS, and now have the mark levinson in the GS. The standard, in my opinion, was more "meaty", as where the mark levinson is more "crisp". My LS was two speakers up front, two in the back, and the sub along the back deck. My GS is two in the front, two in the back, sub on the back deck, and a "centering" speaker in the front dash about the stack. I must admit, the imagery of the mark levinson is simply fantastic!

Bingo! I mean seriously, as small as this world is, with all of it's technology "fish finders, submarines, sonar machines, etc", wouldn't cha' think we'd of found this thing by now! And, seriously folks....a white, bullet shaped object, in water, doesn't ring a bell? "Oh, wait, it could be a boat?" I mean, boats are white....boats have rounded front ends with perfect 90 degree rear corners....and stir up the water with their props and bow/stern thrusters....And if that thing really is over 60 feet long, you know that sucker has at least three engines in it! My my my.... and I'm not even drunk at the moment! Guess I picked the wrong day to stop huffing model glue!

Oh my god....how freakin' stupid can people be?!?!?! Here's a little editorial to the following article that was actually posted on foxnews.com today... "and, there appears to be two drunk dudes standing on its back". Witnesses also confirmed that Nessie has learned how to speak english over the past 4000 centuries, as they all confirmed hearing the same thing..."Fish on, Fish on the line!!" Proof That the Loch Ness Monster Exists? Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Print ShareThis Google Earth Jason Cooke spotted "Nessie" while browsing the Google Earth's satellite photos. This amazing image on Google Earth could be the elusive proof that the Loch Ness Monster exists. Sun reader Jason Cooke spotted "Nessie" while browsing the Web site's satellite photos. The shape seen on the surface of the 22-mile Scottish loch is 65ft long and appears to have an oval body, a tail and four legs or flippers. Some experts believe Nessie may be a Plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile with a shape like the Google image. "This is really intriguing. It needs further study," said researcher Adrian Shine, of the Loch Ness Project. Sightings have been claimed for centuries.

It's all nickles and dimes at this point. If one has them cheaper, but located further away from you, then it's in the shipping costs, etc... parts.com has the front pads for a 98' LS for $51.80. Struts for $151.60. But, check the shipping costs....

I would make sure the 90k service was done at the dealership, INCLUDING the water pump and timing belt. Some 90k's just "inspect" those two parts. I've found most LS's for sale in the 100k mileage mark are being sold because the current owner doesn't want to spend the $1,500 on the service. Other than that, I'd just have it looked over by a lexus tech and adjust your offer price accordingly.

Good point LexLuthor, I hadn't thought of that before! ;) Below is a welcoming snippet from Bloomberg today, talking about how out of whack the price differences are between natural gas and oil. They say gas is so cheap because of new production fields coming on line now. They also say the gap is sure to narrow, but don't know which one will move (gas up, oil down). But my guess, is since more gas is being produced (hence supply and demand), then oil will be the likely component to move... Record Oil-Gas Price Ratio May Be Set to Narrow: Chart of Day By David Wilson Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil has become so expensive compared with natural gas that the record price ratio between them probably won’t last, analysts say. The CHART OF THE DAY shows the prices of these commodities since 1990, when natural-gas futures started trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in the top panel. The ratio between them, which closed at a record 26.4-to-1 last week, appears in the bottom panel. The ratio has more than tripled this year amid a 67 percent increase in crude prices, bolstered by speculation that Chinese demand will climb. Gas prices have fallen 48 percent on reduced demand from industrial companies and the start of production at new U.S. fields. “History clearly suggests that the price gap will eventually narrow, through some combination of oil prices falling and natural-gas prices rising,” Donald Marron, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in an Aug. 21 posting on his blog.

All seriousness though, you'll enjoy the LS on the open road, where it's really meant to be! When was the last time you had the tires balanced? If it's been a while, you might want to swing by a hunter shop and have it done. You can find one here at www.gsp9700.com! My wife and I took our old 95' from Raleigh to Key West and back in 2005. We had to flee Key West due to a hurricane. We sat on A1a bridge for 4 hours while water spouts kept dropping on the road about 10 miles up. It was, intense, to say the least. The car did great! We also took it back and forth to Savanaha, GA, and up to Hershey Park, PA. Great road car! Watch out fo' this guy too....

Road trip? Did somebody say Road Trip? Your cousin wouldn't happen to be Fawn Lebowitz would it?

Thank you sir, may I have another! All we want is a phone that doesn't look like it was made by Fisher Price!!! ARGHHH!!

First: TexusLexus, great call on the Honda! You'll love it! My wife's family have been Honda Civic fans for years, with an aggregate mileage count on four civics of over a million miles! They live in the country, and work in the city. Lots of driving.. Three positive elements of benefit from the CFC program have been generated. First, a STRONG sign of pent-up demand exists out there from the buying community to spend some dollars, as evidenced by a program that was meant to last through the end of November on a $1b allocation, but lasted no more than 10 days. Second, ever been sitting at the stop light with a 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 spewing blue smoke in your face? Well, got some of those off the road. Third, less burden being placed upon the oil and gas supplies via more effecient vehicles replacing less effecient ones. I understand the negativety of destroying what some deem to be a perfectly good car. But you have to ask yourself "what's wrong with that Volvo they're destroying to make the owner accept only $4,500 for it?" Maybe it had 300k miles on it and was starting burn oil? Maybe that classic Landcruiser could not stop leaking oil all over the pavement from it's transfer case, and required a $4,000 repair? Do I think some abuse has occurred? Oh hell yes, you'd have to live in la-la land to think it wouldn't. But, do I think the vast majority of the transactions that occured under the CFC program were legit? Yep, absolutely. Get that stinkin' Delta 88 out of my face and replace it with a Civic. The American car makers not making a profit from this: That's their own stinkin' fault! Hey, you think I give a rip if Chevy is sitting there, crying because that dude who's making his ends meet is taking his 1999 Tahoe with 110k miles on it(with it's 7th alternator, 3rd transmission, 6th power steering pump, leaking door seals, busted switches, blown a/c motor) to a Honda dealership and not back to another Chevy dealership? Those boys have no one, and I mean no one, to blame but themselves for putting out crap products for sooooo many years. Like hell if I'd sign up for another round of that kind of build quality again, especially when I've just been given a ticket to get out of the maintenance hell I've been in for so long! I don't have a say if they get my tax dollars on a loan from the government. But i do have a say what gets to sleep in my garage at night. And, it ain't gonna be something that does nothing but nag nag nag me for attention that I don't have to give! AND I personally love Tahoes, and would probably have one if my common sense would get drunk enough to let me! Do I think that some folks have bitten off more then they could chew financially with this program? Probably. But that's no different than any other time in history. Banks will always have repo'd cars sitting out back, no matter what the economy. Comparing this to the housing bust is apples and oranges. The housing bust was caused by an over supply of new homes hitting the market and a rampid price escalation that couldn't be sustained. Eventually, the buying public couldn't ignore the fact that they could either buy that 15 year old home for $200k, or that brand spankin' new one across the street for $215k (and declining). Too many homes were built, which contributed to the already artificially inflated values (thanks to cheap and easy money) to pop. To conclude my activity on this thread: I say to those who used the program, excellent job, you made the right choice. To those opposed to it due to cost: What's $3b in a pond of $7 trillion. We're all going to be speaking Chinese soon anyway, might as well get a new car out of it!

Well, you have to remember the general purpose of forums like this though, which are to discuss problems and compare solutions from other owners. Your question also depends on what year of car you're talking about too. We, being the members on here, are going to be useless to you if we don't know what year and mileage area you're talking about...

I read on there website that a data plan is required for the i-phone for the entire 2 year contract, and can't be cancelled. Please note: Data plan for iPhone is required for the life of your iPhone service and cannot be removed in the future. I'm getting the feeling from my wife that the i-phone, although very cool, is probably overkill for what she wants. She wants something that she doesn't feel like she has to "take care of". Something that can get some baby drool on, scratches and nicks, and so forth. The iphones are so nice and flawless, you almost feel uncomfortable taking it out of the box. And if something were to happen to it, I doublt we could replace it for $100, and if she doesn't like it and wants her old flip phone back, I'm stuck with the data plan. When you ad a protective cover to the iphone, then it becomes a little too bulky for her likes.

Alright fellas, we're heading into September...the last month of the $150/barrell future contracts from last year should start to burn off.... we should start to see if some of these predictions are right soon.... I'm beginning to wonder if the sense of panic from Congress to get these massive bills pushed through in record time aren't a signal that they know something huge in the economy is about to shift.. could this be it? Fingers are crossed....

I'd put that $2k away in the bank for when repairs are needed. If all that has needed to be done in 165k miles is lower ball joints....then I'd expect a few items to surface in the not too distant future as well.

Thanks guys. Everyone I've talked to that has one of these i-phones, says the same thing "I love it, can't imagine not having one". I've got a blackberry for work (actually my 3rd, as the other two were met with an untimely and intentional death...who knew the damn things don't float?" Me personally, I don't mind using it as a cell phone too. But beyond the email and the occasional cell phone use, the only other use I've had for it that was useful was to check the weather radar via the web. I take it with me whenever we travel, and if I see some storm clouds on the horizon, it's nice to pull up accuweather and see the radar to know what I'm heading into. We'll see what happens. They do have that $99 Iphone now, it's the 3g, not the 3gs, which I think would be fine for her. I absolutley agree about the added "data plan" costs. It's $30 a month for the iphone, ontop of the normal plan fees. I just don't think she'll actually use it though for what it's intended for. We've got so many different ways to communicate these days, that adding another beyond a normal cell phone, just seems somewhat redundant. We're starting to look at Verizon instead of AT&T, as they seem to have an endless list of normal flip phones.... We'd miss the "roll over" program, but with the "family and friends" program, we might not be any better or worse than we are with ATT.

The Obama administration on Tuesday increased its 10-year budget deficit projection to more than $9 trillion, an increase of about $2 trillion that is blamed on the bleak fiscal picture and the practices of the previous administration. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/25...icits-trillion/ Ok, I'm getting a little tired of the "it's not my fault, it's Bush's" excuse. How can Obama blame an estimate "which we all know will change a thousand times anyway" on a number a DECADE in the future, on a previous administration? Especially given the utter fact that Obama's shop is spending trillions and trillions of dollars on expanding the government? This.....is the cost of what I've been saying to watch out for....the running of the corner office, from the oval office. There is a reason why Washington DC's commercial real estate market is the best in the nation....because the government is expanding so quickly that they're leasing up any vacant space they can get! Here's a suggestion, Mr. President: Have a little faith in the private sector (the nation for which you represent on an international stage) to know what needs to be done to fix the problem. Yes, we have a problem. Yes, the vast majority of the private sector participants are to blame. But, as history always shows "talking to you Peanut Farmer Boy, Jimmy Carter", injecting government into the middle of the process of correction, only makes it worse. Bush is retired. Time to stop pointing your right index finger at him as the excuse, as you're signing multi-trillion dollar bills with your left. Slow down, or you risk losing the confidence of the american public. You've already ticked off the vast majority of the business community with your "It's me or the pitchforks" attitude. He has less than 36 months to prepare to answer the inevitable question from the Republican's front runner of "Hey America, how ya' doing?" Using the "I inherited this problem" excuse won't hold water then, because most americans will remember a time when they could buy a house without having to make their 10 year old child a co-signer. They're remember a feeling of security from the international threats that Bush was very good at protecting us from. They WON'T remember the bad, because the memory plays that trick on a person...it only remembers the good. It's just human nature. I have this sinking feeling we're heading for a 1980-1982 "double dip" recession. I use to think we were more like the 90-92' recession, where commercial real estate was to blame due to over building "much like this one is to blame for the residential real estate market overbuilding". But, something is off. Something doesn't jive with that thinking anymore.... I know what it is....do you? It's OIL. True, oil spiked in 90-92' due to the first Gulf War. But, it eased up when things calmed down over there. It better ease up now, and soon, otherwise when inflation hits, and oil is still in the $60's+ range...it'll go through the roof and we'll be way worse than we were this time last year! OK, rant done....sorry..

Hmmmm....good point 1990! Question, I'm looking at ebay now, and see what looks like several I-phones, but they're called i68, and i9, etc.... are these Iphones, just model numbers of the latest releases?

Ok, so my wife and I bought a pair of those skinny Motorola Razor phones two years ago, my blue, here's pink. Mine is fine, but her's has seen a better day. Our two year contract is up this week, and she wants a new phone. We're with ATT, have been forever and a day when they use to be Cingular. I offered her this weekend to pick any phone she wants, no matter the cost, and I'll buy it for her. She said "I just want a phone". Well, I go to the ATT store at lunch, looking for a phone that she might like. And wouldn't you know it.....not a damn "phone" in the bunch! Well, I take that back, there were a couple of flip phones, if you're 10 years old, or heading to Tehran for a Christian Bible Study class. I asked the DORK who was shadowing me like a tick on a dog's !Removed!, "don't you make these anymore?" at which point I pulled out my blue Razor phone. He said "no, dude, that's old school". What a FREAKIN' IDIOT! At which point, he proceeded to point to his hoopty-hoochie-pimp mobile 1999 GS300 all ghetto'd out and said "you need to set up dat' GS you got like my whip". I kid you not, I looked at that freakin' moron with a stare along the lines of "oh, you have got to be sh'tn me. How in the hell do YOU have a job in this world?". Anyway, enough of the rant.... Anyone here have ATT? Anyone have an Iphone, or something similar? Are they really worth all the hype? Or in a real world setting of a busy mom who will most likely drop this thing a million times, are they more "status" symbol then anything else? My wife's not going to be downloading the latest Coldplay video, or tweetin' her peep-!Removed!-!Removed!, or anything like that. It's a damn phone, with maybe some internet to check flight schedules and weather. That's it. I don't have enough time to keep up with all the maintenance of all the other b/s "cool" crap I've acquired over the past few years as is. Oh, and don't even get me started on all the required "packages" to make these stupid things work. Who in the hell needs to watch TV on their phone? ARGHHHH :chairshot::chairshot: No wonder half of these kids are fat, lazy sacks of jello these days! Hell, if the remote doesn't work on the TV, then just turn the channel on your phone! Sorry...can't stop ranting. Feel like I've just lost an hour of my life at my local idiot-emporium that I'll never get back. I swear...sometimes in life you hit these moments in time that make the easiest of tasks, the hardest.

Ok, now this can get very expensively out of control if you simply take it to someone and say "it creaks". Since you're new to this type of car, let me help you to make sure you don't make this very common mistake. You're a Lexus Service Center's favorite customer if you go in saying that. Three items come to mind that would cause this, non all that expensive to fix. Ranked in order.... 1. Rear sway bar bushings, a $20 part that you can change yourself. If you look under the rear of the car, between the wheels and the bumper, you'll see your sway bar running from side to side. Look for the two U shaped clamps that connect it to the underside of the car. You'll see each has a rubber housing underneath that U clamp. That's your bushing. It can get dried out by heat/salt air/extreme cold/ or just age in general. Undo the two bolts holding the U clamp, pull the old one off, grease up a new one, and install. THIS is the most common cause for these types of noises in the back (and front actually). It's lucky number #13 in the attachment below. 2. Rear carrier arm bushings. Look right in front of the rear wheels. Do you see a rod that connects to the car in a forward manner? It's #8 in the attachment. At some point, this "rear carrier bushing" will go bad on you, because it take the brunt of the forward torque when you gas it. There are aftermarket bushings that can be pushed into this little hole. I think they're called ASUS bushings. Many dealers have them handy for about $50 bucks. 3. Your upper strut mounts. This is a little tricker, and not easy to get to, as you have to remove the back seat of the car. They, too can dry out in the heat and such. This is #7 in the attachment. But you will mostly find that your fronts will wear out long before your rear's do. But they too will give a creaking noise, and sometimes a faint "pop" noise when going about 20-30 mph and hit a jagged bump. Mostly in the mornings though when it's cooler out. So, chances are you're probably #1 at this point. A good way to tell is to simply hit that bushing with some lubrication and see if it stops the noise. Maybe worth a few minutes and some WD40 to see if it makes an impact. How many miles do you have on the car? So they're ya' go! Don't....go...to...the....stealership.....with this, unless you feel you need to loose $700 or so. by the way...these diagrams, and parts, can be found at www.parts.com. PS: If this doesn't work, then I'd just tell the wife to ride in the trunk! That should do the trick too!! HAHAHA

I can understand the screen concern, certainly. It is smaller, but me personally, I haven't had any issued with its size though. Our desktop has duel 17' flat panel screens, and when I use that thing, my head hurts! One option to get around the small screen though, is to simply connect a monitor to it. If you've got an extra one at the office, that's be all you'd need. Hook up a usb keyboard and usb mouse, and you'd basically have a desktop computer the size of a pocket book. But, if you need constant access to a cd player, then you don't want to go this route. The wireless setup I was talking about earlier is great for those one-off situations, like installing something. If I had to go up and down those stair all the time to change out the cd for the netbook to access, I'd go nuts (more so than I already am, which is saying something!) Lenovo has a netbook for about the same price as the Acer, and it's even slimmer and made of a higher quality case. I think they make some great stuff too. They're IBM's old retail division. You agree Kyle?

We bought one of those Acer Netbooks last Christmas. I also rebuilt our home computer with upgraded motherboard, processor, ram, etc, around that same time. Since we got the netbook, we barely even use the desktop. We love it! It IS a normal computer in every way, except for the lack of a dvd/cd player, or floppy "A" drive. BUT, there is a very easy way to get around that, if you have a wireless setup in the house and another computer with those devices "like a desk top". I was able to set up a wireless home network between the Acer and the desktop. This set up basically makes the desktop the slave computer for the netbook. If I need to install software "like Office Pro or Photoshop", all I have to do is put the disc in the desktop computer, and click on the shared cd:rom icon on the netbook. It installs the software wirelessly from the desktop to the netbook. You can turn on/off anything that you want to "share" between computers, making one an extension of the other. The mobility of the netbook can't be beat. It can fit in my wife's purse! We've never had a problem with it, other than some update a couple weeks ago that killed the wireless connection. But, that turned out to the be the security software's fault, as the update tripped the firewall. If you've got a setup like mine, then I think you'd be very happy with it. All you need to make a netbook a fully functional real-deal computer is another machine with wireless ability that has a cd player to use to install whatever you want on the computer! Can't argue with $300 bucks either. And the mobility of them are simply amazing. It fits in my wife's purse with no problems. The only time we use the desktop now, is to support the netbook. I think I've turned it on maybe 10 times since we moved to Chicago. PS: It's faster than our desktop too.

Happy Birthday amigo!