nc211

GM/Ford/DC have all been improving quality while Toyota is slacking off while focusing in on how to roll more cars off the line. A '97 Toyota Camry is far better than an '07 (I guess they're putting all of their money toward developing that silly looking Tundra.), but a '07 Tahoe is a far superior to the '97 in terms of quality. I agree with ya' there! I've read some articles in the Journal over the past few months about Toyota that makes me think they're going too fast to keep up their quality levels, and are struggeling a bit to keep that level of quality from the late 90's in play. With GM though from the 90's, all I can say is when you're on the bottom, there is only way to go! Hahaha. Kind of like my golf game. Dr. Phil Moment Warning:: In my opinion, being the best is not the best to be. You become the target for all others, and one mistep and you're smeared all over the place. It's like the straight A student who gets a B in one class, and gets grounded for it, vs. the C student who gets the same B, and gets rewarded for it! I had many friends who were A students that lost driving priveledges for B's, but me, being the C student, had a nice shiney red GTI, thanks to a couple B's here and there. Go figure?? And as time has gone on and we've grown into adults "sort of", I've found many of those high strung A students haven't done much better than some of those "average" C students. In fact, some have done much worse thanks to stressing to be #1 that cost them the oportunity to lead a team, due to poor people development skills.

A Lexus dealer service writer told me that this is a "feature" of the VVTi engine models beginning in 1998 to prevent valve damage until the engine has warmed up sufficiently -- usually within only a few blocks of driving. There is nothing wrong -- these cars did this in cold weather when brand new. I think that service writer was off a few years, as my 95 does this as well. Hahaha... The right thing to do to insure everything is ok on a cold car, is just give it a few minutes to warm up before heading out. I wait until the temp needle starts moving, then I go. Course my car is on it's 12th year of existance, so it needs a little help and extra time to deal with the arthritis. But once she's warmed up...she flies like a bullet!

Pusuit "nice boats by the way", I have a feeling you'll find all the answers and debates over this issue with the search option. We've all discussed this issue into the ground, and had a few debates over it as well. This is one of the most active topics on here. I believe the threads were all moved to the maintenacne section. But to answer your question about Mobile 1 synthetic....i use it too, and started around the 90k mark. They can cause leaks in the seals of your oil pan though, but it is rare. It just depends on the condition of that seal. I would also recommend doing a seach for Seafoam, as some of us "including me" have used the seafoam proceedure in our oil to clean up the inside of the engine right before we change the oil. Some have had positive effects, some have had no effects. I have had great effects from it. Just do a search, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the banter.

Great... more idiots on cell-pods on the road now. One has to ask him/herself, how much stuff do I really need to do with these gadgets? I mean my coffee maker we got as a wedding gift has a freakin' keypad! Latte mocha freako chapino rasta blend.... Huh? Just give me leaded coffee, you damn machine! But having said that, I too have a blackberry, cell phone, Nano and PSP in my briefcase. Nothing beats the PSP when you have to travel.

Good lord, does the ford design team need a stint in rehab or something? My deal with GM cars is in the lines of the assembly. What I mean is the way they're put together. We've had a few GM products in my family over the years, and every one of them had misplaced lines. Like the spaces between the sides of the front dash to the doors, one side would be 1/2 inch, the other maybe 1/8 an inch. Glove box alignments, that sort of stuff. I love the way GM cruisers drive, probably my favorite driving position of all time. I seriously hope they've refined their manufactoring skills though, and now produce a product that doesn't seem like it was thrown together. They needed to ditch the underlying motivation of "get out the door asap" and shift to "if it's not perfect, it's not going out the door" like Toyota has embraced. Infact, in a recent article where Ford said it would fight for every sale to keep Toyota at bay, Toyota's response was "our focus isn't to be #1, our focus is to ensure excellent product manufacturing abilities". Which, in my opinion, is the right answer and business model to have. Not "sell sell sell, cut prices, sell sell sell, cut prices, sell sell sell". So, I hope these new models from the American boys are more than just lipstick. GM's got some slick looking cars coming out, that is for sure! I can't wait to see the new Camaro in person! And the new Vette is exotic to say the least. I love the new trucks and Tahoes too. Looks like they're on the right path, just hope quality and integrity has come up a few notches. That's what will win the race. People would rather have a fully loaded solid 4 banger that never breaks, than a slicked back V8 that spends more time in the shop than on the road.

Our LS460L is nearing the 3,000 mile point. Our overall average is 18.1 mpg on a mix that is only about 15% highway driving and mostly shorter trips. We are thrilled with that average, not only because it will consistently go at least 400 miles per tank, but also because it's significantly better than our previous car. What's funny (in a way) is that our Honda Element (my work junker) is a car that you could park in Berkeley and get smiles. Park the Lexus there and you get frowns, as though you are personally responsible for the rape and destruction of the planet. In reality, once you get to 25% or more highway use the Lexus actually gets better mileage than the Element, which sticks right at 20mpg in the same usage pattern as our LS. Not to mention that fact that the LS ought to last about twice as long than the Element before heading off to that great recycling plant in the sky... Berkeley.... Jeezzz... I don't even know why those kids even go to college in the first place. I mean, they shun all elements of monetary success, which is a byproduct of a college education, most of the time. Hahaaa... 'Course, those old VW Microbuses are getting pretty expensive to restore, so maybe the point is moot. back to topic... i wouldn't worry too much about the low mileage of a new car, as it's probably just breaking itself in, and running rich. just my guess...

perfectly normal.... they all do that, the old ones and the new ones. let me guess, your rpm's are right in the 1400 range, and it likes to hold 1st gear until about 15 mph? perfectly normal.... might be intersted in doing a search for "drian and fill" though, to makes sure your tranny fluid is nice and clean. very simple proceedure to do, takes maybe 20 minutes. Welcome to the club!

glenmore....to answer your question simply.... yes, you should go ahead and change those two parts as well. Not that they're broken, but for the fact that since you're in there, you might as well replace them anyway. They do make a difference in the ride, or so I've heard, and quiet things down from the road. I wish I had replaced mine when I did my struts about 2 years ago. They're not that expensive, relatively speaking of course.

I have noticed over the past few months the parts catelogs have changed a bit, and some of the sketches are actually incorrect "strut rod for 95-00 is wrong". I think something has happened with Denso, maybe a buyout coming or something like that. I also think Lexus probably had some wiz-kid analyst figure out our secret, that buying a used LS is the best way to go since the parts aren't that much more expensive than a Chevy, if you know where to shop. OR, the rest of the dealerships who don't offer such deals online, but rather charge premium have complained loud enough to corporate that the online guys have had to make some changes, or face penalties from Lexus. Eitherway, the struts have gone through the roof, or so it appears. I would call them to verify before putting full faith in the websites now, as they seem to be a bit more "hit n' miss". I bought mine for like $58 each back in 04', from Homer "Army's hookup".

I know exactly what you're thinking, I have a can of that stuff too, and thought about using it as well. I wouldn't be so concerned with using it to clean out the steering fluid, since you can pull all the fluid out when you're done. But I'm not so sure I would use that stuff in the tranny, because it seems like a chore to get all the fluid out of there. I certainly wouldn't want seafoam running around my tranny for thousands of miles because I couldn't get all the fluid out. And, I'm not so sure I would want to put that additive in there for the sake of all the seals and such either. I remember I put some kind of slick 50 tranny junk in my 01' Maxima, and it made it act funny. I flushed it out after about 3k miles, but when it came time to turn it back in, at 46k miles, the tranny was slipping a little. I've never used it on the Lexus, and I won't, it still sits on the shelf. The power steering though, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot, and might do so this spring.

Cheetos & Beer...

Fahgetaboutit' & Why "pronounced" Waahhhiiiieeeee, waaahhhiiieeee waaaahhhhiiieeeee.

amf1932's patience....

He probably placed an order for an Aston Martin instead, since Ford owns them as well "for now anyway". I seriously doubt he'll be cruising around in the Escape, or Exploder.

I too notice quite a similarity in the avalons and older LS's, especially the head lights. I think it's just going to take some time for the market place to accept and get use to all the new toyota cars running around out there now. So many changes to so many models all at once, is sort of update-overload, especially when they were done with such similar "not same" design characteristics. My bet? Those of us who can't see the real uniqueness of the LS460 over the other models "me included" will probably be praising them in 5 or 6 years, sitting in our garages with 80k miles on them, as our "new" cars.

my ex-girlfriend

Anybody have any suggestions on fixing my sagging ebrake peddle? The gas shock has worn itself out, and was curious if anyone had any jerry-rig suggestions other than buying the new gas shock. I know we have some mod's for the hood shocks, just curious if anyone had one for the brake peddle too?

hernia check

I think the DVD player upgrade will have to be next year, becuase I gotta tell ya', 480i looks perfect to me already, I can't imagine how they could improve on that even more. It's just nice to be able to sit back and actually watch a movie now, instead of having to lay on the floor right infront of the tv to see it, thank to the letterboxing on all the DVD's now. Steve, I've got Time Warner coming out next weekend to hook up the digital cable, and a cable box. But, since I'm already receiving 480i and it says on the tv 1080i signal on the HD channels from my normal feed, do you think it's worth the extra money for the digital package from the cable company? I was expecting the picture to look like crap until they installed the digital stuff, but it looks great as is. Will thier equipment make it even that much better? Or am I just buying 200 more channels of stuff I probably won't ever watch in the first place?

Hot

retired.

Well my friends....NC's in the 21st century of HDTV now...and all I've got to say is HOLY SNOT ROCKETS OF FREAKIN' LOVE!! I bought the 42in Plasma Panasonic, and of course all the HDMI cables, optical sound cables and a HDMI DVD player..all-in=$1,935 bucks. And I've gotta' tell ya'....coming from a 8 year old 27in Panasonic regular TV to this thing is like a religious experience! 1st thing I put on, Talladega Nights of course, and sat on the sofa with a stunned look on my face, for two hours. My beer went warm, because I forgot I had one in my hand. I had it scan the channels, and came to find that I have NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox all in HD 1080i already. So I sat up until 2:30 watching Leno, Conan and Carson, in 1080i clarity. I've got some pictures of it in my living room that I'll post up a little later. This TV is amazing, no doubt about it. But, not just this TV, but this whole HDTV thing in general, is absolutely, bar none, over the top, increadible. I can't wait for some football this weekend. Even the SD signals are coming in at 480i, and they look kick-!Removed! as well. We've got a very strong signal in our neighborhood, of which you would figure since most of my neighborhood works for IBM, SAS and the IT field in general. Scan the area for wireless connections, and it comes up with 21. I checked out the Phillips and the Hitachi again last night, but the Philips wasn't working right, the Hitachi looked fantastic, but wasn't thrilled about having to upgrade it straight out of the box. Didn't see any negative reviews of Panasonic, so I reverted back to my wisdom when I bought my pioneer subwoofer 10 years ago, which is "a million rednecks can't be wrong". Boy, they weren't wrong about this Panasonic, that's for sure. Got a couple questions about how this HD universe works in general, but will have to ask later. But the main one is that I was watching Talladega Nights on the new DVD last night, with the HDMI cable, and it was only coming in at 480i? Is that normal for standard DVD playback? Want to thank you guys for all the guidance over the life of this thread. Took me a couple months on the learning curve, but feel like I understand this stuff pretty well now. So thanks fella's, I owe ya'll one!

You married??

Oh I disagree, especially on Sunday mornings. My only suggestion is that you buy a padded toilet seat. My wife bought me one of those Sony play station portables last June, and Madden 06's. All I can say is my throne time has trippled, and I recommend the padded seat to avoid the "pins and needles" effect. You know what I mean. Of course, you'll need dolby 5.1 in there as well. Just mount the sub under the sink. Next up: Installing a kegerator...then we shall all refer to you as "lord".

Well, the Hitachi is out. I called Hitachi after not finding the contrast ratio info anywhere either. I did however read about software upgrades that many people are having to do to get the tv right. They call Hitachi, and they send them some sort of chip they install, and send back the old one, which I guess helps. According to the very rude guy at customer support, getting this upgrade sounds like a potential pain. Infact, he made it sound like I'd have a better chance getting off death row. And, he didn't know what the contrast ratio was either. So, forget that. $1,500 for something that needs to be upgraded from the get-go isn't something I"m interested in. Pany has a model that is a step down in features, and apparantly walmart sells them for like $$250 cheaper than the one I'm looking at. It basically doesn't have the SD card slot for pictures, which I could care less about. But, calling walmart stores revealed they've put a premium on those sets as well, right at the same price level as the one I'm looking at. So, forget that one too "although I like the case better". So, going to give the Philips another look tonight, but must say, all indicators are pointing to the Pany, just can't seem to get around it. I haven't seen a bad review yet, other than the disgruntle guy who can't read the manual. Probably the type that complains about everything in life in general. We all know those types. Steve, thanks for lending me your expertise on the matter. I'm flying a bit blind with this whole HD thing. I read on the LG's with one HDMI input that people purchased a switch box for $80 buck that let them have multiple HDMI's into the tv, w/o degrading the image....might be an option. Course, once you get the LS460, you'll just be in the back seat watching tv, eating caviar and sipping champange anyway....hahaa.