occupant

As a tow truck operator, some Toyota/Lexus models with factory alarms are the biggest pain when it comes time to unlock them and the alarm is set. The car can lock itself back up as soon as you pull the door lock back to unlock it. My wife has smacked herself in the nose when the door of a Highlander opened and she wasn't expecting it. She has also nailed herself in the forehead of an Avalon. I've injured my cheek and nose on various ES and LS Lexus models as well as an XLE Camry. I can get my long reach tool in and I can unlock the door but I have to be able to lift the handle before the alarm system re-locks itself. You may find you have to very quickly wiggle the key in the lock while pulling repeatedly up on the door handle to get synced up to where the door is unlocked at the same time you release the door latch. The alarm will go off. It will throw a FIT. It may not let you start the car either. In theory, locking and unlocking the door with the key should DISARM the alarm system. If it is not disarming, try the passenger front door lock with the key, locking and then unlocking.

Billy, I can only hope I can find a deal like your car when it comes time to buy. Well cared for regardless of mileage, priced reasonably, looking that clean, and driving right. Spring is right around the corner, I have a lot of cars to tow between now and then, and while I probably won't be spending over $3000, there are plenty of LS400's that are under $3000 out there. It'll be a matter of which ones are available at that time, which of them I can afford, and which one of those has had the best care.

Miles don't scare me. You know what scares me? Petrified french fries welded to seat belt buckles. A tobacco film on the inside of the windshield so thick it takes nine paper towels and half a bottle of Invisible Glass to remove. Tires that are only worn on the inside edge. Curb rash. Missing tools in the trunk. Sunvisors with four hundred Speedway and Ohio Lottery receipts folded up in them so when you put the visor down, you end up with giant red and white confetti in your lap. Cupholders with a quarter inch of dried sludge at the bottom, consisting of Big Red, Dr Pepper, cigarette ashes, loose tobacco, fingernail clippings, and bits of straw wrapper paper. Headliners that have a giant dark streak from the driver's side window towards the center due to driving with the window open. Stereos with every preset set to 97.9, 106.7, and 107.9 (in my area) and the volume set high enough to startle you inside the car and make people groan and roll their eyes outside the car. Missing floor mats, or worse yet, parts store branded generic rubber mats. Dreamcatchers hanging from the rear view mirror. NASCAR stickers. And finally, the thing that scares me the most, opening the hood to see this on the battery: If a 99 cent package of corrosion preventative grease is too much for one to afford to keep a car operating properly, what else hasn't been done? If cleaning the car out even once a month is too much effort to have a little bit of order and cleanliness, what other hidden treasure am I going to find? I have seven kids. I know vehicles get messed up pretty quick. But I also know taking an hour every few weeks to bring them back is worth the time put into it many times over.

Radio presets, seat memory, and mirror positions aren't the only thing you lose when a battery is fully disconnected from the car. Once the car is connected back to power, the computer wakes up and has to relearn everything from the idle speed to when the car shifts. It's programmed, and it's in there where it can't be erased just by taking out power, but all the things the computer has learned get lost. As you drive, the computer continuously modifies its programming as far as injector pulse width, timing, and transmission pressures to provide you with a smooth comfortable drive. When you disconnect the battery, you lose this and the car has to start over. For the next few miles to the next few hours to the next few days as you drive, it has to fill in the blanks with a very small representative of your driving habits. Why do you think products like memory savers exist? Why do you think the 9 volt battery thread exists? If you have to force your computer to relearn everything after say, an injector replacement, or a transmission rebuild, that's one thing. You want it to relearn all those parameters. But to make your car relearn everything from scratch every time you want to drive it? That's like taking a PE class at your local community college before joining a few friends for some hoops down at the park.