Crystal2

Hi, Thanks to all for your feedback. I ended up with the autobody shop used by us previously. The work has been consistently good and the prices reasonable. The shop has a computer system for matching colors (I saw a Lexus RX300 on the lot as I pulled in and the boss told me they work on a regular basis on Lexus and Mercedes vehicles). The Lexus dealership did refer me to an outside shop for body repair on the RX, so I decided to go with our own shop. The claims adjuster came today and saw the damage (he could see the imprint of the license plate of the other car on my rear bumper). He estimated the cost to be a little under $700, so I will not have to report the accident to NYS DOT. Of course, this depends on the final cost of the repair. Your insights have helped to alleviate the aggravation from the accident. Crystal2

Katzjamr, Some very good points! I believe I was headed in the direction of your thinking, since in NY, the rear end accident is considered the fault of the person who hit my car. However, you have given me pause to consider letting the Lexus dealership handle the repair. Crystal2.

Monarch, I was under the impression that any incidents (my fault or not) would be held against me. However (unfortunately), my husband was driving our Toyota Avalon when it was rear-ended and totalled in another recent accident. Both of us are safe drivers but a group of metro NY drivers are aggressive, inconsiderate and frequently in a great rush. We were told that it would not affect our insurance records since it was not our fault. In fact, our insurance co. recouped the deductible for us from the responsible party's insurance co. There appears to be no question of who is responsible when it comes to a rear-end accident. Moreover, I found out that the party responsible had given inconsistent information to me (possibly false info). He gave me info without his driver's lic. # or insurance info. Just said it was a co. car or co. rental and his employer would take care of it. He was about to leave, saying he was rushed and had to go to work. I told him he had to wait until police got there, since he had inconvenienced me and damaged my car (his van sustained no damage). I think he was trying to get away after giving false info. Good thing I stopped him and insisted on getting the police, who then did a complete report! The address he provided to the police and the employer name were different from info given to me. Also, I do not feel like footing the bill for at least a $1000 bill (this is a given if repair is thru a Lexus dealership and with the higher cost of everything on Long Island, NY). This reinforces my desire to take the appropriate steps (tho I hate to deal with Long Island police, who can be arrogant, unhelpful and downright nasty). Thanks for your replies! Crystal2

Hi, My new RX330 was rear-ended today. Fortunately, the damage was minimal with mostly cosmetic damages - scratches and rear bumper dent. Questions: 1) Shall I avoid taking the car to Lexus dealership for repair work since Lexus charges are known to be inflated? My concern here is that excessive cost for repair will show up as a recordable accident for my car, thus affecting later resale value. In NYS, any property damage over $1000 has to be reported to the state. Should I take the car to an outside repair shop if the repair work is under $1000 so that it does not appear in the accident record for the car (after all, there were no operational damages and the cosmetic damage was relatively minimal)? 2) Lexus Cental Customer Service advised me to take car to Lexus dealership to ensure matching of color with the repair work. Is this correct? Shouldn't the repair shop be able to order the right color paint from Lexus? I will contact the autobody shop we usually use tomorrow. Any responses would be helpful.

Thanks for the specific recommendation. I appreciate it and I will try the Zeiss Lens Cloths, if Walmart still sells them. :) :D

Thanks, LexusKid630, I had purchased a fabric for my laptop lcd screen and it worked adequately for dust, but the fingerprint marks remain. That was why I did nto expect it to work with the RX Nav Screen. I will try it out though now that I have your suggestion. Is yours a particular brand? The one I bought from the computer store is 3M, Microfiber Notebook Computer Cleaning Cloth. claimed it could clean fingerprints from computer screens, but that has not been my experience. I will try it out in the car later. Thanks again.

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can offer a solution for cleaning ( :D ) the NAV screen in the RX330. I just noticed that our very new RX Nav screen is already showing unsightly fingerprint marks on the screen after less than 100 miles of driving. Will the fingerprint marks come off with wipes and some sort of cleaning solution? I had seen Nav screen protectors in eBay, thought of purchasing them, then forgot about them until now. Any suggestions? Also, how good are the screen protectors?

MrSquid, I thought all Thunderclouds are Limited Edition. According to the broker I spoke to, there have only been 500 total Limited Ed. TC manufactured for the U.S. (for 2005). However, I thought all TC have the Black Birds Eye Maple wood trim. I am not sure mine has the TC batch on the center console. I will check, since you have me wondering if there are Limited "Limited Edition" TC in the U.S. Anyone else know out there? The color of MrSquid's maple wood trim makes me wonder.

I have just passed the 30000 miles on my 2004 RX330 and I am very happy with fuel economy. My daily running includes probably 50/50 of town and freeway, so this gives a good average, which equates to 25mpg on a regular basis, if I do mainly town running, this drops to around 21-22, but pure freeway at cruise of 65mph gives me a nice 28 mpg.I would like to add thought this has been achieved through experimenting with octane of gas, and now I find the premium to be the best for mpg, so in the end it works out cheaper. One hint , these cars like to be driven smoothly , without a lead foot, so try to accelerate without a racing start, again I found adopting to the characteristics of the vehicle will give the most satisfaction as the car is slightly underpowered for its weight or could be that the emmision components drain a lot of the power. Anyway, good luck, hopefully your experience will improve, my good mpg make up for all the negative problems I have had with my RX, but that was my fault for buying one of the first to be produced. B) ← OKEH1, Wow! You have reported 1 of the best mpg averages (25 mpg combined city/ highway driving) I have read about. The others seem to average 18 -20 mpg combined city/hwy driving. It is very encouraging to read this. I will be happy to get 22-23 mpg average. I was reading up on the octane gas issue and I have concluded that I should use premium (between regular and super premium) to get the best performance and mpg. Congrats! You are in the neighborhood of some of those driving the RX400H.

None of the ECUs remember more than ~3 minutes of "driving style" history and even that history is erased each time the vehicle is restarted. Otherwise the next driver, after the LOLITS, might be really surprised at how poorly the vehicle reacts. ← Unlisted, I paid $41,800 (included $400 for transport from CA to NY) for a 2005 AWD TC, Towing Prep, Heated Front Seats, Adaptive Headlights, Automatic Wipers, Headlamp Washers, MSRP $46,363. I had to pay $45 for doc fee, TTL (8.75% NY), in addition to the above mentioned price. Still trying to determine if the low miles make this SUV less of a buy than the RX400H, esp. with Sales Tax credit in NY.

Thanks to all for your responses. RX400, I guess I am "regretting" not getting the hybrid tho the upfront $9000 difference in price was a disincentive, plus unknowns about how the parts will hold up over time. However, I do have feelings of envy reading about those who are averaging 27mpg with the RX400H. Oh, well. I do love the luxury feel of this SUV (better than the Audi Quattro A6 my husband has been driving). Unlisted, I purchased my RX TC from a CA. dealership on April 16; had it transported from CA to Long Island. Unfortunately, the worse part of the deal was the salesperson tried to renege on an agreement for me to do my own license/ registration (to save me half the amount in these fees). They held up the process for over a month (by withholding the title), so I did not actually get to drive my RX until 5/24/05. Thought I had a good a salesperson, but the ending left a very sour taste. Also, I will file a complaint and cannot expect much help from the CA dealership given the bad ending and the distance, so these forums are especially helpful to me as a new RX owner. Thanks again! : :D

Unlisted, Thanks for your reply. I did not realize there are 3 more gallons after the 0 meter reading. This would bring my mileage up to approx. 12.5 mpg for in town driving. Still not that great; however, the RX was getting better mileage for our first highway driving last night. Hopefully, it will improve from this initial poor mileage. (My husband might also have inadvertently lowered the mpg by driving short distances in town with the 4th gear instead of driving in the "D" position. I also made the initial mistake briefly until I read about this in a forum).

Can others here in forum let me know what miles you are getting for your RX330? My first 1/4 tank of gas is averaging approx. 10 mpg for in-town driving (1/4 tank with 50 miles driven, 19 gallons total per tank). Does the mileage improve after break-in? Does this have anything to do with the oil (get slightly better once get synthetic oil change)? What other ways to improve mpg? I am a careful driver (coasting of car, gradual braking, when possible). This is of concern to me because I thought The RX330 was fairly decent with mpg compared with other SUVs of its class. Any comments? Thanks.

I'm not sure where you heard your info Crys.....these tires just hit the market a short time ago (not 100% they are even available in the U.S. yet) Personaly experence, no.......but I had personaly experence with the Toyo M-410 & the new Open Country H/T (h/t stands for Highway Terrain btw ;) ) & they were just fantastic for long mileage, wet & snowy conditions with a 60,000 miles treadlife......these new H/T's trump the previous on in every category! B) I would pick up the phone & call a few places Canada or the U.S. & try to find out more info. B) ← Lexusfreak, I actually looked at ratings at 1010tires referred to by a member of another forum (that you are a member of). The Toyo Open Country H/T (thanks for your explanation) was rated 3.2 by customers, just a little higher than the 2.7 received by the Goodyear OE tires. I guess that was the reason I did not think they were universally received well or rated in a superior fashion. Of course, looking at the rating again, I see only 2 ratings and no reviews (with 1 actually coming in high, so this is by no means representative). I am just trying to absorb a lot of this info by reading these forums. I will definitely make the necessary calls soon (just too busy now). I might have read about the noise and other less favorable issues for another recommended tire in these forums (Y. Geolander) and got the 2 confused. But definitely, I remember coming across some less than ideal feedback on the Toyo. Right now I believe it is based on 1010tires.

Lexusfreak, Thanks for your response. I had seen the reference to the Toyo tires. It looks good, but I read reviews (forget where) that did not give such high marks to these tires. Something about excessive noise and, not sure, if there was something about poorer traction than expected? Do you have personal expereince with these tires? The tread life sounds good and all the specs. seem excellent. Do you know what the 18" sell for (approx.) or the smaller size if that is what you purchased? :D

LexKid630, Do the grill guards really protect against or deter theft of the headlights? That is my main concern since our RX330 will be driven back and forth between NY and NJ (2 areas known for Xenon headlight theft). Also, what is the price for the front grill guard and rear bumper guard? I cannot locate it in the Waag site you referred to. Thanks. ← I'm not sure about the rx330, but on the rx300 there were 2 levers you could easiely pull to move the grille guard back to open the hood. This might allow enough room to take out the headlights. I'm not sure if there are levers on the 330. Does it need to be moved back to open the hood? I'm not sure i don't have one....I bet it'll scare away theives though. It looks hard to get around. sorry i'm not totally sure if the lights can be removed with the guard on. and the price of the stianless steel grille guard for the rx300 was $750. The black ones (the only ones available for the 330) are much less, probably like $300. The rear ones i have no idea. Most likely less. good luck. ← Thanks for your response, LexusKid630, I am not sure the grill guards will be enough of a prevention measure since they sound easy to remove, though they are worthwhile to consider for bumps and scratches. However, I would not opt for this add-on if not for the headlight theft issue.

Hi, I have read all your comments; however, I am still not sure which 18" tires I should buy to replace my NEW OEM Goodyear tires. I have read they perform very poorly in the rain, with a tendency to cause hydroplaning. That makes me nervous. I bought the RX330 because I thought it would be steady in all kinds of weather; didn't realize Lexus would provide such crappy new tires for a lux SUV that would defeat the purpose of the VSC (even with an AWD). I read somewhere the choice was between the Michelin Cross-Terrain and the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza. Now I am reading conflicting reviews or opinions here. Also, the Mechelin x-terrain do not come in the 18" tires? Can someone clarify? I am hoping to sell my Goodyear tires. Would the tires have warranty for another owner (or is the warranty for tires part of the entire SUV warranty package?) My tires only have 32 miles on them so far, since my RX is very new. I know they are rated high for performance, but I care more about safe driving in wet pavement. Tirerack sells them for approx. $170 each with a rebate currently. They also mentioned the OEM tires are good performance tires. AGAIN, WHICH 18" TIRES ARE RECOMMENDED PRIMARILY FOR A SAFE AND QUIET RIDE? Thanks in advance for any input.

LexKid630, Do the grill guards really protect against or deter theft of the headlights? That is my main concern since our RX330 will be driven back and forth between NY and NJ (2 areas known for Xenon headlight theft). Also, what is the price for the front grill guard and rear bumper guard? I cannot locate it in the Waag site you referred to. Thanks.

The TC is only $300 more for the horizontal grill, emblem, black maple wood. Only 2 color choices: fica flint and thundercloud metallic (medium grey). However, it came with the package I want for a good price: everything but rear DVD and performance package. I was told only 500 special edition TC have been manufactured for USA. Also, I wanted my RX330 manufactured in Japan. All TC are manufactured in Japan.

what is TTL??? ← It stands for Tax, Title?, License fees (not sure about the second T). I bought my Thundercloud (sounds like the same as Techman36, MSRP $46,363) for $41,800 (which included $400 transport from CA to NY). This was price before TTL. So far, the RX330 drives nicely (will see if transmission problem becomes apparent later). There appears to be some cabin noise from outside when driving locally; hopefully, the problem will not get worse driving in the highway (where it is supposed to be more noticeable). Love the rear view camera (cannot drive SUV without one)! Enjoying the car for now! :D