jainla

I really like that color. It's very rich and very understated. I think there is a green that's similar...maybe Cypress Pearl? I bet both of them come with the cream or ecru leather. I like that color wood inside...reminds me a bit of the color of the original LS400. Here in Santa Monica a couple months ago they had a couple of great deals on 2 or 3 CPO LS430s; I think the price premium was something like $1000 over the non-cpo cars they had on the lot. That said if the car's in good shape and has a service history I'm not sure the CPO warranty is worth it. Also the dealers probably are desperate to move them so there may be room to maneuver. That car on Ebay has the sport suspension....it would be great if you could find one of those. As time goes on I'm getting more and more open to the idea of a non-grey (i.e. not grey, white or black) colored car. I've seen a couple LS430s running around in a royal blue...very nice. Come on Steve.....you know you want it. -J

Yeah I saw that review. We Lexus owners forget how ruiniously expensive owning a modern Mercedes can be. Unfortunately it's a company car so it's not my decision. I was actually pushing for the GX because they really want 7-8 seats but they were intrigued by the hybrid gas mileage. I haven't been a fan of the current Mercedes lineup for a while but I must say I was surprised with how well the GL drove. Not very trucky, rides well, plenty of power with the diesel and surprising quiet. Not as quiet as the hybrid but certainly not as loud as my 240D. It also handles very well. Also the third row seat was more comfortable than the GX. Although there are annoyances; not a fan of the touch shifter on the steering column (is this an Oldsmobile?) and the backup camera doesn't work unless you turn the radio/nav unit on. Also the Parktronic gives way less information than the IPA system on the Lexus. And of course there is always the questionable German reliability although apparently the V6 ML has improved to average according to CR. All that said I got to poke around the LX in the showroom and that car is very impressive. It's a little out of our price range but I think my colleges were certainly intrigued. If I as looking for a 7+ passenger truck that would probably be my first choice. Assuming someone else was paying of course..... I agree. We were one of the first batch of RX400h buyers in San Diego in 05 and we paid sticker - no more. Regarding the Mercedes, you might want to consider the long-term test results that Car & Driver magazine reported not too long ago: I'd stay away from that vehicle.

So I went shopping with a couple friends of mine today for an SUV. It looks like the choice may be between a GL320 Bluetec and an RX450h. The Lexus dealer quoted us $5000 over sticker for the RX and said that basically because it's brand new there was no room to maneuver and it was take it or leave it. Whereas if we wanted an RX400h off the pre-owned lot he could negotiate. I was wondering if anybody else had been quoted such a high markup? I know that they are brand new but the market for SUVs, even luxury hybrid SUVs is still pretty soft right now.

It could be the O2 sensors. I saw an improvement of 15-20% FE when I replaced the one bad one I had.

I agree. The Prius is a great car for what it is but it's no driver's car. I remember driving it and the Camry hybrid and kind of wishing there wasn't so much drone from the 4 cylinder engine. Especially at anything approaching a decent pace it seems to run much faster than an equivalent non-hybrid engine. Sounds like your HS might have a couple gremlins; I see Prius (Prii?) charging up the Sepulveda pass all the time. The GS and LS hybrids have plenty of power; but also a much larger gasoline engine. I wonder if the Atkinson cycle on the engine makes it noisier? It's too bad they can't make it sound like a Honda 4. Maybe they should have used a very small V6? I have to imagine Toyota has a ~2.5l V6 floating around somewhere. I suppose Lexus birthed the idea for the HS when gas was (at least in CA) approaching $5 a gallon. Lexus claims that the car will appeal to people that think the Prius is a bit too spartan inside. Trouble is that the new Prius appears to be much more luxe than the outgoing model; although no fancy wood or Remote touch...but how much are those features really worth? Sales for all hybrid cars are in the crapper right now (with the exception of the Prius and the RX). I think I saw on CNET that the GS and LS hybrids sold around 100 copies each Q1 of this year. I guess we'll wait and see if people take to the HS....what a time to launch a luxury hybrid!

If the car's insured for comp and collision it may be covered under the comprehensive section of your insurance. The sensor is expensive but there's also a lot of labor involved in taking the bumper off to get to it. Sometimes you see those sensors on Ebay...I think the ones for the Toyota Sienna and RX350/400 may be similar. You can push the cruise control nob forward when you turn it on and this should disable the laser cruise (the Radar Ready will go away) but if the laser sensor is down I dont' know if this will work or not. Good luck!

Nope. Maybe version 3.0 of the software might work but right now you can't. If you have bluetooth on your computer you might be able to export your addresses to a .vcf file and then upload that to the car. When I 'sent' the phonebook of my blackberry to my computer i got a phonebook.vcf file with all the addresses in it. Good luck!

Which one's faster? My guess is the GS... Who knows... there are many factors involved in off the line performance. The torque converter on the GS may be designed to engage more gently owing to it's luxury nature. The 4 Runner probably has lower final drive and first/ second gear ratios to assist in towing. That would explain the jackrabbit starts; but does it run out of power at ~60 mph? I remember the GS seems to take off like a rocket and never look back... I remember most people being surprised that the LS430 with 'only' 290 HP was consistently the second fastest car in any roundup; only the BMW 745 was faster. It even beat the Infiniti Q45 despite having 50 less hp and weighing more.

Right before I bought the Lexus my Mercedes started making horrible grinding noises when I put it into first and started off. I was sure the transmission was toast. Took it to the mechanic and waited for the bad news..... After they didn't call I feared the worst.... so I called them and they were like 'car's ready come get it'. ??? Tranny mount for $125 all in. I had them change the engine mounts as well; at 180k miles they were a bit tired. Car ran better than ever!

It happens. I heard of someone's Caddy STS doing something similar; the people got out of the house but it did burn down. They said it was some kind of short in the transmission. The locks, the lights, there's plenty of power running through the car when the key's out! I'm guessing most of the fluids in these cars are fairly flammable; an errant spark, a frayed wire, a small leak onto a hot component...anything can happen. It's not a Pinto though...this is the first I've heard of an LS catching fire. Maybe something on the ground below it caught (oil slick? gas leak?). Glad to hear everyone was ok... that's the important part!

A 2002 Accord V6 could easily take on a '90-'94 LS.Keep in mind the current Accord V6 has 271 horsepower and 254 lb-ft of torque and weighs at least 200-300 pounds less than the LS. Yeah but the LS430 has 320 lb-ft of torque and it's rear wheel drive so the weight transfer will help it off the line. It's probably the transmission; to be fair at anything less than full throttle the LS430 can take a while to decide to downshift. Then watch out! Next time manually select 1st and then bury it. Although if the accord has a manual you may be out of luck....C/D says it's faster than the LS430 but not by much.

If you want a remote starter ;) I'd say park carefully. You can have a clear bra material installed on both bumpers, but I don't know how much good it will do... I would only buy the factory lexus warranty or just skip the warranty... The struts aid in lifting the trunk lid up (its heavy), it doesn't open all the way when you release it I don't think. It could be that there is some carbon build up in the throttle body, but I doubt its from regular gas. I would run premium in the car (it calls for it) and you could have a fuel induction service done and see if that helps. If this is your first car with an electronic throttle then it may be a characteristic you just have to get used to, try driving in ECT PWR mode and see if that helps. In what way does it function improperly? Definately a warranty item. They sell all kinds of aftermarket ones that roll up but they look awful. You could buy door panels off a UL with the shades and install them sure, but my guess is this would cost so much it wouldn't be worth it... What Steve said. Trunk struts are a common item on this car; the trunk will open only slightly when you open it by remote or the button on the dash. New struts make it easier to open but it won't pop open like a Mercedes. Re: the throttle response maybe clogged fuel filters? Run some good gas through it and do some highway driving this may help. You can also try disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes or so. You'll lose all your radio and other presets but this will reset the transmission's learning function and the throttle control mapping; which might improve your responsiveness. Welcome to the LOC! :)

Part of the problem is that the '09 model cars won't poll the phone for the phonebook. Some other cars and bluetooth car kits request a download of the phonebook when the car starts up; this functionality actually DOES work with the iPhone; it's just that Toyota doesn't currently support it. So you can answer the phone or dial from it; but unless you enter phone numbers manually you won't be able to dial by name via the car; although dialing by number should work. The other way to do it would be to manually transfer (push) the phonebook from the phone to the car; but Apple doesn't support this on the 2.0 software. Apart from stereo bluetooth nobody's really sure what else will be supported in the iPhone 3.0 software release. I can report that the Gen 6 Nav system in the RX will download the phonebook on command from a paired phone and play the stereo bluetooth stream; but if you've already bought an '09 this isn't helpful. Another way to play it might be to have an non-active; second phone that does allow you to send the phonebook; then you can load the contacts from Outlook (or Address book or whatever) into THAT phone and use it to populate the phonebook in the car. Not an elegant solution but one way to go about it. You might also be able to push the contacts directly from your computer over bluetooth; but I'm not sure how one would go about doing that.

Based on my car: S-Saves the memory position; hold down until you hear a beep. M-recalls the memory position (i.e. moves the seat from wherever to wherever). If you don't have a position set probably nothing will happen. C-Cancel auto exit feature. The auto exit feature returns the seat to the fully upright position when the rear door is opened and the engine is running (or the ignition key is in the 'on' position). Should you not want this after you open the door hit C and the movement will stop. There is a button on console of my car to return the seat to the fully upright position and lower the rear headrests, not sure if the 460 has this or not? -J

Answer: the one that's in the best condition with a decent service history that fits your budget with the colors/features you want. Generally the mechanicals of all LS cars are very reliable (if not the most reliable on the market). The engine up to the '06 model year is basically the same design that evolved through the years; and the transmission was updated as well. The post '01 cars have a lot more electronic features so this is good (if you like those things) but this is bad (because it's more stuff that can break). But still in the grand scheme of things you could do much worse (i.e. anything made in Germany during that time). There's really not a bad apple in the bunch; obviously the earlier cars ('90-92) are going to be pretty high mileage by now so that comes with its own risks; there are also a couple minor problems with the first two years--LCD screens going black, instrument needles going dark etc. but the fixes aren't expensive and are well documented here. There is one recall of note for certain '04 models due to a piece of plastic that breaks in the transmission (Lexus replaced the transmission in those models) and a bad fuel pump so if you consider an '04 make sure that's been done. I second Jim's warning about the air suspension, particularly if the car is high-mileage or older than 4-5 years old. The service rep claims the LS 430 air springs should last up to 150k miles; but they occasionally go and are expensive to fix. Caveat emptor there. At this point feel free to choose based on model style, features and price. The whole luxury car market seems to have taken a hit; I'm starting to see some real deals on the early LS430s but you can get a later model one for not much more. Obviously if you want Bluetooth, Sat Nav and other goodies the later cars will have those built in but they can be retrofitted depending on how far you want to go. But even an LS that's 9-10 years old should be fairly reliable; and much nicer than anything new at that price. One item to note is iPod compatibilty; there seems to be a dearth of aftermarket solutions for any car that's pre '01. Happy shopping!

i tried turning off the nav screen (information, screen) and it behaved exactly the way you described. Does the map appear at all? it could be the car is trying to switch back to the map screen and the Nav ECU is fried. Maybe check the fuses? Did the one for the nav computer blow out? There is also a setting to not return the screen to map mode after a timeout (I don't remember where this setting is) have you checked that? -J

Yeah they really seem to have cut some corners in '06. I distinctly remember the ES350 and '07 Camry as being slightly less fabulous than their predecessors. There were some embarassing quality gaffes too; ES/Camrys with exploding transmissions; recalls, and the LS failing to take top honors in the IQS for the first time in a gazillion years (although to be fair it was an entirely new design). Toyota freely admits they cut too many quality engineers the last time around; and this seems to be coming back to bite them in the !Removed!. With everybody else in the world not chasing them and some getting pretty good (Ford, Hyundai) the crown is now theirs to lose. Hopefully they'll wise up and restaff. Also cars are just waay more complicated now than they were 20 or even 10 years ago. My Mercedes will actually run without any electrical power at all; the fuel injection, steering and brakes are all mechanical. Try THAT on a new car!

It's certainly possible to get 'driver fatigue' with a car; I think that's why i held on to the Mercedes after i bought the Lexus. They are totally different; but i like driving both of them for different reasons. The more I drive one the more I appreciate the other. Honestly if I had the garage space and the cash I'd probably have a car for every day of the week; but that's just me. Some people call the Lexus soulless; I think this comes from the Japanese approach to luxury and premium products. The Japanese are obsessed with details and refinement; from the sound the door makes when it closes to the feeling of the handle when you open it. The sequence of illumination of the gauges; the feel of the leather; the speed and sound of the climate control fans, the shape of the buttons and how they feel; the speed at which all the interior compartments open (and the angle; dampening, etc). Someone THOUGHT about all these things; whereas in most American cars they seemed to be happy just to get them to work without falling off. In these areas the LS has steadily improved over time; especially as Mercedes has gone on to chase the almighty dollar and BMW got lost in the world of Chris Bangle. For me this attention to detail spells luxury. For some handling; brute power, or uniqueness are more important; that's why there are BMWs, Audi's etc. Like NC said the GS is a good blend of performance and luxury (the Maxima is also a great car but it's not really in the same league as the GS/LS). In LA I don't get many chances to 'drive' the LS. It's more like sit in traffic and wait for the light to change; so in some sense the car's road performance is immaterial. But the more time I spend in the car the more I appreciate its exquisite construction; incredible attention to detail; and flawless execution. I also appreciate the reliability and durability because I HATE taking the car to the shop. And when i do get to wind it out; the quietness, the absolute CALM as the car rockets down the freeway is something very special. It does the basics well; without drama or shenanigans (honestly so did the last 911 i drove and nobody calls those cars dull). What you have to do appreciate the LS is spend time in someone ELSE's car. I didn't really appreciate how wonderful the leather was in the LS until I sat in my mother's Acura and the leather felt like plastic. I kind of forgot how quiet the LS was until I had to listen to the rattles in a Cadillac; or how comfortable the seats were until I was imprisoned in a Chrysler for a long drive in Florida. Or how roomy the cabin was until I had to sit in a BMW in cross-town traffic. And I had taken the solid feeling of the controls for granted until I drove an E-class recently. And reliability? Many people here have cars that are 8-10 years old and run well with minimal maintenance; how many BMW's can claim that? or Chevys or Fords for that matter? And these were $50,000+ cars when new. The LS is not a 'lion hear me roar' type of car; it's not flashy or imposing--there are other cars for that (AMG anyone?). But for those who appreciate its talents (and there are many) and subtle character the rewards are sublime. It kind of gets under your skin...you really miss it when it's gone.

Did you blow a spark plug? Maybe they weren't screwed in properly? Did the CEL come on?

Finally back from the cold! I don't know about DC but I like the wing; not too flashy, not too rice-rocket. Looks nice with the dual exhausts. I drove 2 GS430s when I was shopping back in the day. It's a hell of a car; I was surprised how quick and surefooted that car was for it's size. And loves me some V8 in the morning. You may end up finding a new route to work so you can find some more empty streets to wind it out (I know this from experience). I agree about the throttle control and the V8; around town my car has 2 modes; granny and rocketship. It seems to really like downshifting from 5th to 3rd (or even 2nd). Once you're going past 40 mph or so you can easily get it to downshift only 1 gear and then LET IT RIP!

This happened to me after my indie replaced the O2 sensor a couple weeks ago. It comes from some weirdness in the OBDII system; you'll have to reset the VSC system manually. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...l=oxygen+sensor A paperclip did the job nicely.

The 01+ models have trunk wiring that is of a different layout owing to the hinge design; I don't think it's quite the same issue as the previous years. It could be that one of the bulbs is about to burn out. I had a similar situation where the check bulb light would go on every time I put my foot on the brake pedal but I couldn't figure out which bulb was out; they all seemed fine when I put my foot on the brake or when I turned the lights on. The bulbs are dual filament; so perhaps the computer compensates by partially illuminating the bulbs? I had replaced the CHMSL a couple months prior so I guess as they are all the same age they will all start to burn out. I replaced all the bulbs and found two that looked darker than the rest. You can buy the bulbs online; I think I paid $30 for the whole set.

You can also try the vaistech adaptor (vaistech.com). From what I can tell it works exactly like the OEM part; and gives you an extra input for an ipod or other music player.

I think it depends on what's valuable to you. When you add up the cost of a rental car; the carwash; the cup of coffee etc. the ~$50 premium the dealer charges for the oil change is something of a wash. Also it's faster so you have to figure how much is that time worth to you? However a lot of dealers seem to be adding 'inspections' and 'checks' which I suspect mostly pad their bottom line. Dealers are run by human beings; not by devils or by angels. Some are great; some suck. It definitely pays to shop around and do your homework. Also a fair amount of dealership service work is warranty work that gets billed back to Lexus so they have less of an incentive to figure out cost effective ways to resolve issues. They tend to advocate replace replace replace instead of other less costly options. I suspect though that as cars become more complicated the indie options will start to peter out for certain things. My indie has already said they won't change the timing belt on my LS; they claim that particular engine is too complicated for them (???!!). I also had to reset the VSC system after they changed an oxygen sensor recently (thanks to the lovely people on this forum I was able to do that myself). I'm going to shop around the local dealers and will I might suck it up and might have to pony up the extra cash for them to do it when the time comes; depending on how much more it costs.

Try calling another dealer. That's a total crock. Lexus of Santa Monica charged me $7 for the bulb and installed it for free in about 10 minutes. The directions are on here somewhere; I think you have to push the enclosure to the left and then pull forward and it should pop off. For some reason I can't find them but keep looking. I think you might use a pry bar (plastic if possible) to help but that housing is plastic so it will scratch--be careful!