The G Man

He probably didnt test drive it on the highway.

Here is a link to the J D Power 3 year relaibilty rating, these are 2006 cars rated after 3 years of ownership at 2009: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/03/19/453867.html As you can see, Audi is above averge and its no longer the unreliable car that it once was. In fact, European cars have made the most improvment in this decade. As I have stated before, if reliability is your top priority, then pretty much all European cars are out and it would only leave you with a hand full of brands to choice from, thats not the way I want to pick a car. There are plenty of people who drive a European car as a daily driver and have no problem. I have never been a big fan of VW, I am convience that the Germans havent figure out how to make a quality car for a low price yet, unlike the Japanese and the Koreans, but I hear the newer VW have improve quite a bit quality wise. I dont see how you can compare the Phaeton, which only sold in the thousands with the high volume Avalon, which have sold hundreds of thousands in pass years. Yes, both the A8 W12 and the Phaeton shares the same engine, but both are limited production cars. On the other hand, the Toyota/Lexus 3.5L engine is share by tens of millions of Toyota and Lexus. I can see why you are so loyal to the Lexus, the LS400 you own is consider by many the best car Lexus ever built, It put them on the map.

My god, just because two car share some switches doesnt mean they are the same car. The ES and the Camry are different cars and they share a lot more than some switches. My point is the A6 is a better selling sedan, even though the A6 is just a VW as you stated. Stop living in the pass, I am talking about new Audi, not Audis from the 1990s. It is only insanity if you do the samething over and over again and expect different results, but in Audi's case, its not insanity since Audi as a company have changed and you are not doing the samething. Did you know Audi have the biggest gain in customer loyalty last year, a much bigger jump than Lexus and BMW. Your LS is a great car, I had a LS430 myself, but you must admit, the LS is as exciting to drive as a party in a senior citizen home.

wow, you own a Miata and a RX, you must be really secure with your masculinity :) :) Do you carry one of those European man purse too ? Just Kidding, dont answer that, I dont want to know :)

Those Prius owners are a special kind of nuts :) Who else would pay $30000 for a compact car :)

So where in that link does it say Audi's and VW's share a huge number of parts from the bottom to the top of both lines? Did you know that the Audi A6 long outsells the BMW 5 series long in China and worldwide? Statements like "Audi is just a VW pig with lipstick" is same as other people' statement lik Lexus is nothing but a rebadge Toyota. All it really say the the person is how little they know about the car company. The fact is that Audi is much less like VW than Lexus is like Toyota.

You do know that VW is a different company from Audi right, and they do not share platform or parts in their cars? I believe the only Audi that share platform with VW is the cheaper model such as the A1 and the A3. If you know Audi's history, you will know that its does not the same relationship as Toyota and Lexus. Sure people buy BMW because of price, If I can lease a 5 series or a ES350 for the same price, I would go with the 5 series. The 3 series wagon are so hard to find because BMW dont sell too many here in the US, they are ugly and have a cheap Kmart interior. Of course if all you want is performance and everything else is subpar, then BMW is the perfect car for you. By the way, most people cannot affort to keep BMW for ever, they cost an arm and a leg to maintain after warranty. BMW, as a comapny, does not currently have the highest ownership loyalty rating, but the 3 series is still selling well for BMW and is still a leader in owner loyalty. Acoording to Truecar.com, Honda currently has the most loyal customers, growing from 55 percent to 58 percent of owners who say they would buy another Honda. I been saying this for years, Lexus and Toyota parts are not cheap anymore when compare to the German cars.

I can’t argue with you there, Lexus still make some pretty comfortable soft riders while all the competition have gone to a more capable handling car. Lexus' marketing department must be doing something right to know that only in the US do more owners actually prefer a soft suspension over driving dynamics. My point was that even Lexus know that this market is shrinking and more and more buyers are looking for handling as well as comfort.

There are a few people out there that like the Chris Bangle designed 5, 6 and 7 series. The new 5 and 7 series will be once again classic BMW design. It will not have the ugly lines of the old 5 and 7 series. Most 5 series on the road are lease at a bargain basement price, that is why there are so many of them.

When there are safety issues concerning a motor vehicle and death is involved, it is more important to take it seriously instead of trying to down play it like what Toyota was doing prior to now. Since 2007, Toyota have tried to down play the sudden accelaration problem, issuing recalls that they know will not fix all the sudden accelaration. Intead of actual trying to fix a fix for the problem, they choose to fix the problem thru their lawyers and lobbyist. Now they get caught red handed with the memos and now they will be forced to do the right thing.

I just saw this on the news, Toyota Motor Corp. said today that federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the company's safety problems. It seems that the deeper the feds dig, the more evidence they are finding.

Do you think the condensation was from the car wash?

Glad to hear that there some people out there that are masculine enough not to care about what other people think of their car :)

I believe all the new RX was delivery with synthetic oil from factory, any 0W20 is synthetic. Do you still have to do the 5000 schedule the maintenance in between the 10000 miles oil change, I would hope not. So the 1st 5000 schedule check up and the 10000 mile oil change is free, or has the 1st 5000 schedule check up become 10000 miles now? Anyway, the 1st check is good for customize setting. I always have a list of changes I want the dealer to do. The RX300 share the same engine with some Toyota, so it should not affect your warranty.

Except for the current Chris Bangle design 5 series, it is one of the ugliest BMW ever made. They are so ugly that no one wants them and with the redeign coming out next year, the dealers are practically giving them away. You get get a 2 year old 5 series for under $30000.

With the stupid Lexus Navi motion lock out, I rather save a few thousand bucks and get the Lexus with no Navi and just get a Garmin.

I know that all car companies operate like this to a certain degree, but they don’t boost about reliability, quality and safety and then get caught with memos stating the contrary. Cars are not perfect, but when I step on the brakes, I expect it to stop and when I let go of the gas, I expect it to slow down. I don’t think that’s asking for perfection.

I am glad your dealer found the problem, I would have took it on the highway right away :) New steering rack or not, I dont think your GS will handle like a BMW 5 series :)

You will be disppointed to hear that the new US version ES has a stiffer suspension than your old one. Lexus do care about worldwide sales, their Europeans version of their cars usually handles better than the US version. They are trying to compete worldwide and so far their sales numbers in Europe have gone up quite a bit, but still way behind the German big three.

Over analyze or just more aware? It is true that there are many more cases reported since the recalls came out, but that’s to be expected. Personally, I think this whole mess is not over yet. They just found old memo from Toyota executives boosting about money save by negotiating a lesser recall. It also confirm that Toyota knew about the sudden acceleration problem since 2007 and have try to minimize it instead of look out for the safety of their customers.

The 3 series wagon is one ugly car, go check out the A4 advant, its a much better wagon.

How about one million Lexus bucks? :)

Even the new Buick, Lincoln and Caddy are making cars their cars with stiffer suspension now. With Lexus doing the same, there might be a new market for people looking for ultra soft riders like the old town cars and 77 Buick LeSabre. I am suprise no car companies have pick up on that yet.

Steve, you want to sell your #1 to me? :)

That should be the gas vapor purge system, all new cars will do that. Your fuel system is seal, if the pressure builds up too gas due to off gas, the system will purge itself.