The G Man

Putting car into neutral should solve the issue of sudden accelaration, but the problem is what if there is simply not enough to do that, or maybe the driver cannot handle the pressure and panic. What if it is a handicap driver or a senior citizen with slow reaction. What if it is a junior driver with very littel experience. There are many senerios as to why one may not be able to put a car into neutral for what ever reason. Toyota as with any other car company should make sure the driver should not have to worry about putting the car into neutral at high speed everytime they get behind the wheel.

My feeling is that the floor mat, gas pedal and the computer plays a role in the different cases of sudden accelaration. By issuing recalls on the floor mats and gas pedal, Toyota will have eliminated soem future case of sudden accelaration. There no way for Toyota to issue a recall on the computer system because no one is sure if that is even the cause. Until there is some solid finding, the last thing Toyota want to do is stir up some more panic.

I find the Geman rotors to last about as long as the Japanese, about 1 resurface then its time for replacement. The biggest difference is the material, the Japanese use a type of metal that shows rust in the center, while the German rotors stay rust free. Of course the how often you need new brakes will depend on how hard you drive. If you drive your Lexus like a Corolla, the breaks will last a long time, but if you drive your lexus like a BMW or an Audi, things will break down sooner and brakes will wear out faster. There are some GS350, IS350 and IS-F owners who need new brake pads at 20000 miles. In fact, in the Lexus manual for those cars, it specify that the high friction brake pads may only last 20000 miles.

Including the licensure to use it for business? Highly doubtful. Lets say that the cars within the last 5 years are much better, we still have to wait to find out don't we? Being #12 on the IQS list is no huge win... I have no idea how much a side mirror cost for Audi, but I assume is about the same. My point is, Lexus parts are getting as expensive as the Germans. The day of a high quality Lexus at a bargain price is no more. I do agree that German cars break down more often when they get old, but if you trade in your car every 4 or 5 years, then they are relaible enough for most people. If you plan to keep a car for 150000 miles, then It would be cheaper to own American or Japanese. Here is where you and I differ, I consider any car that is over 50000 miles old :) There are a few Audi model from 05 and earlier that is pretty unreliable, but from 06 on, they have improve quite a bit. In my opinion, the older Lexus definitely age better material wise. The newer Lexus has cheaper leather and cheaper plastic interior, the leather usually wrinkles after the 1st year. I believe a legal commerical copy of VAG COM from Ross tech is about $300. Being # 12 is huge for Audi consider they almost drop out of the US market all together about 15 years ago. They use to be a joke and now they are right up there with Lexus, BMW and MB.

The strom miss new england and hit you guys doen south, its about time we get a break :)

I agree, and Sarah Palin is the scariest :)

Drive by wire, beside being very important in Hybrid control, there is also the stability system, some car cuts power to the wheels when it sense a stability issue. It is also use for smoother transmssion shifts, safety distance control and non-linear throttle mapping.

BMW is free for new cars. Older BMWs, dealers charge up to $400 for an oil change depending on the model and the package the owner wants. Now, just like the Lexus you don't have to use the dealer so for the most part I agree with you. As for Audis, why did the VW & Audi specific shop's owner I had my tires from TireRack installed at last year tell me never to trade my Lexus in on an Audi? He said that when he was doing research into which company to service with his new shop, VW & Audi were the clear choice because of their poor reliability and extreme dealer servicing cost which made the fact that their proprietary diagnostic equipment's 4 time higher cost worthwhile. He had 5 Audis in the shop...all under 100,000 miles but out of warranty...every one had a $2k+ repair bill. Did you know just a pair of the Lexus GS350 side mirror cost $2800 just for parts, so a $2000 repair bill is really not that bad. Older German cars is more troublesome than Japanese cars in general. The trade off is German car will age better than Japanese cars. VW-Audi use a diagnostic repair software called VAG-COM. It is a free download online and you can buy the cable from ebay for $20. Your shop owner was right, older Audi are very unreliable, but if you bought an Audi within the last 5 years, they are much more reliable than the old one from years pass. Unfortunately, most people dont do their research and continue to go by information that are old and is no longer tha case.

Its all a trade off, European cars are more fun to drive, they are built better, Japanese cars are more reliable and the electronics is better. The myth of the high maintenance cost of German cars are nothing more than a myth. An audi routine maintenance cost in the 1st 5 years is about $800, BMW is free. The routine maintenance for an Lexus the 1st 5 years can easily double that of Audi's. As far as parts and labor rate is concerned, Lexus's price have gone up in recent years, it is now as high as their German counterparts. According to the latest JD power long term reliability report, Audi have made significant improvment in relaibility. It is now rated above the likes of Subrau, Hyundai and Ford: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-0...liability_N.htm Here is the latest JD power dependability study:

Did she buy a Q7, that is one nice SUV. My wife just bought a Q5, couldnt affort the Q7 :) The quattro system is right up there with Jeep and Subrau. The interior is simply amazing, the quality and workmanship reminds me of my Lexus from 10 years ago.

Toyota's drive by wire system is not much different from all the other car brand's drive by wire system, it will fail on rare occasions, after all, no electronic system is a 100% fail proof. The key to a safe drive by wire system is how the electronic system fails and what redundancy and safety override the system have. Usually, when a drive by wire system fails, it fails to a idle engine state, but the key is for the electronic to know that the system have failed and it is not the driver pushing on the gas pedal trying to get out of the way of a 18 wheeler on the highway. This is where the sensors come into play, the sensor have to know if the sudden increase in gas pedal pressure is cause by a component failure or the driver actually hitting the gas pedal. On some high end vehicles, there are two hall effect sensors on the gas pedal, if one fails and the computer detects that the output of the two hall effect sensors are different, it will go to fail safe mode and idle the engine. There is simply no way for the design engineers to cover every single possibilities of failures, therefore a software gas/ brake override may be the best and cheapest solution for Toyota and Lexus. It a nice safety feature that will cover most of the scenarios and it is very cheap to install.

Unless the point was that a bad thing happening to us gives us carte blanche to wage war against anyone we want, even if they had no involvement in the bad thing that happened to us then he didn't miss the point at all. Ok, one last time. You managed to miss the point as well. The assumption you make is that Bush knowingly lied about the information received from the CIA that he used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The information Bush had at the time indicated the threat originated in Iraq. It is not a matter of what the media feeds us now or even what the evidence is now. Iraq was not invaded the next day. The information at the time was analyzed and actions taken based on that analysis. An innocuous "bad thing" as you offhandedly describe a serious attack on this country is ludicrous. "Carte Blanche to wage war against anyone we want..." is a simplistic overstatement that is beneath your intellect. Hindsight is inappropriate and is the basis for your post. As is the hindsight that the atomic bomb should not have been used on Japan to end WWII. It is the nature of history for it to be rewritten as events unfold and the prejudice of the time influences the authors. The media didn’t feed us anything, it was the Bush administration who claim we attack Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction, how soon did we forget :( Of course, I still fail to see how weapon of mass destruction has anything to do with 9/11. As we all know, by concentrating our effort in Iraq, the Bush administration let Bin Laden escape, how is that for revenging the 9/11 attack for you? If Obama use the same criteria for an all out attack as Bush did, we should be attacking Iran right now for developing nuclear weapons. In my opinion Bush W attack Iraq to finish off a war that his father could not finish, he thought it would be a fast and easy war as evident in the following picture:

A lot of times, it is the natural mechanical harmonics of a car that cause vibration at a certain speed, this can be cause by a number of components and very hard for the dealer to diagnose. Some owners on the GX forum had good with getting ride of the vibration with a road force tire balancing machine, ask your dealer if they have one of those, its call a Hunter road force balancing machine.

The GS350 uses a cartridge type filter, some oil change shop are not familar with the procedure. An oil change at my Lexus dealer use to cost me $40 with a coupon.

Wash and Lube oil change? :) Thats a good one, you might as well go to Jiffy Lube or drive your car into a brick wall and get it over with :)

Congrats, I hope you got a good deal on those cars considering all the safety recalls on Toyota.

cduluk. I agree a 100%. I just dont see how a 1 year old pedal can wear out faster than a 10 year old pedal with a similar design. I must admit I am a bit disappointed at Toyota for continuing trying to find the cheapest way to fix a very serious problem. Personnally, I would push the dealer for the gas/brake software safety upgrade instead of the new pedal. Although a free new floor mat is nice too :)

How many of you have work in customer service and sometimes want to tell a customer to F off, but cannot without getting into trouble. Well I guess this guy from Lextech is the owners and he can blow off steam on a customer if he choose to.

I agree, they don't know. However I am 100% sure had he put it in neutral he would have regained control of the car. He panicked and neglected to do that. Just think, if a professional driving instructor for the state police can panic and not put the car into neutral, it can happen to anybody. Sometimes there is just no time to do that after spending some valuable time trying to stop the car by using the brakes. Sometime you might be box in on the highway with a car in front of you and dont forget all the inexperience drivers out there and the senior citizens with slower reaction time.

The kicker with that though...when he was leaving...he got into an Audi! You must admit, Lexus and Audi are two car companies that are going in opposite direction. Audi use to be a joke ten years ago and they are making some of the best looking and highest quality cars around today, while Lexus' quality and designs continues on a downward spiral.

This would be the worst case senerio for Toyota if the Fed did indeed find something wrong. I really never bought the floor mat and stuck gas pedal theory. Some drivers have claim they actually use their feet to try to lift the gas pedal up from the back side and the car still would not slow down. Rather they are telling the truth or not, that remine to be seen. As of today, any diver who had one of these recall Toyota in MA and was involve in an accident because of the pedal will not have to play insurance surcharge.

I agree, especially a company such as Lexus who pride themself on customer service. Its funny, I have heard of cases in the old days where Lexus customers would complain about wrinkles in their leather after 2 years and Lexus would replace the seat cover for them, that is the Lexus I use to know and love.

I would be buying Toyota for a while, I think their best days are behind them. The Lexus division is one of the most successful branch luxury division of any company. Toyota would be a fool to combine with Lexus.

I am sure Mr Toyoda did not find it funny :)

The Genesis coupe track edition is rated as high as BMW 3 series when it comes to handling. The 370z and the Mustang will not handle as well.