SOMEONE ELSE'S GOT MY NAME

sorry cduluk, you missed the boat by 2 years :P The 2010 is the 1st year Lexus went all out. The new model will have the Atkinson ICE (where the crank spins only once for all 4 piston strokes), gear driven inverter instead of chain, as well as SKS, lane assist, collision avoidance, LED headlights, higher MPG, lower drag, and the like. I believe it'll also have HD (hard drive) navi, instead of DVD. WAY cool. The up side is you paid a lot less than you'd have paid, clunking down for the 2010. I wonder who will be the 1st on the forum to pony up for one of these.

Er, not so. It is possible to voice dial. The search tool is a wonderful thing. Consider this ... from another post, and for your pleasure: Hi everyone - new to forum and Lexus, but may be able to help here. I also had trouble trying to set up Voice Recognition Tags. Could not find the record option page illustrated in the Nav manual, then discovered that while in the Edit Contact Data segment, in addition to inputing new or editing Name and Number(s), you can also press the Down Arrow (left bottom of page) and it opens up an additional option page which contains the hidden Voice Recognition Option. Manual says nothing about the location of this extra page. Just select the "Voice Rec" button and follow its lead to create your Voice Tag. Hope this helps someone. Anywho ... hope that rescues those that never knew. Now, whether or not the feature is on the newest hardware (08's and beyond) or not ... who knows. But those old posts ... good to save, for a rainy day. .

It sure is weird . . . seeing pirate NAV disks openly discussed on the forrum. Not so, back in the day. Guessing times have changed. Anybody want to buy a SUPER cheep, low mileage near new, stolen 400h ?? (just kidding) :P .

Costco just had a $10 coupon that brought it down to about the same price as Walmart. I'm thinking with the longer changeout, the price is a bit less than using regular oil. Just started using Mobile1 5w-30 about a year ago, 10,000 mile intervals. Next winter I think I'll go with 0w-30 to aid in the 1st 10 minute mpg warmup. Anyone have experience using this?

Thank you for being a good sport ... as some would get their feathers ruffled. BTW, I too, am famous for spelling 'whoop'es'. But taking it in stride as you did? That's a true sign of character. Rey, you forgot one vowel ... the infamous 'Y' . . . as in 'sky' ... sorry ... there's so few chances to use my useless info/trivia. :P

I've used our newer 6.1 disk w/ our older 5.1 loading file, but when we got the newer version beyond 6.1 ? Well, the maps upgraded, but access to the maintenance screen would not load. I've read several contradictory threads regarding this. Some say it's individual hardware (the DVD Player) causing the loss of the maint/override screen while some 'think' it's working, simply because the maps work (ie; they never access the maint. screen to do over-rides). good luck.

I thought someone got impaled on the steering colum ... pierced a lung. You meant lunge ! :D

Apparently the current wiper is a bit of pain already... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=55545 As for cost of lexus repair, my little dent in the rear quarter panel (you can search it), cost nearly $4K to fix. I don't see how the new design would make repair costs any worse than they already are. Well the 2010 RX wiper IS as tough to install as the old one . . . however, neither is a killer, by any means. The fellow who couldn't figure out how to change the old blade was simply having trouble "lifting" the blade. Granted, the blade only lifts a couple inches off the glass. However THIS is the easiest mod you can do. Simply pull the plastic base cover off the wiper. Grab a pair of pliers & twist off the inner tab of the plastic base. Put the plastic base cover back on. Viola ... the blade now raised above the glass. You're good to go. As for repair costs? Isn't that what insurance is for? And let me know when someone finds out which car it is, that's so cheep to repair, as to not need insurance ... I'll be right there. :D Anybody here found out whether the 12v Aux battery has been 're-sized' to account for people killing it (running sterio, lights, etc while in aux mode) so easily?

That's an awful slam on oak trees :P Maybe it's more like talking to just the stump ... after it's been well eaten by termites. The bright side is that the 2010's ability to 'understand' what you're saying is supposed to be vastly improved.

You're kidding, right? Lexus calls those dim / half power elements 'Fog' lights ? Are you sure? Wow . . . and I thought they were useless as DRL's ... not that there are any DRL's that aren't usless. According to most every (except ones done by the DRL industry) study out there now days .. there's little, if any benefit from these things. This is a typical example of a ton of studies posted on line: http://www.motorists.org/drl/drlstudy08.pdf Now I know there are still those who'll fight & die over DRL's ... and bless you & your opinion(s) if you differ. I suppose some simply add 'em for some kind of 'cool' factor ... what ever floats your 400h. First mod I did was to add a switch to shut 'em off. :)

I'd wait for maybe 6 or 7 more months, until the first used 2010's come out. Higher power, lower drag, more MPG's, more high tech goodies, etc. The wait will be well worth it. If you go down for a test drive when they come out any day now, I'll bet you'll agree. ;) .

1st ~ OLED is beyond what most have even herd of, but YES, it IS extreamly clear & bright. Very agrivating when the sun hits our 2006 400h screen ... it gets wiped out. Plus, the power draw is VERY minimal. Same with LED headlights, if in fact it'll have 'em. That's one thing the dealer doesn't seem to know. As for the new/fat look? Hmmm. Kind of reminds me of fishing out of season. Ever pulled a steelhead or rainbow trout up when it's full of row? That's what it reminds me of ... a pregnant fish, like the highlander. I think I'll get used to it eventually. Oh! ... and the mpg's are higher ... even under the new/stricter EPA standards. Partly that's due to more plastic underbelly ad on's (making it harder to change your own oil i'll bet) ... which accounts for a better drag coefficiency ... and partly due to the new ICE. It now gets an Atkinson style engine (one revolution of the crank for all 4 piston strokes), like the prius ... which is lower power, but higher efficiency. Power loss is likely made up by higher efficiency EV power. Another thing about the NAV ... live traffic updates, when equiped w/ satelite radio. Nice.

Anybody checked out these features yet? http://www.lexus.com/models/RX/features/in...up_display.html Heads up display is my favorite. I haven't yet heard though if the nav is hard drive, though the Prius will be later in the new model year. And at least one Lexus has LED headlights now. The RX? anybody?

It IS weard. A couple of times, I actually had to turn the key 'on' to seemingly purge memory power ... as though there was a bit of ability to store power ... like in a capacitor. But (I was told to try this) by turning the key on, any remaining power dumped.

The scenerio below is why I started buying clone drives over 5 years ago ... runing RAID's on our network. Pull out out one JBOD ... shove it into another system, and FEDEX the potential fire bomb system to the repair joint ... on my lunch break, of course B)

And . . . you can KEEP making money by going around disconnecting the 12v aux battery :P In other words, as soon as the DVD hardware looses all 12v power, it will also kill the ROM. I've messed with making quite a few different Toyota NAV DVD's (changing out different loading files and/or map data files ... versions 3 thru 7 ... just to see what it'd do) ... and I've found the same thing ... that old data can store on the system hardware, so that simply putting in a new disk doesn't necessarily kill all the old data.

rxgold, welcome! Don't worry about the little green / blue / pink battery screen(s) as the system will take care of itself. Even when it's completely full/green, it's STILL not really full (btw, all this is in your manual if you got one with your ride) ... rather 80% or less ... similarly when/if it appears completely empty (it can go that low), your car still has about 20% traction battery reserve remaining. That's why the batteries will last easily over 100K miles ... because by not going into the high/low extreames, their life is increased. As for low mpg's ... as stated above, it can be tire pressure (I keep our AWD 400h at 40psi and get over 30mpg) and/or driving habbits, and/or extra hot/cold temps ... hilly driving ... short trips ... or combonations of any/all of the above. Give it time! If high mpg's are your goal ... practice practice practice. My experience here is that most Lexus drivers aren't so concerned about hypermiling, rather power/handling/looks :P . I'm the odd ball, and get off on seeing how far I can stretch a tank of fuel ... to the shagrin of my wife.

I didn't realize any model year Lexus hybrid marketed after 2006 had a tape player option. Does that include 8 track? :P I know, I know, some of you kids don't even know what that is. I'm gona go feel old now.

+1 Put another way, here's an excerpt from one of the specialist hybrid tech's: 5. EFI or fuel injector cleaning really not necessary until you see 100k, if you have a bad tank of gas, or if you start seeing misfires (and you'll see a check engine light when that happens.) . . . . . other possible [misfire] problems could include seal failures due to pressure (rare but possible.) since it doesn't idle, most techs will get in and stomp on the gas pedal until the EFI cleaner runs its course. this leads to a condition called "blinky check engine light" which means that you have overheated your catalyst and are in serious danger of melting the insides of your catalytic converter. Bottom line, as others already eloquently said, save you money.

I don't expect the dealer to cough up for chips & soda, but i HAVE come to expect those GREAT warm/soft cookies ... oatmeal and/or chocolate chip ... that the service department always leave out ... YUM YUM !! Foo foo coffee too. :P Now I'll segway back to the OP. Hugh? "downloaded" DVD ?? Man, the ops used to jump all over that. They must be gettin' old :D The DVD's are hard copies, last time I checked ... so the only downloads are from torrent sites like pirate bay, etc (which by the way just got 4 of their main dudes hauled into court for copyright violations). Well, I don't want to be accused of playing cyber cop, so I'll just leave it alone.

The mold / AC issue is/was easy to solve. We simply sprayed the snot out of all the surrounding parts, & the filter with this: http://usera.imagecave.com/w4abj/TotalHYGIENDM1.jpg End of issue for us. It's sold in Australia, and the EU, but very hard to find in the U.S. though. The mold thing ... few seem to use the search function here, but the thing has been covered ad nausium, and so I keep posting & posting. Many autos seem to suffer from the mold potential, and deal w/ it in different ways. Now as to the dealer using "deodoriz[ing]" chemicles, MAN, some of THOSE chemicles are as bad, if not worse than molds. The stuff we found (above) is manufactured with human health in mind, whereas some of the so called deodorizing chemicles simply mask the issue with perfumes ... which are just petro chemicles. Good luck w/ your fix, & here's hoping the deoderant didn't simply mask the problem.

Fog lights ? . . . are we talkin' DRL's ?

Althouth the Dealer is not under any obligation to do (or make) changes on your settings if you bought your car used, our dealer did them for us twice. The last time was when our auxiliary battery died (2 weeks ago) under warranty. Maybe that was why they went and did it ... who know ... but they reset the sunroof, DVD map settings, windows & door locks.

Glad to hear there's Toyota service in Georgia. Many of the Highlander Hybrid parts are identical to Lexus, so that's a good thing. We have the same issue with our Lexus in Montana ... no dealership for 100's of miles. By the way, yes, I have HEARD of Armenia (and even work with a couple fellows who were born there) ... I simply wouldn't have been able to find it on a map to save my live. It's best to call the dealer ahead of time. Give them your VIN (vehicle Identification number) so they can confirm your hybrid is one that needs the replacement parts. If it needs replacing, the dealer can pre-order the parts, and the dealer can call you when the parts are in. Otherwise you may end up being without your Lexus for days & days.

The nav disks show up on ebay regularly--some OEM and some bootleg. Tom Bad thing about the bootleg versions (besides being illegal) is you'll have no recourse if they don't work. After doing several copies of the 3 versions we have, I can tell you it's easy to do it wrong. The other issue is the DVD hardware version in your hybrid. Not all are the same. I believe you can (for example) get a version 4 hardware disk with version 6.1 mapping software. It can get down right complex.