jragosta

I know a guy who did that with a BMW. Brand new, sporty red Z8 or something like that. He put a thousand miles or so on it and delivered it to the port. A week or so later, he read in the paper that a ship carrying cars had sunk off the British coast. Sure enough, his car is now at the bottom of the ocean. BMW gave him a new one, but it took a couple months to get everything straightened out.

Don't forget the multiples. Some people change the timing belt at 90 K and then ignore it at 180 K, 270 K, and so on.

Read the FAQ. Bottom line is that I wouldn't mess with the audio unless you're really sure of what you're doing. It's not that expensive to have professionals help you select, install, and adjust speakers. If you do it on your own without the proper adjustment equipment, you're just as likely to get WORSE sound as better. In general, I like Infinity speakers (just bought a new set of towers at home and used all Infinity the last time I upgraded a car stereo), but would never simply yank factory speakers and replace them with Infinity and expect them to sound good. At a MINIMUM, you'd want a good parametric equalizer to adjust the sound to match the car interior.

Sorry, but if a person slams into me from behind under these circumstances, it's not my fault. The person behind shouldn't be moving until the way is clear.

There's also another possible cause. Let's say that his memory IS 100% accurate. If the brakes failed for any reason (lack of maintenance, mechanical failure, phase of the moon, whatever), the car would seem to surge forward under those conditions. I don't consider this particularly likely, but I guess it's possible. Bottom line is as I said before. This has been reported (rarely) on virtually every car ever made and no one has ever been able to duplicate it for a mechanic. That makes mechanical failure a very unlikely explanation.

If an additive helped, they may be right about the gas. If you have a significant amount of water in the tank, it could easily take several tankfuls to clear it out - even with additive. I'd keep adding gas additive for a couple of tanks to see if that continues to improve things. It's certainly the least expensive thing you can do (other than ignoring it).

What's your point? No one ever said your car wasn't damaged. We're just having trouble figuring out why you think it's Lexus' fault.

I'm not much of an expert, but is it fuel-starved? Would a plugged fuel filter or a pump putting out too little pressure cause that kind of stutter? Personally, I'd expect it to be worse at higher speeds, but you never know. Oh, you might also check the fuel injectors. One last possibility - did you replace the distributor cap when you replaced the plug wires? As you can tell, I don't have any idea, but those are things I'd check out if it were mine.

If you can do all that yourself, you don't really need anyone here to help. Just see if the total cost is less than the value of the car (after allowing for the price you can get for parts on eBay, if you wish). Add in a correction factor for the value of your time as well as to allow for the risk that you'll find more damage once you start working on it. At the very least, I'd have the body shop spec the frame to ensure that there was no frame damage before you spend a penny on everything else.

Absolutely. There's no reason why you should have to put up with damage (even minor damage) in this case. On the positive side, it probably won't be a big deal to him anyway. If he's turned it over to the insurance company to pay for the SUV, they'll just add you to that claim. His record won't be any worse if he has a $12 K claim than if he has a $10 K claim. Of course, it's possible that he hasn't filed with the insurance compnay and is paying out of his own pocket. That's his right - but isn't any reason why you shouldn't get your car fixed.

Given the numbers in the $8 - 10 K range (which is pretty close to where I'd have put it), I'd call it a total loss. The car's probably not going to be worth that much once you repair it. Not to mention, of course, that there could be other hidden damage. Are you sure the frame isn't bent, for example? If you file an insurance claim, they're going to take the car. If you don't file a claim, you can keep the car and sell it for parts. That will help to offset the losses, anyway. However, your best bet is to get an expert estimate. Even though some of the people here have far more experience than I, you really need to see the car up close to give an estimate that's any good.

I'm not saying that some magical thing never happened. BUT, no one has EVER duplicated this problem at a repair shop. AND, the problem has occurred on virtually every type of car ever made. AND, the problem is more common with new cars - as people are getting used to a new car. Those things make is very hard to jump to the conclusion that Lexus is at fault here.

Before you get worked up, do a little research - starting on nhtsa's site. There are reports of almost every car in the world accelerating on its own. The first (if I remember correctly) was a big stink about one particular Audi model back in the 70's or 80s. Since then, there are sporadic reports about nearly every vehicle. However, if you look, you'll see that these reports are rare for each type of car. You almost never see more than a couple reports per model. That is why NHTSA said that it's probably due to operator error rather than a design flaw. As far as I know, no one has EVER been able to duplicate this problem in front of an investigator or even a dealer. The ES transmission problem which has been discussed extensively here is quite different. It is easy to duplicate and a very large number of ES owners have experienced it. There's no way that NHTSA is going to be able to do anything about your 'surging car' problem - since no one can reproduce it and since it's not related to any one vehicle.

Other than the good advice you've already been given, I will just add one comment. Don't restrict your search too early in the process. Even if you are sure you want a Lexus, why limit it to a 94? You might find an earlier model in superb condition or a later one that's a great deal. The more flexibility you give yourself, the better a value you'll find in the long run.

If so, you got a pretty good deal. Still, I'd choose a brand new ES over a 5 year old used LS (you didn't specify the mileage). In general, with Lexus vehicles, they don't depreciate enough to make it worth while. A 2 year old CPO ES, for example, is only a couple thousand less than a brand new one. I would rather have the brand new one for a lot of reasons: 1. Longer warranty 2. You don't have to worry about whether someone else maintained it properly or abused it on the road. 3. You don't have to rely on the CPO warranty (which - as at least one person here can attest - might not be as strong as the factory warranty). 4. You lose out on any new features introduced recently - like side curtain air bags front ant rear on the ES. 5. Higher maintenance costs. 6. No matter how well the dealer cleans up a used car, it's just not new. Having someone else's scratches and wear and tear would annoy me. If I only had $10 K to spend for a car, I'd seriouisly consider used. But spending $30 K, I just don't think I'd ever find enough savings to make it worth my while.

Agreed. If I wanted a $30 K sporty sedan, I'd go with the Infiniti G35 or perhaps the Acura TL. I wasn't very impressed with the IS300.

I may be a little unusual, but I'd rather pay someone to do a job like this. Most installers charge a fixed amount per pair of speakers and you can be reasonably sure that it will be done right. Since yours are an odd size, you'll come out ahead. $50 (or whatever) might be too much for a simple 'remove the old ones and install new ones' job. But since yours involves some custom work, you'll probably be ahead of the game to pay someone. IMHO.

Try www.crutchfield.com. They have measurements for the older ES models, but not the newest ones. I don't know if they have yours or not.

Just curious - how much money do you get every time someone clicks this link from your web page? Last time I checked, this site was not to be used for commercial advertising.

Crutchfield seems to have them. www.crutchfield.com.

Put down the keys and step away from that car...... I had a Vanden Plas once - what a piece of junk. Nice looking and comfortable, but less reliable than my Ford Aspire.

If you were connecting a third party radio to your van, I'd suggest buying the adapters at www.crutchfield.com. But I'm not sure that you'll find an adapter to do what you want. I'm sure you'll have to cut and splice.

The STS is one of those cars that either you love it or you hate it. I took one look at it up close and decided to not even test drive it. In my eyes, it's one of the ugliest cars in recent history. That's too bad, because it seemed pretty decent in other respects.

The problem seems to have been fixed in Canadian models. US models are ULEV (ultra low emission vehicles) and the transmission / engine logic is somewhat different than the Canadian ones. It was reported here earlier that even earlier models can be fixed - IF you're in Canada.

Sorry, I disagree with this statement! I felt the same warming of the vents on my, '91ES, my '94ES, and my current '03ES. It would be strange that all 3 cars would exhibit the same symptoms......dontcha think? I just mentioned about using the recirculate position as a work around if the warm air was bothersome when using the venting system without turning on the climate control. ;) It happens on mine, as well - also on other cars I've driven. I just leave the climate control on auto and move the temperature up and down for comfort. My wife does the same thing this person apparently does. If the car is too cold, she turns the AC off - rather than increasing the temperature a bit. Of course, within a few minutes, the car is way too hot. So I turn the AC back on and show her how to raise the temperature - for the umpteenth time.