smooth1

nice.

I get 19 mpg when I drive the way I want to. (which is most of the time.)

But when I'm a good boy and drive within the law, I average around 26.

Are you talking springs or coilovers?

Coilovers are the way to go. Especially on the IS. No adjustable camber. So it's nice to be able to tune the ride height a bit. Tenabe, Tein, or Megans are nice.

I've owned both sets and I can tell you that you would be very happy with either. The Conti's have a longer tread life though, and cost less too, so that's why I am buying another set of those.

I have almost 50k miles on my 08 IS350, I changed out the stock suspension for an adjustable one. I generally keep the car about 1.5 inches lower than stock, and I have pretty aggressive offset's on my rims. The stock camber isn't adjustable, so I expected a little more inside tire wear, but over the years, I've really had no issues at all with alignments or excessive wear.

Yeah, its the basic GM story of the basic same car across all of their platforms. Me personally, I like the look of the fully loaded Chevy Traverse LTZ the best, more of an angled and edgy look. With the highend wheels, I think it really is a sharp vehicle. But the Buick has the best interior finishes across the line. I'm not a big fan of it's exterior though. But, the wife is, so I default to the "I like it" position...

They are expensive, more than makes sense to me. But, does appear to hold value pretty well. Until of course someone else figures out the minivan interior w/ an SUV exterior that isn't huge or massively expensive. The only thing I can think of that comes close is the MB R series. But, too much Detroit in those. I priced a single shock absorber for one a few months back...$2,000! It says something about a car when it's manufacturer refuses to sell an extended warranty on one of their own cars before the new car warranty expires....

You know, I went and looked at all of them again and actually I want to officially change my position. I agree. The Traverse is the better looking of them. I was thinking they both looked like the GMC version with the odd headlight thing it has. The Buick and the Traverse have the better looking headlights.

And I know what you mean about the prices. Shouldn't we be getting an employee/stock holder discount? LOL!

LOL, they have come a long way, but its still VERY Cross-platformed with the Chevy Traverse and GMC Acadia. Honestly I think the Acadia has a better interior. But if the wifey likes it, its important to the sactity of marriage to keep Mrs. NC211 happy! :D

Yeah, but the Buick is the better looking exterior of those.

LOL!! A Buick huh? Down here in tourist town, that's what all the Q-tips drive. So, I guess retirement isn't to far off.....

Love it!

Nice.

Thanks fellas, appreciate the input! We won't be replacing the 4runner any time soon. our first experience yesterday with the prospect of buying any car in general, turned us off completely with the process, especially given the nightmare I went through last year to replace my GS with my VW. Life's just too short to put up with this crap.

Going to do the service on the car, and buy either a rack via the hitch, or a roof rack, for some additional packing space of kid gear for our drives to NC.

I just don't think I've got it in me to deal with this right now, without ending up with a new car, and a court date for assault charges. Really really really really hate these car salesman here in ChiTcago.

My sentiments exactly. I actually think it's a company policy and philosophy they teach there! Remember when I went to the dealership to look at Tahoe's a couple years ago before I got the ML? Same thing, although your experience definately trumps mine. To disrespect you, and your wife, and I'll bet he never even knew anything of what he just did! I'll bet he would act all shocked and bewildered at the fact that you felt disrespected and insulted. Amazing.

And I'm with Josh then. Keep the Toyota. Nobody should have to deal with poor treatment like that over a car!

God Speed and be with you brother. I hope you know how much I and my family appreciate you and your effort. This country owes you and others like you all the support we can muster. So, no matter where you go, we will be waiting here for your speedy return. And let your wife know that she can come on here and give us updates once in awhile if you can't get to a computer.

(Shaking my head in disgust.) I hear ya, guys.

Intakes on these cars don't really do much other than change the sound. You can do a search here and find out for yourself and what does work. I'll give you a hint : PSI

Well...we really don't NEED an SUV lol, really we need to do this whole transaction like we need a hole in the head. But...thats never stopped me before LOL.

Just got a Carmax valuation on the Prius for about $10k, which was better than I expected from them. So we'll see what the Jeep dealer offers me. I'm sure I could sell it myself for $11k or 12k if Carmax is willing to give me $10k.

I think part of the problem is that the salespeople don't know what they're talking about. For instance, the one guy kept saying "Leases are real complicated, come in and I'll explain it to you" even after I told him I've leased several vehicles in the past and am very familiar with leasing. The funniest thing was when I told him that I don't know if I would lease it or buy it, but I wanted to see what the lease option was he says "Quoting these payments is very time consuming, especially when you say you probably won't do it". Um, when did I say I "probably won't do it", and how can I decide if I want to do it if you can't quote me an accurate lease deal?" Moron.

The woman who has the $32,200 price was asked the same question, and she came back with lease payments of $555 which is obviously wrong, and $100 more per month than the estimator at Jeep.com. That would be about what the payment would be to buy it and finance it for 60 months at that price. As opposed to getting into it with her I just asked her for the residual and money factor and I'll calculate it myself. Again, every email she sends she closes with "When can you come in, drive the Jeep and we'll sit down and talk about it?". Every time I tell her "I appreciate that, but since I'm 45 miles away and have already driven the Jeep a dozen times I'd like to know what the options are, and even choose an option before coming in. If I drive 90 miles round trip, its going to be simply to sign the paperwork and drive off, not just to "talk". ...and she's the "Internet sales manager!" shouldn't she understand the Internet consumer? I mean...I basically told both these people if they get me the info I want, I can use that to make a decision, and I'll be down to sign the paperwork. I know the financing option, now I know what my trade is worth, now I need to know the lease option and I'll have all the info I need and can make a decision. So frustrating...

The Lexus salespeople were totally different. I negotiated the deal for the ES350 on my Blackberry while sitting on the beach.

Exactly!! All they had to do when I bought the IS 350 was have them verify my trade was everything I said it was. Once they inspected my trade, I was in an office signing all the paperwork on the deal we worked out via email and phone calls. I met my salesperson for the first time 10 minutes before the final test drive of the actual car I was going to be taking home that day. Very smooth, very polite, very respectful, very service driven. That was by far the best new car purchase experience of all the cars I've purchased.

Hahahaha! Maybe so!

I've gotten a bunch of internet quotes from different dealers, seems I can match the original deal of just under $34k all over town. I responded to the guy who was at $32k but haven't heard back yet...thats definitely an outlier so I'm skeptical...

Unfortunately the first guy is the only guy that has exactly what I want. He really *BLEEP*ed me off though, kept trying to get me into the dealer instead of answering my simple questions, which as a salesman I understand, finally I just said "Look, this is how I buy cars. Before I set foot in the dealership I'm going to have the price figured out, the financing figured out, the trade figured out, and I'm just going to walk in and sign the paperwork. I'm not going to go and sit at the dealership for 5 hours while all these numbers and options are thrown around and choose one without analyzing it first to decide which way I want to go. If that doesn't work for you, it'll work for somebody." I haven't heard back from him.

I'm tempted to go get this thing this weekend and drive it to the beach ;)

Actually Steve, that's exactly what I would do if I wanted it for sure. These dealerships are just not like dealing with Lexus and Mercedes etc. I could never get a straight answer. If only these auto mfgrs would wake up and realize how many sales they lose in the parking lots and lobbies because they won't just be on the table. I frickin hate the "the price is as much as your willing to pay and as much as I can squeeze out of you" philosophy. All the artificial mark ups, and hidden dealer incentives and so on and so on, how can anyone buy a car, and not be suspicious of being screwed and carrying that feeling with them afterwards? Heck, that's what's probably spawned this whole car forum idea in the first place! So we can check with each other and console each others fears and frustrations! LOL!!

Hey, maybe you can take the Lexus to their parking lot and cry foul, "you hit my car!" and get an even better deal!!

Nice Smooth! Hey, you went car shopping, and bought a car! Sort of went to LA from San Fran via Omaha to get it, but it all worked out for everyone!

LOL!! I'm only driving the "beater" car to the dealerships for test drives from now on!

Wow that looks nice!! The new Cherokee interior looks very "Mercedes-esque", definitely a step up from the previous generations. Good luck with it

Yeah, if you only knew just how much so!!! The gauges, the window switches, the chassis, just about the whole "concept" layout is really the same. BUT:

Mercedes does do it better. As much as I like this new Jeep, it really does reinforce just how good Mercedes is. The small things you live with everyday on the MB is just tuned better, thought out more, higher quality, and makes more sense. On the other hand, the new Jeep has the new Uconnect system with Nav, and after getting more familiar with it, while I do still need more time to figure out some of the other menues and screens, I will state for the record, it's the best interactive Navigation system on just about any vehicle I've seen so far. I have the upgraded 730 Alpine head unit, and it simply puts the Mercedes NAv system to shame, and easily beats the Lexus Nav system. That is a good surprise. I wasn't really sure about this feature before.

And.......I love the new panoramic sunroof. That alone makes it worth it.

I've been looking into some technology upgrades for my 2006 IS350. I have an iPhone 4 with the latest IOS and I've thought about getting something to interface my phone with the navigation display. Two options I'm considering are the Parrot 9200 and the VAIS si2iC. I've also thought about the VAIS m2i but it's REALLY expensive at $500, and I'm not sure what more you're getting for the extra $150.

I'm curious what others have done and how happy you are with your choice? One thing I like about the Parrot is it supports both USB and Bluetooth audio... but the VAIS seems to have a far more advanced interface, not to mention a much bigger screen by using my factory nav screen.

So for those who have upgraded I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

The MedialinQ 2 is a high def menu system and is much more integrated. If your gonna spend the $350+ on one, then I would just get the ML2. Even though it also offers other options you may never use.

Nice!

I'm jealous ;)

I have ours all picked out, the dark green color with the black interior, Laredo X model. I got a quote for what seems like a good price...MSRP is $38,285 offer is $33,900. Thats like $1600 below invoice...

Nice! That does sound like a pretty good deal. Do they have one on the lot? Are you looking at a 2011? I ask because the 2012 have a $780 price increase, and they already shut down for the year end change over. So if you see the one you want, you might want to just get it. I would have had to wait 3 to 4 months if I wanted to be stubborn.

After all was said and done, They gave me $30K for my ML 350, and sold me the Overland for just over $26k. I owed just over $14k on the ML and I now owe just under $15k for the Jeep. I financed that for 4 years and have a $328.00 payment.

Since this took so long, the estimates came back on the ML for repair and it looks like they still came out about even. The truck repair estimate was $9600.00 plus final settlements.

Overall, I'm happy and think this worked out ok, and I appreciate the dealerships leadership in finding an amicable solution that we both walked away with just a slight pain over this, but none the less we are both over this and can still look each other in the eyes and shake hands.

Dang that does suck. Atleast it is just cosmetic. Make sure you take pictures and keep them. Later when you decide to sell the car you can show what happened instead of them thinking it was some major accident anyway. It could help.

This is a simple fix: (1) buy a 4x4, and (2) hire an attorney.

Ok, so I'm ready then!

http://autos.aol.com/article/global-traffic-jams/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk3%7C218206

I didn't hear about this 60 mile traffic jam that lasted for a few days??? Really? LOL! So.......now what....we're buying to many cars? I never thought about it before, but yeah, I guess it's possible huh? I wonder if there is any math out there that's calculated how many cars per square mile or linear mile of road, and at what number it becomes a real issue, and where we are in relationship to that number right now?