bullitt

I believe the HDD is 30 GB. George

Hi, I've downloaded all my favorite CD tracks to the HDD in the Nav/ML stereo. I would like to play the songs in a random order. However, there seems to be no way to get a truly random selection. Based on the selected play mode it seems to either Randomly select tracks in an album until they are all played then go to the next (or random?) album, Randomly select tracks by an artist until they are all played then go to the next (or random?) artist, Randomly select tracks in a genre by album ... It is possible to randomly select between all songs on the HDD? I know you might not want to do that with CDs since that may cause undue delays between songs and wear and tear on the CD changer mechanism. But I see no reason the HDD can't go from song to song willy-nilly. George

Probably a bit late to respond to your question since you’ve already taken the plunge but … I can’t compare the ML stereo to the standard stereo but I can compare it to the 2001 version in our old LS430. We were impressed with the 2001 ML system but didn’t use it all that much on road trips. There was just enough wind noise and road noise to prevent us from listening comfortably. We don’t play music that loudly (at least we don’t when my wife is in the car) and a comfortable sound level didn’t override the other noise enough. The 2007 ML is very different. The car, of course, seems much quieter. But, OMG, the stereo with surround mode on is absolutely enveloping at our normal comfort levels. Perhaps it’s the doubled wattage or the increased number of speakers or whatever, but it’s fantastic. I was in a high end stereo shop 15 years ago shopping for some mid-range speakers. We got a friendly clerk who agreed to show us the "top of the line high end system" for comparison. $30K worth. He played a jazz piano CD, some Beach Boys and some soft rock (our target sounds). He also had his favorite demo CD, the Commodor's "Night Shift". Great song with a lot of interesting percussion. The high end system _really_ blew us away with the percussion. Like nothing I ever heard before or since ... until the 2007 ML came along. It sounds better. It’s too bad we had to get the Nav system and the stupid automatic parking options to get the ML stereo. We will rarely use the Nav system (regardless of whether or not it is locked out) and the auto parking is so lame as to be embarrassing. But we definitely LOVE the ML. Silver Bullitt PS: Just got the license plates today. Ouch! "$73K – the gift that keeps on giving." Glad we negotiatswed them down to $65K for it.

I did a little Googling and found http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef017dc/0 Someone did lab comparisons of various tire gauges. Summary: Stick or pen type gauges (with the white shaft that pops up) tend to read 1-2 psi low Dial type gauges tend to read 1-2 psi high Most digital gauges read pretty close (1 psi) Stick types should be lubed with WD-40 every so often. You may see a 5-8 psi difference between various gauges. It is possible for a gauge of any type to be right on (your results may vary). The "Accutire" brand digital gauge that sells for $10-30 at Sears and other places has great accuracy (+/- 0.5 psi), highly recommended although some foks felt it didn't seat well on some tire stems. Silver Bullitt

Hey, I'm an engineer. Engineers do stuff like this. However, you are correct in assuming a psi here or there doesn't matter much (unless you are trying to avoid the dreaded push at 200 mph at Daytona in turn 3). Silver Bullitt

Does anyone have a feel for how accurate the tire pressure monitors are? When we picked the car up a month ago, the tire pressures were uneven (31-34 psi). We asked the dealer to check the pressures and they adjusted them but the monitors still showed one or two psi difference. I bought a decent tire dial-type pressure gauge recently (a "professional" model from Checker, so I can make no claims of accuracy for it) and carefully adjusted (and double checked with an older tire gauge) all tires to read 33 psi. The internal monitors showed two tires at 31 psi and two at 32 psi. The tires were "cold" (not driven since the day before). I realize the dial gauge could still be off a psi or two and the actual pressures may be on the border line between two readings ("31.5"). Is there spec on thne asccuracy of the monitors? Is it possible to buy an truly accurate tire gauge? Other than what NASCAR teams use, of course, since they probably are gold plated and more than a little pricey. Silver Bullitt

The dealer (Stevenson Lexus in Lakewood [Denver area]) had them in stock and installed them before we picked up the car. I don't know if the wheels are from Lexus or after market or chromed locally. I had a '94 Seville STS that had chromed stock wheels and they were done by a chrome plating shop in Grand Junction, CO. I had to get a replacement center cap for one and I had to call the chrome shop to get it. Silver Bullitt

Yep. http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Cars/2007Lexus.htm Silver Bullitt

We think the chrome version of the "standard" wheels look great on a silver car. And they cost much less than the Telios wheels at our dealer. Silver Bullitt

Based on the Lexus brochures, graphics on the dashboard and the Nav system CD-ROM tutorial, Lexus itself seems to think Mercury Metallic is the hot setup. I have to agree. And a black leather interior is pretty kinky (unless you live in Phoenix). Silver Bullitt

I was curious if anyone made note of this issue when you filled out the Lexus survey [if you bothered]. I just filled out both the local dealer and overall car surveys this weekend and gave top marks in all categories EXCEPT the nav system. I paraphrased this thread in the "more information" box. I'll be interested to see if I get any response from Lexus. Silver Bullitt

We did a shopping trip from Ft. Collins to Denver this weekend in our 3 week old LS460. Mostly freeway there and back but lots of stop and go in Denver. Overall MPG from the trip computer was 29.3! We haven't done a road trip yet. We're getting around 21 MPG around town driving to work and back. [silver] Bullitt

Stevenson Lexus has two stores in the Denver area, Lakewood (west) and Frederick (north). They were sponsoring the International Golf Tournament in Castle Pines and had ordered 220 ES, RX and GX "courtesy cars" for the touring pros. These low mileage cars are then sold for "an impressive discount" when the tournament is over. The tournament was cancelled this year but not before the cars were ordered and the order could not be cancelled. So Stevenson is interested in moving cars, any cars. I think this helped get us a good deal. Good timing on our part. [silver] Bullitt

I'm not a big cellphone user - my current phone is for "emergencies only" and is old and crufty (and cheap). I would like to upgrade my phone service to a more normal plan and get a Bluetooth phone that will work with the LS460 Nav system. Sprint has a nice basic plan that suits my needs and the "free" LG LX150 phone has what I want and does not have what I don't want (camera, MP3, internet, etc). Nice simple phone with Bluetooth. The clerk checked for compatibility with the Lexus and discovered only the Motorola RAZR was "officially" compatible (the only one that Lexus bothered to test, I suppose). Has anyone tried using the LG LX150 with the Nav system? What other phones have been used successfully with the L460? [silver] Bullitt

We talked with a buying service and the best they could do was $2000 off the MSRP. We negotiated the deal ourselves. We had an unusual situation that probably frustrated the dealer to no end. My wife got a good chunk of money from the sale of her deceased parent's home and we were waiting for the closing to happen and money to be transferred to our bank account. If it weren't for the inheritance, we wouldn't even be looking at a new car, to say nothing of a new LS460. So going in, we told the salesman in no uncertain terms that we would not sign anything until the money showed up (we certainly could not afford the payments on the new car; the 2001 was bought used and was the limit of our budget then). We took a week off work for general R&R at home and to look for a new car. We figured we would end up with an LS460 because we take long driving trips and need supreme comfort and good trunk space. But we did shop around at the luxury car level - BMW 5xx, Audi A6, Volvo S80, Acura RL, Infinity M45, Cadillac DTS. A few test drives and mostly just sitting the cars eliminated all of them (even at $20K less money). We were undecided on the color combo and were shopping all three dealers to see who had what. The dealer we bought from the first time was a little aloof. I guess he figured he had a lock on a new deal but didn't have a color combo that was a "must have". The dealer closest to us was a brand new branch of the other dealer in town and they were nice enough but weren't real eager to deal. $2000 off list was about all they were going to do (we figured that was typical). They also didn't have a car that WOWed us but could bring one in if we could decide on colors and equipment. The third dealer really impressed us. The salesman was high energy (fetching bottled water, running to get keys, etc). We spotted the silver/black combo and really liked it. We weren't thinking about a silver exterior since the current car was silver. We weren't thinking about a black interior because light colors make the inside look larger and black tends to make the interior hot on some cars (at least, based on experience with the black vinyl in our '67 GTO). Once we saw the silver/black we fell for it right away. The salesman offered a test drive but we had driven cars at the other dealers already. "Well, let's go in the showroom and talk about it". He drove us to the front door in the car (sales trick #1 ) We chatted a bit and he got down to it. "We will consider any reasonable offer. What can we put down?" We mentioned agian that we weren't going to buy until the money was safe in our bank. "No problem, let's just see what we can do with numbers." We also weren't sure if we were going to trade the '01 LS430 or sell it privately (the co-worker was still undecided - fancy car or put kids through college...) I knew the Internet invoice of the base car was about $53K and we had $10K worth of options. Making a wild guess and looking for a reasonable low number that would stop the sales process in it's tracks, I offered $64,000. He was, of course, shocked but indicated we had done our homework. I even signed the informal 64K offer, figuring "No way". After a bit, he brought the sales manager back with him and we sat down to talk. I was surprised we were face-to-face with the "mysterious sales manager" and was again impressed with their methods. He brought back a counter offer of $64,857. We were shocked. We would have signed right there if the money was in the bank (this was Tuesday and we were still waiting - the house closed the previous Friday and there was the 72-hour grace period to deal with). We bantered back and forth a little, countering various closing strategies. "What can we do to put you in the car?" "Money is not in the bank". He even came up with "You don't want to be spending a lot of time dickering - let's get you in that car!" "We took the week off work just to dicker." "Oh". It was all very pleasent - he guessed we knew all the tricks and even joked about them. Us: "Don't let the customer out the front door is against the law, right?" "Well, not agaisnt the law but a big sin". Anyway, to make a short story long, the money didn't appear until Friday when we went back a closed the deal for the $64,857 plus wheels plus clear bra plus extended warranty (just to give them a little extra profit <_< ) We checked later and the Internet invoice (Edmunds) was about $62,500 so I guess we did OK. [silver] Bullitt

We bought a silver over black LS460 last Friday for $64,857 (sticker price of $72,901). We feel like we got a good deal. This was a cash deal - we sold our 2001 LS430 to a co-worker for $22,000 and bought chromed Lexus wheels and an extended warranty with the delta over what the dealer was going to give us. This was from one of the three Denver dealers. They have a unique circumstance that is prompting them to accept any reasonable offers. Gorgeous car. We're still learning how to operate all the stuff. The old car had only the ML stereo as a option. [silver] Bullitt