daveGSLooker

Radar unit in front bumper was hit by piece of truck tire, that disabled the cruise control function. My dealers has quoted about $2300 to repair. Says that it may only be the bracket that is bent but entire unit should be replaced, cause once bracket is bent it can never be realigned properly. Does anyone know if cruise can be operated with radar disabled and if that quote is in the ball park. I suppose there are not that many repair option in Houston but a dealer. Thanks

You might be able to get you auto insurance to pay for this if the comprehensive part of the policy covers it.

Hey, I'm from Beantown, home of the Champions too. I worked in DC in 2000 for a year, and found that their winters are much more mild than New England. There's no way I needed snow tires, because the roads are so filled with traffic, the snow seems to melt away much faster. Plus if they get their once a year blizzard, the government slugs stay home, so the roads get plowed very quickly. My LS had no problems with snow, especially since, as you said, we know how to drive in the stuff. It's only dangerous in downtown DC, where you'll see 20 year old Caddies flying around cluelessly. But that's another story.

How 'bout the C's??? Light up a cigar. please...

Thanks.... I was already looking at some Nokians for the snow, but given what you said, I think I'll wait until my first winter up there, and see how the michelins do. Yeah that is totally crazy about the Celtics, I remember being lucky enough to go to some lakers-celtics playoff games in the old garden back in the 80's. Those were fun times.... everytime the celts scored the crowd shook the whole arena..

So I'm taking a job up in DC in a few weeks and will be moving from Florida. I just had a set of Michelin Primacy MXV4s installed, and supposedly those tires are decent in the snow for an all season tire. I'm wondering whether I'll need snow tires this winter. I grew up in Boston so I'm familiar with driving in the snow, but I only drove front wheel drive or all wheel drive cars. I'm a little worried about my LS430's abilities in the snow given that it's rear wheel drive.

Anyone have any experience with the LS in the mid-atlantic winters?

yeah, i suppose the color is a little gross.. the black guy is the owner of the car on the show. His character was really particular about the car, and didn't like people messing it up. It says alot about lexus that they would use a car that is ~15 years old.

My wife and I enjoy watching ABC's carpoolers comedy. Anybody else here watch it? Its a comedy about 4 guys who carpool together in LA. Anyways I always liked that they used a 1st gen LS400 ad their main ride... funny thing is they took the emblem off the grill, probably to avoid free advertising for lexus. Its a two-tone gold one in mint condition. The show actually had some influence on my buying my '01 LS this year. I heard it maybe getting cancelled for the next season, I hope not.

wow, do you mean you tinted the entire front windsheild or just the top part near the visors? My windsheild is tinted with silver tint, but just 7" from the top. I thought it was weird looking at first, but now i kind of like it.

Anyways if you did the whole windshield... that is wild... post a pic.

:D

Thanks this site is once again a big help. I had some clearcoat polish in my garage, so with about 15 minutes of hand polishing it came off last night.

I just got back from a weeks vacation in miami beach. As carfanatic... that's a great city. You see a bout 20 Ferraris, Lambo's, and bentley's every day. Crazy thing is all the cars get totally beat up... I saw Lambo Galllardo's Illegaly parked with people bumping into them with there scooters. I was extremely careful parking the LS 430.. I stuck to parking it in the empty parts of parking garages etc... so, I was surprised when I noticed a scuff mark on the rear corner after having it valet parked... Handed the valet a 20 and said i'd be back in 30 minutes.. Unfortunatly I didn't notice the mark until much later. It looks like the black rubber or plastic from a truck or something rubbed against the fender so I'll need something that can clean it well. It looks like it may have also done some surface scratches, but nothing too deap.

Anyone have any hints for getting this stuff off?

I've attached a picture of the mark.

On my 01 LS430 I usually drive with the transmission shift switch set to PWR. Two weeks ago I decided I'd set the switch to the normal position to see if my MPG's improved. I was shocked to see that for a whole tank's worth of driving I went from averaging 18.4mpg down to 16.5 mpg. I always fill up with 93 octane.

I have a short 9 mile commute with lots of red lights, and often I drive somewhat aggressive on the throttle to prevent people that love to cut in.

I guess it makes sense that my mileage would go down since in the normal mode the tranny would have more of a delay on the downshift which isn't as efficient.

What have you guys experienced? Is this just a symptom of my driving style?

I wish hyundai the best.... although I agree they should have launched a new brand and maybe paired it with a luxury SUV.. some competition always helps to keep the other makes on their toes.

This does remind of back in 86 when honda's acura division came on the scene. People were skeptical of a non-economy minded japanese car. And then of couse in 90 lexus and infiniti totally upped the ante by, offering 32 valve v-8s (gasp!) powered cars and totally changing the notions of quality (lexus mosly, infiniti not-so-much)

Mazda in the 90's was considering launching a luxury brand, but then abandoned the idea and ended up selling the millenia under the mazda label.

... as far as comments about the Acura RL... My folks have one... it's a great car, certainly up to lexus standards, but it's V6 only has like 260 torque so its probably only comparable to v-6 powered GS in size and power. Honda really need to get a V8... the challenge for them will be trying to develop the tranny to go with it. Honda automatic trannies have a poor reliability history.... (Google recalls on TLs, MDX's, Oddyseys, Pilot's etc..)

For a 2001 LS, is there anyway to turn up the volume on the turn signals? I sometimes catch myself driving down the road with them left on. Not that is unusual down here in Florida with all the Grannies in their crown vics.

As far as I can tell it's normal for the LS to ride a little bit lower in the back than the front; mine rides the same way (as have many I've seen). It may be something to do with the aerodynamics? Also I can't really feel the car lower itself above 50 or 60 mph but apparently it does that.

Having the car rise on High setting seems to take a while (the rise is only something like 20 or 30 mm) but it will rise up. I notice when I engage the High mode the ride seems to get a little bit stiffer; and if I drive around for a little while the car does seem higher. But it's not going to be like a Range Rover or anything that really jacks itself up on the air shocks.

If the system is leaking you'll know; you'll walk outside and the car will look like a low rider or something....it's quite noticeable.

Welcome to the club...let's see some pix!

Well its been two weeks since I bought the LS430 and thanks to this website I've been able to learn alot more about the car. I've ordered a replacement ML sub, and will be installing that this weekend... Programming the key was quite a fun experience.... I'm getting my Master in Software Engineering, and I gotta say it was a challenge getting them programmed.

I said in my previous post that I thought the rear air shocks had been replaced with pnuematics cause I had paperwork listing that some rear struts had been replaced a couple months ago. Well I took a look under the car and and didn't see any coils and the stuts didn't look new... well long story short, it was the struts for the trunk (a $400 job, yikes!)

OK the point of this post was to ask about the air suspension... mine appears to ride lower in the back... the wheel wells in the rear appear to have less clearance than in the front, but the car doesn't appear to be sagging... So is this an optical illusion or is something wrong with my shocks... Also I'm not sure if the work.. I set the position to high with the car on, and I don't feel the car rise.. Anyone have any experience with these?

Thanks for the info, I hope the shocks last a long time.

Hey Lexus owners.... advise me with the following scenario...

I have an offer of a beautiful 2005 LS 430, ultra luxury package which includes all the features like, navigation, bluetooth, rear seats massager, rear control unit (for ac, radio, music player etc..) in the arm rest for rear passengers and on top of all this, V8, 4.3L and 290hp and it just looks and feels awsome!

pls note: it doesn't have DVD, mp3 player which I currently have for my ES350. Moreover, the warranty is an issue.

Do you think it's worth for me to sell my 2007 ES350 full options FOR 2005 LS430?

Go for the LS, the ES is just a really nice Toyota Camry, but the LS is the flagship lexus, truelly the best car in the world under $100k.... plus the V8 torque and rear wheel drive make for a much better driving experience.

Well its been two weeks since I bought the LS430 and thanks to this website I've been able to learn alot more about the car. I've ordered a replacement ML sub, and will be installing that this weekend... Programming the key was quite a fun experience.... I'm getting my Master in Software Engineering, and I gotta say it was a challenge getting them programmed.

I said in my previous post that I thought the rear air shocks had been replaced with pnuematics cause I had paperwork listing that some rear struts had been replaced a couple months ago. Well I took a look under the car and and didn't see any coils and the stuts didn't look new... well long story short, it was the struts for the trunk (a $400 job, yikes!)

OK the point of this post was to ask about the air suspension... mine appears to ride lower in the back... the wheel wells in the rear appear to have less clearance than in the front, but the car doesn't appear to be sagging... So is this an optical illusion or is something wrong with my shocks... Also I'm not sure if the work.. I set the position to high with the car on, and I don't feel the car rise.. Anyone have any experience with these?

Hey Guys, just bought a Silver 2001 LS430 Ultra with Nav a week ago her in FL... I was looking at GS's but found them to have interiors that seemed too small for my three kids. gotta say I love the LS, even if my wife jokes that its a geezer car (I'm 33)... I bought it for $18,700 with 63k on it. It had been sitting at chevy dealer for like 3 months and I was able to get them to take $10k off there asking price... the only catch was the ML sub was blown and the dealer had replaced the rear air struts with hydraulic.

I've only had the car a week, and this site has been really useful for hardwiring my radar detector, overiding the NAV, and disconnecting the sub. This is by far the most luxurious and fast car I've owned.... I think it's a little faster than my '96 Z28 that I used to have.

Anyways I'm planning on ordering the ML subwoofer even though the $300 dollars hurts, just don't want to take the chance !Removed! up the stereo with another type of sub.

Also planning on installing a cold air intake.... anyone have any luck with these? How does the engine sound with them.