SW03ES

Yeah they're on the way. I ordered the new Primacy, the 500 treadwear 94H service load (vs 620 95H) figuring they'd ride softer, they also have a 60,000 mile warranty. They should be here and on the car by late next week. I have a nail in one of my tires now and have to fill it up with air every couple days lol, its time.

I especially like it and the sponge that comes with it for headliners...

Yeah so do I. She's probably lost $80-$100,000 in this deal. What she's most concerned about is that pension, I would think the government would protect that but nobody has said anything about it as of yet. She starts collecting that in four years. Luckily most of their retirement is in private investment (well...that hasn't ben doing so well either), my dad retired last year he was an executive in the commercial printing paper industry and obviously highly invested in his company as well through ESOP, etc. The paper and printing industries have had a very hard 5-6 years and a lot of his retirement through them has evaporated too.

Its hard to believe its been 7 years... My fiance and I were down at GW 7 years ago in downtown Washington DC. I remember driving in from Suburban MD that morning listening to Howard Stern on the radio. Just as I got there they were talking about some zainy pilot that apparently had flown a small personal plane into the World Trade Center. I shut the car off and left. We were in a class when all of a sudden people's cell phones started going off. One guy walked out of the class and took his call and came back in to tell us that planes had been flown into both towers of the WTC and the Pentagon, that a plane was headed for the White House and we were under attack. Now anyone who is familiar with Washington, DC knows that GWU is about 4 blocks from the White House and it is imbedded within the city, meaning that the only way you know that you are on campus are the GW flags. I remember the pandemonium, everyone running for the garages to get out of the city. We thought the White House was going to be hit, and if that happened we knew we were in danger or in the very least we would be sealed off and unable to get out of the city. So we made our way to the garage where I was parked (Carla still lived downtown at that point and I lived in Bethesda) and started making our way out of the city. It took us about two hours. Traffic was complete gridlock, people were driving over curbs, they had stopped traffic into the city at many points and had turned both lanes of traffic outbound. Cell phones wouldn't work, all the lines were jammed and we had people all over the place worried about us. It was like one of those movies when whole cities are being evacuated. Rumors were rampent, people were reporting several planes unaccounted for, carbombs at the state department, all kinds of things. I'll never forget it. Carla's dad routinely flew on that flight out of Newark for work so she was terrified about that, and her uncle routinely flew out of Boston's Logan on that flight for work. No cell phones...no way to get ahold of them. We later learned that her uncle had a ticket on that fateful flight that day but wound up not going... I'm watching MSNBC's "living history" replaying the news feed in real time...

The cup holders are crappy. Lexus has moved to in console cupholders that are better, but that chyange didn't occur until the ES350. Gotta get used to them...

We got mentioned in the body of that article, very cool!

Most tire shops anymore will not mount tires that are below the speed rating listed on the drivers doorjamb. That rating is the tire that shipped on that particular vehicle, so if it shipped with Z rated tires (I didn't think any GS shipped with W rated tires...) it will say Z on the doorjamb. So the shop won't care if other GS vehicles came with V rated tires. Now, I have always tried to stay with the factory speed rating, but I really don't think you'd be looking at a safety issue going with V...even H rated tires. My car shipped with Vs and I'm replacing them with H rated Michelins next week to save $40 per tire. I wouldn't go below H rated tires. BUT the reality of the situation is you may not be able to find a local shop that will sell you lower speed rated tires. The solution? Buy them online! Click the tirerack link at the top of the forums. Choose a local installer, they will ship them there and the installer will mount them and do the alignment. I've ordered many sets of tires from TireRack, they are almost always cheaper (especially now), no sales tax (although you have to ship them), and the installer shops you choose are usually higher end import shops that will do a better job than NTB, etc. Its a win-win. One thing to bear in mind, I assume you have the 18" wheels. You're going to have crappy tire life, it comes with the territory on low profile tires. They are also going to be really expensive. Good tires are important on a Lexus, a lot of the smooth quiet ride is dependent on the tires. If it were my car and you weren't interested in driving it aggressively this is the tire I would put on it: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...inSpeedRating=V

I've taken professional driving courses, you do not need to do burnouts in a car to learn how to handle it. I've driven high powered RWD vehicles on tracks and on street courses, and at no time was I told by the instructors to do a burnout. "To get the most out of a RWD car you need to be able to slip the rear end". Come on, get real. Are you going to be autocrossing the car? Did you enter it into the 24 hours of LeMans? There is no practical reason to do burnouts in any passenger car, let alone a heavy luxury sedan. At what time on a surface street at 40MPH or on the highway at 75 do you need to "slip the rear end". Please. The tires aren't the issue, burnouts put stress on the differential, transmission, its just not a good idea and it is abuse of your vehicle. It is YOUR vehicle, but I have a sneaking suspicion it wasn't your $60,000 that purchased it otherwise you wouldn't be interested in abusing it in this way. Its a grown up toy.

I hate those things... I think the dealer can just shut it off completely for a scenario where you have custom wheels... I'd want it just completely shut off. Somehow we muddled through for all these years having to check our tire pressure the old fashioned way...

You actually would be surprised how hard the windshield is to break. The windshield is laminated safety glass and when you strike it it will shatter but not break through. You'd need to bash it repeatedly and then peel it around to open up even a small hole. If you were going to break a window the window to break would be the drivers window. The side windows are tempered glass and they'll shatter into very small peices rather easily.

I usually use the Ultima after cleaning it with Optimum first since Ultima Interior Guard Plus does not clean. It is a great product. Have you tried the Ultima Interior Cleaning Gel? It works really well too. The Megs Quick Interior detailer is a good product too, but it doesn't protect the dashboard...

$60,000 car and you want to do burnouts?!? Sad.

My mother used to work for Fannie Mae years ago, she was a part of their accounting division and was laid off when they outsourced that which eventually contributed to the "cooking of the books" that occured with the leadership that took control around that time. She knows several people in the company and according to what she has been told this is precisely what is going to occur. She did also recieve a letter just yesterday that the ESOP plan which sadly she had money in (she worked there for 12 years)is being disbanded with zero payout to shareholders. This plan is a BIG part of the upper executives compensation packages. We'll see what happens to her pension...

I actually like the Ultima Interior Guard better than the Optimum which was my previous favorite...

As somebody who is out there, let me tell you this week just the past few days has been a whole nother world. Buyers getting off the fence, we've cleared a couple old listings, all of it due to increased buyer confidence due to the Fannie Freddie buyout. I've made more money the past 3 days than in the past 3 months. We'll see if it keeps up...

All the dealers are independently owned, and quality varies from dealer to dealer. Lexus doesn't have all that much control over them actually. Have you tried switching to a different dealer?

Not anymore.....they switched to timing chains. ;) Perhaps I should have said "used" ;) The steering shaft and "knuckles" are the same issue. It causes a looseness in the steering feel. Nothing dangerous just annoying. As for the rattles, the 02 and 03 had two peices of trim on the rear door that rattled, the dealer simply removed them. I believe it was fixed on the '04. My '03 is 120k miles and not a rattle anywhere. Our 04 Toyota Prius by example has 39k miles and it rattles so badly its a pain to drive... In terms of cost to replace the timing belt, its $700 or so at an independent shop, sounds like you've done way more in repairs to your Cadillac ;)

Do a search ;)

Cool, thanks guys, I'll keep you posted!

Maybe it was just me lol, it says $599 now too. Its all that tequila....

Its the option package, not the port. The UL has the power shade. It can't really be installed aftermarket, well it can but it would cost a boatload...probably thousands. I have it, its neat but its not worth sweating over.

Well, all I can tell you is I have an 03 ES300, basically the same car as the 04 ES330 with 120,000 miles on it (had it since new). I've had a couple warranty issues taken care of, but common ES things (intermediate steering shaft, rattles in rear doors, I had a light behind the climate control burn out) but other than that its been a perfect car. Still rides, drives, and looks like new. Lexus vehicles age MUCH more gracefully than GM vehicles. Lexus vehicles are great cars. My dad had a Cadillac and moved to Lexus in 1998 and says he can't even imagine driving a Cadillac again. He's had two, a 98 LS400 he put 160k miles on, and an 04 LS430 he has 80k on. Extremely minor to no problems on both. To me the ES is better looking, bigger, has a much nicer interior than the CTS of that era. I would choose the ES in a heartbeat. That brings me to another point, you should go drive an LS430. Even if you have to buy one a year or so older, I bet you can get a great deal on one since the current carbuying climate is anti-V8. The LS430 gets about the same mileage as the ES, and the driving experience is better (although the ES is great). Food for thought... Lexus uses timing belts because they're quieter. Not a big deal, Ive never heard of one failing, and its a maintenance replacement at 90k miles.

If you drive moderately aggressively, meaning strong starts from lights, thats normal MPG for that driving scenario. Its a big heavy V8 car, thats the worst driving environment for economy with that car.

I don't buy that though...

I think they ship from Lexus that way. The shift knob just screws on, and I think it comes in a package and the dealer installs it when they do their inventory prep. Some dealers install it then, some wait for the pre-delivery prep. Same is true of wheel center caps, etc, they all ship uninstalled.