SW03ES

LOL! One of these times you need to actually call me when you're here ;) Yeah I'm not wild about Carmax. I went and looked at an '04 and the rear had been repainted, it was obvious because whoever did it had masked off the emblems and then painted instead of removing and re-installing them, so you could clearly see a paint line around the emblems. As for mileage, I'm not concerned about it. So many of these cars are leased, and leased with like 12k miles per year, so you see a lot of them with 35-36k miles. You should do the swap, wanna buy mine? ;)

The 1k service is a customer service stop. They want to check out your car, wash it up all nice for you, address any of your concerns, and get you acclimated to the dealership. No reason not to do it, its free. I don't let the dealer wash my car but I still did the 1k check and went over some things with them way back when. As for synthetic oil and oil change intervals. Lexus specifically says not to increase oil change intervals when using synthetic oils. I have run Mobil 1 since the first oil change at 5k miles and I change it every 5k.

Beautiful car...right decision ;)

I think you would be surprsed how different an offset of 5MM really is... My guess is they won't clear the calipers on the RX...

Oh yeah, reasonable...at the Lexus dealer! This is an excellent point, you do have to look at what the dealer does vs what it says to do in the maintenance schedule that comes with the car. Oftentimes dealers add things into these pre-priced packages and you can do better if you just list whats in the maintenance schedule and do that. My dealer's packages were always exactly what was in the maintenance schedule save they reccomended a tranny flush at 30k based on their experiences with ES300 transmissions which I was happy to heed. BUT all dealers aren't like that...

The LTX M/S is a great tire. Only issue is they are truck tires, and a little stiff for an RX IMHO. Thats what I ran on my Explorer...

Its the Lexus Link. I think all you can do is have it removed, I believe Lexus will remove it for free...

Now they have another Primacy MXV4 out in that size for a few dollars more, but it has a treadwear rating of 500 vs 620. Weird... I'm not sure whether I want the old 620 still on closeout or the new 500, the 500 is likely to have softer rubbers and be a little quieter & smoother...

Who told you that?!? The timing belt doesn't have to be replaced until 90,000 miles, and the water pump never has to be replaced, it just typically is when they're in there doing the timing belt. What is this warranty? That doesn't sound like the OEM Lexus warranty. I had an OEM Lexus extended warranty on my car and never had any problems, it was a complete extension of my original warranty. Can the 'tude. When did I tell you you couldn't participate? However, when you come here, to a Lexus enthusiast club and say that Lexus vehicles aren't worth the money you better be ready for some retorts. I've been nothing but respectful to you, so act your age. This forum isn't owned by Lexus, we're all here because we enjoy discussing our cars, so don't take your frustration out on us. Well, my Dad is 66 and he's on his second Lexus LS. He put 160k miles on the first one and has 80k miles on his '04 and says he will never buy any other type of car again. He's had some nice cars too, at least 30 cars in his lifetime. My ES has 120k, a couple warranty repairs but nothing major and they were always handled well. I have a great dealer (although they aren't all great, all the dealers are independently owned). Since Lexus ranks consistently #1 in sales, dealer satisfaction, product satisfaction, and dependability I'd say your opinion is probably in the minority. Like I said before, feel free to post here but don't expect us not to respond to your opinions with opinions of our own. Had the same issue with my ES (Dad never did on his LS, oddly enough) and they replaced the CAt at about 40k miles and its been gone ever since. It has something to do with a restrictive cat they used to make them ULEV (Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle) compliant. After the repair they are no longer ULEV compliant.

The world is full of morons lol. Yeah get 'em changed as soon as you can. At least they were right to put the new tires on the back. You always put new tires on the back, whether its FWD, RWD, or what. The EL400s are sh!tty tires, you're better off with the Comfortreads...

I just used Ultima's Interior Prep Gel and Interior Guard for the first time and let me say, it is the best interior protectant I've ever used. You just lightly clean everything with the Interior Prep Gel (leather, wood, vinyl, plastic, carpet, headliner) and the special pad that comes with it. Its a mild cleaner so any serious dirt will need to be pre-cleaned with something stronger. Then when done flip the pad over to the red side and put a nice even coat of the Interior Guard (very light coating, one spritz of the pad per seating area) over everything again, leather, vinyl, wood, plastic, everything) and let it sit for a couple hours with all the windows open. It looks greasy at first but it dries to a great matte finish, makes everything feel very soft and new, and the leather feel very supple yet it leaves a nice glossy finish on the wood. Very cool product and the only thing I'll use on interiors from now on.

Hell if Walmart will install my tires and re-use the old valve stems for $5 when I order my new tires from TireRack...I'd be tempted. And I HATE Walmart...

C'mon, you have to admit it has a small iota of reality ;)

I was confused because you said $599 in the subject, but $999 in the body of the post. If its the prepackaged 30k service, I'd say $599 is reasonable at the Lexus dealer. If you enjoy having it serviced at the dealer then thats what I would do. I always had the dealer service my car until my service advisor left and I found an independent shop. If I bought a new one...I'd probably find another service advisor at the dealer. I enjoy using the dealer too.

I'm going to move this to the IS section. The bumper to bumper Lexus warranty is 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever occurs first.

Oh absolutely. In fact, the LS gets better mileage than my V6 ES, I think its because the ES is underpowered for its weight, and the 04+ LS has the 6th gear. I bet it would actually get 1-2 MPG more than the ES on the highway. Thats a great deal. CA is more competitive than other areas too because there are a lot of dealers. How hard was it to get them down to that price?

Believe me I know how you feel LOL. How'd one tire get more worn than the others?

$5 a wheel? Does that include balancing? Best I've found here is $15+ per wheel including balancing...

999 is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of line for the 30k service, good lord. I think I paid $600 maybe. $999 is more like the 90k service... I'd try another dealer.

That sounds very bizzare. The cosmoline smell isn't really a chemical smell, its more a plastic burning type smell... I think you need to really lean on Lexus and the dealer here. This is the sort of thing where I would want another vehicle...

That would be my problem. On my old ES its no big deal because I have to lock the car with the key anyways, so hitting "lock" again isn't an issue, but if I had one of the new ones with the smart key having to dig the key out of my pocket to hit it and make the lights go out would be a pain. Hitting the lock button on the door twice doesn't shut them off... I've had cars with auto lights...well I've never had a car without them so leaving them on and walking away doesnt bother me.

I'd say you did VERY well. Thats one of the best deals on an ES I've seen. Enjoy!

Normally I'd say the starter, but the starter goes bad with wear, having it sit for 8 months wouldn't hurt a starter...

Yeah I have a great guy in Rockville. Unfortunately I met him after I had already paid the dealer $1300 for the 90k service which includes the timing belt, spark plugs, flushing all the fluids, and a bunch of other stuff. He told me he would have done the same service for $700. Here's the info: LXT Automotive Ask for Nelson, he's the owner. Tell him Steve Withrow sent you. www.lxtautomotive.com Just a very small shop, but he's been a Lexus master tech for 16 years and still keeps all his factory certs up. He'll be doing all the maintenance on the Lexus and our Prius here on out. He's a hybrid tech too... He'll even give you a loaner car for the 90k service.

I've not had it on a car of mine, but i've detailed a bunch of cars with them and I know several people who have them. I think its a must with today's low VOC paints since they chip so easily...