SW03ES

You can always just buy a Garmin and don't use the nav the car has...

Thats an excellent point about the GS450h's V6 being enough to power the car without the hybrid system, hadn't considered that. Search snow driving on PriusChat.com and see the responses you get. For most situations its fine for me also (I know how to drive in the snow well) but I can see how the system will do what they say it will do.

They're going on my ES in a couple weeks!

No subscription required. The 98-00 cars have a hard drive based nav system, the last update for that system was 2005 I believe, they won't be making any others because its difficult due to the hard drive. If factory nav is important to you, I'd get a 2001. The 2001 has the DVD system and updates are still readily available.

Are you sure its a TRAC and VSC off switch or just a VSC off switch?

The Exaltos are good tires too, but they're not going to be as quiet as the Primacy MXV4s and they aren't going to have as much tread life. The Exaltos have a treadwear rating of 440 and the Primacy MXV4s have a rating of 620.

nc's right, very common issue. Try driving in ECTPWR in my experience it makes the lag less noticable.

The nature of the hybrid system makes wheelspin very dangerous for the system, so the trac systems are overzealous and tend to cut traction to such a degree in certain situations that the car won't move at all. It has nothing to do with RWD, AWD, or FWD, its the hybrid system itself. I agree in most situations the Prius is fine in the snow (we drive ours instead of the Lexus in the snow) but if you get in that certain situation the trac system will have you jammed.

All Lexus models? So you've experienced the noise in every model?

I've driven both, I'd never buy the LS460L personally, not worth the premium IMHO.

The HydroEdges aren't appropriate tires for the LS, they'll be loud and they don't come in an adequate speed rating. I'd reccomend the Michelin Primacy MXV4, 60,000 mile treadwear warranty. A set of these are going on my ES next week, I've had extensive experience with the MXV4 line before and they've always been a quiet and long lasting tire, the Primacy is the first model with a treadwear warranty though.

Thats exactly my point. We use $500 a month in some months too and we live in a 2500 square foot townhouse! $2500 for a big house with all that security and office equipment doesn't sound out of line to me. As for Al Gore. I honestly don't understand why people like dcfish (nothing against you dc, its just your opinion of Gore I don't understand) hate Gore so much. What has he done thats any different than what other former Presidents and VPs do? Clinton has made millions upon millions being a hired spokesperson for foreign interests (why do you think they wouldn't divulge a lot of their finances when Hillary was running?). Jimmy Carter has made money being a spokesperson for Habitat for Humanity. Gerald Ford made a TON of money off his celebrity as president and he wasn't even elected (read his biography). Making money isn't a crime, and I don't see how what Gore does cause anyone any harm. He's the front man for a cause that he believes in (and he's believed in it since well before he was VP). I don't see the issue. The only reason to hate him is political. Why does he not disperse his gains to the needy? Why don't you give your income to the needy? Why doesn't the CEO of Google give all their money to the needy? Just because someone has been in public life they aren't allowed to earn a living?

I'm not negative or anti-human at all. In fact the tone of my post is very positive! Stop putting words in my mouth. As I've said before, I am not an environmentalist and I really don't give the environment much thought in my daily life. I just simply don't understand the desire to villify people who care about the environment. Caring about the environment is a good thing, and if someone like Al Gore can get rich (the American dream) AND do good for the environment? All the power to him. I never said that, my point was that we are atypical among the species on the earth. I never said these things were bad or that we shouldn't do them, I simply noted that we do them and that has a huge impact on the environment and the ecosystem we live in and depend on. To deny that fact can only come from ignorance or from a refusal to accept the reality of how we interact with the planet. You made my point for me though. We do these things to kee ourselves alive. We change the makeup of our ecosystem so that it better serves us. We conquer it. Its a fact. What have we given the ecosystem? Answer my question. You can't because we haven't given anything to the ecosystem, we take not give. They do, and thats great. I don't understand your point...they still make millions of dollars designing !Removed! and making rape movies too, my point was why is it evil that Al Gore make millions with a movie that spreads awareness about our environment and for helping to start a company that allows people to inexpensively support the development of clean and efficient renewable sources of energy? HAHAHA, you're a peice of work. I have no disgust or loathing for the human race at all, in fact I said just that! I simply understand that our existance on this planet, overall, has a negative impact on the planet and the other species that live here. Thats a fact and theres no way to dispute that. Being realistic is not being pessimistic. Its true! Give me one argument against that statement that doesn't involve God or our divine right to use the earth as we see fit, or that it benefits us. Give me one argument, one way we live in harmony with the environment the way other species do. ONE argument. I'll thank you not to make personal assumptions or accusations about me, I haven't done that to you (but I'm about to...). I'm not talking about the worth of the human race, as I said I am a human and I enjoy my life so I won't complain. All I have said is that overall we damage this planet and its nonhuman inhabitants much more than we help it, and that someone shining a powerful light on that is a good thing, not a bad thing regardless of whether it makes them rich or not. You can shrink away from the debate when it gets tough if you want, but I and everyone else know you're doing it because you have no argument or way to combat the argument I'm making because its irrefutable. Denigrating me as opposed to trying to bolster up your viewpoint is small of you. Dissapointing. You have a lot to learn about the realities of life. Things that are good for one group can also be bad for other groups. Saying that our way of life is bad for the planet doesn't mean our way of life is bad for us. Trying to find ways to make our way of life less damaging to the planet is a good thing. Continuing to pretend that we don't damage the planet as you seem to want to do doesn't help anyone. Its ignorant.

You can't compare the GS450h to someone's experience with a GS430. Wheelspin is very bad for the hybrid system, thus the VSC on the hybrid is VERY insistent that there be no wheelspin, which creates issues when driving in the snow. IMHO a gS430 would be significantly better than a GS450h in the snow.

Honestly? 99% of owners will follow the owners manual religiously< and if the car is only a year old with only 10-15k miles, theres not a whole lot that anyone could do to screw the car up. The members on this forum are not representative of all ES350 owners.

How many miles on your ES? I doubt it needs struts...

Don't get all political on me, you know I didn't mean it that way. We have to be realistic about the way we as a species interact with the ecosystem we're a part of and how that interaction differs from other species. After all...we're just another species on the planet. Deer don't mine coal, bears don't cut down rainforests. Birds don't put out natural wildfires. Other species live in harmony with the environment, we conquer the environment and consume it for our benefit. Here's the definition of parasite: What do we give to the ecosystem we reside in? Nothing. You say about humans "How could humans distroy the world just by living life for a couple centuries", its because we don't just "live life" the way other species on this planet do. We've changed the ecological makeup of this planet in exponential ways. We've depleted the rainforest by a huge percentage, the rainforest being responsible for scrubbing the air that filters into the atmosphere. We've burned holes in the ozone layer, we've tract-farmed huge portions of the land, we build huge dams that change the course and nature of rivers, we split atoms, we dump chemicals into the oceans, we have devised engines that offload huge amounts of chemicals into the air. We genetically engineer food. We have caused the extinction of countless other species. I'd say we're pretty atypical as far as species go. I ask again, what have we given to the ecosystem? How is a any other species better because we're here? Think about it. I'm not advocating that we shouldn't be here or that we're not worthy as a species. We are here, and my life is pretty good so I won't complain. All I'm saying is being careful about how our lives and what we do effect the planet is a good thing. So what if Al Gore makes millions of dollars with his movie and his carbon credit company? At least his carbon credit company donates a lot of money to research into clean fuels and other technologies that will in the least make our air a little cleaner and maybe help us with our dependence on foreign oil. His movie has opened people minds to the idea that the way we live might not be good for our ecosystem and its had an impact that I can see in terms of people deciding to be more energy efficient. Environmentalism and research creates wealth and jobs. Those are good things. People make millions of dollars engineering !Removed! and designing nuclear bombs and nobody complains about that. People make hundreds of millions of dollars making movies about rape and serial killers that don't add any intellectual debate or discourse into our society. Whats the big fricken deal?

I don't have an RX400h, but we have always felt that way about our Prius. It doesn't stealth well, and we've never gotten the mileage others get even when being careful. Best tank ever was 43, high 30s is normal, high 20s in the winter. Granted its driven on short trips, but even before then when it was commuted in and when its driven more extensively its never seemed right. Same deal, dealer has always insisted nothing is wrong with the car. I know for a fact others at the PriusChat forum have experienced the same thing, although the members there generally run them out of town with pitchforks for insinuating something might be wrong with their units vs driver error. I'd be interested to see what the result of having your batteries replaced is. Thats big of Lexus to do that, I wouldn't be worried about it I'd be happy.

No surprise there, its the economy...

Why try and fix it yourself? You paid a lot of money for the warranty that came with your car...make the dealer fix it. Its probably a bad HID ballast.

The UK teaches the movie as scientific fact?

Thats just it, we're not "living life" as a natural species would. We create machinery and chemicals and pollutants that are not naturally occuring on the planet and are not naturally occuring in the concentrations we create. We're not like deer...or bears...we're more like parasites the way we consume the planet's resources without replenishing them. Humans do not live in harmony with the environment the way other species do. But the problem is the way you want impedes on me being able to live my life, be free, and pursue happiness. Smog gives kids asthma, beaches are dirty. My freedom is threatened by our dependence on foreign oil. Its harder for me to pursue happiness because gas is $5 a gallon. Caring about the environment can be a selfish thing too. Buying CFL (i hate them too) keeps all our energy costs down and saves us tax dollars by not having so many lightbulbs in landfills, driving 55MPH absolutely saves gas which saves us all money. Pay taxes foir CO2? Do you herd cattle? Conservation isn't just because of the environment.

Lexus dealers dont defraud service records...

Knightshade, you should listen to BadBoi. Thread closed.

Agreed, something is wrong with your car. The only reason for the lights not to go out is if you left a door open (they'll stay on while the doors or trunk are open and go out only after everything is shut) or if you turned the car off and never opened the drivers door (if you turn the car off and just sit in the car and not leave they'll stay on). Maybe a sensor somewhere isn't working.