SW03ES

Have you ever openes the trunk? ;) Honestly its a huge box in the trunk marked "DVD NAVIGATION", its pretty hard to miss. The cover pulls back and off and the drive is behind it, it ejects like any DVD player.

It sounds to me like the fuel injector cleaner was fauling up the detonation, now that you have a good, fresh tank in there it'll probably be fine. Have you ever used injector cleaner before in the car? I wouldn't put any additives in the fuel of these cars...

I only have experience with Pohanka's sales department, and that was negative enough. If you want to take it to Rockville I have a very good guy there. I'm sure it wasn't anything the dealer did, and of course they're not going to admit any fault.

I don't understand. You say you know your first stop right? Why wouldn't you just enter the next destination when you get to that first stop? I've used the thing that way for over 5 years and it works fine...

The nav has operated exactly that way since they first came with nav in 1998, its had a steadily increasing IQS scores. There are plenty of people who are happy with the nav just like it is, including me. The navigation is included in the score. Its total problems or concerns with the vehicle, and that would count as a concern.

What, do you think people are lying? You can do better than 25MPG at 60 MPH on a 5 speed LS400, you're in 27-28MPH territory then. The LS460 is a heavy car and a V8, but it has an 8 speed transmission. Thats what delivers such good mileage. I absolutely believe it can get low 30s on the highway.

Looks great! Is it black? If its black its single stage paint (no clear) and a professional can fix that spot with wetsanding and a rotary buffer. Otherwise it looks like Clearcoat failure.

The '05s are a good deal, its the 3 year lease cycle, next year '06s will be a good value too.

It won't hurt anything to leave it on all the time. The changes in the shift points are very slight. You don't want to leave it in ECT SNOW all the time, and if you notice the car automatically switches ECT SNOW off when you shut the engine off, but it leaves ECT PWR on.

Well, you obviously have your mind made up on the subject so I'm not going to argue with you. You can't argue with someone who refuses to believe that anyone on the other side disagrees with them without ulterior motives. All I have to say is that I'm not an environmentalist by any means, or an Al Gore fan, but if you don't believe the tons of noxious gasses we release into the atmosphere by doing things that we don't do as natural creatures on the earth is going to have some sort of effect on the climate of the planet, I think you need to take earth science 101. In terms of Al Gore, he's been an environmentalist his whole life, and has done that presentation for many years before he filmed that movie. He may have made some money off of it (is making money a crime? You look pretty well off. It is possible to make money AND do good at the same time) but he's believed in it his entire life.

You can't take the experiences here as indicitive of the brand, this isn't a real cross-section of all owners. Certain model owners are just more likely to join forums, some models sell more units (the RX and ES out sell the rest of the brand by a far margin).

Its not a fair analogy, you have to compare it to similar properties and their consumption. Its a large house with state of the art security that draws a lot of power. He lives there 365 days a year, Bush lives in the White House free of charge. Your discriptions of the two houses is laughably biased too. You also have to figure out what he pays in carbon credits to offset his usage (which he does and I bet Bush does not). Al Gore is the best thing to happen to the environmentalist movement ever. Who cares if his house uses some power.

The Toyota OEM nav system has won many awards and editor's choice picks when it comes to OEM nav systems...

Which dealer did you take it to? Honestly it doesn't make sense that the dealer would have done anything to it to cause that problem. During an oil change they don't come in contact with any components that have anything to do with the transmission. The "transmission issue" you've heard of on this model is a throttle lag when accelerating immediately after decelerating. It has nothing to do with failure, and in fact I've never heard of the transmission on a 02-06 ES failing.

Your GMC truck is much higher off the ground than the Lexus so you won't see the issue. The nose of the ES is low. Its not a problem, nothing the dealer can do. Its the nature of low VOC paint on a low to the ground car. If it really bugs you have the front resprayed by a shop and see if it holds up better. It won't.

Unfortunately they've taken a lot of steps backwards in the quality department when it comes to the interior on the ES350. Its more obvious in the base loaner cars because they're stripped and often dirty, the car feels more upscale with the nav screen and the better leather/panoramic roof in the top line car. The GS' interior is still way higher quality than the ES350s though. Now, when compared to the generation ES I have and StevieJ had its more even, better plastics, triple stitched leather, more wood. Much better finishes. When I bought my ES300 new I decided between the ES300 and the GS300 then and it was no contest because the ES had a much better interior feel IMHO. Now its the opposite I think.

Have you used a rotary to compare, or have you talked with people who are experienced with a Rotary? An orbital is safer, but its not faster. No orbital can produce the cutting power that a rotary can, and if you know how to use one a rotary will always be faster. You would be the only person ever to say an orbital is faster than a rotary at removing swirls and polishing out a car, its just not the case. With a rotary you don't have to work spots longer... If you know what you're doing, the burn through is a non-issue, and taping isn't really neccisary. I don't use a rotary myself, but I do very little paint polishing because of my washing routine. If I were still detailing customers cars I'd use a rotary. No, but you would not be out of line to suggest that your opinion is more valid than mine or others when it comes to research models or business administration. You can't replace first hand experience with research. You have first hand experience in research and in business administration that I can't replicate that on my own by reading some articles and forum posts. Just like I have first hand experience in buffer use you can't replicate by reading articles or forum posts.

We don't want to ban you, we really don't but we can no longer put up with the incesent tirade that you put forward on this subject. Its not fair to the Lexus Hybrid members here that want to discuss their cars to have you constantly denigrating their vehicles and harassing them for their choices because the vehicles don't fit your needs to display the characteristics you want. We've heard your viewpoint on the subject, its time to let it go unless a discussion relates to your issues directly. I would hope you could exercise some adult restraint and continue to be a member here, but if you don't think thats possible we will deactivate your account for you if thats what you want. We're asking you to stop, not just the management but the members too...

They probably have ethanol in their gas, that reduces MPG considerably.

And your particular door molding is not OEM, the OEM molding has a slightly different look. Some dealers use the trim off the Camry, yours looks like it may be that trim but I'd have to see it in person. There is no OEM bumper or wheel well trim.

I have the Vais unit in my car (the older unit, not the new one with the new firmware) and am very happy with it. My guess is the OEM Lexus kit is going to be the way to go. I test drove a GS350 that had it but couldn't play with it because I didn't have my iPod. The Vais unit I have really only lets you browse by playlist. I know some people have had crashing issues with the DICE units...

C'mon guys, the guy came in here asking very ligitmate questions. How do you expect to win anyone over with such a crappy attitude? Especially you Rish, you sound like you're about 12 ranting like that... Sorry about that lexus_awesome, welcome to the LOC. The BMW 3 is a fantastic car and when it comes to a great handling sport sedan its still in a class by itself. The IS is a great package but its not the best car on the road and there is no best car for everyone. Anyways I agree, you're probably looking at 2011 or 2012 for the all new model. Keep in mind the IS300 never sold all that well so it had a shorter than average model cycle. The IS250/350 has been MUCH more popular.

Did you ever think of maybe trying another Lexus dealer, or taking the car to an independent mechanic for the maintenance? I've had two Lexus cars well past 100k miles, the service prices vary based on the dealer and you don't have to use the dealer for maintenance. The SC430 is the most expensive Lexus to maintain at the dealer... As for the warranty...complaining because your car had nothing go wrong with it in 72 months and saying you're not going to buy another Lexus because the warranty was a waste of money? Thats a first for me. An SC430 to a G37 is a huge step down... I'd say the only failure in 6 years being the gas struts for the trunk is a beautiful thing. Oh well, to each their own.

We actually don't disagree about the Flex. Just, in the future, don't reccomend products or tools that you haven't used yourself, and don't argue with people that have more experience than you do. For instance I would not argue with TOGWT for instance because he knows more about detailing than I do. If detaildoc for instance says to me "The Flex is a better tool than the PC" its not even up for debate because he knows having used both tools and I've only used the PC. His experience is greater than mine in the area. My intention was never to run RJT off, I like RJT. However I don't think I'm being unduly boastful by suggesting that I've been pretty good for this forum as well. This detailing forum wouldn't be here nor would this data be here if it weren't for me. He's been here 3 months...I've been here 5 1/2 years, written technical articles, created a partnership with Autopia. I've been detailing cars for over a decade and he's just learning. This had nothing to do with me being the "forum police". Nobody broke any rules, nobody got moderated. It has to do with this forum being the main focus of my energy here and detailing being one of my passions. Lets just let it drop...

Nothing like a McDonalds lunch and a Morton's drink afterwards right? haha.