SW03ES

It is real wood, its a very thin veneer but its real.

Celsior ;) You'd have to move to Japan!

Look to see if you have anything stuck to the exhaust line of the vehicle. I had a similar issue and it wound up being a peice of plastic sheeting I had picked up that had melted to the exhaust line.

The wood inside the car is coated in a urethane clear coat. The scratches are in the clearcoat, not the wood. If the ScratchX removes the scratches it will be perminant. ScratchX is a micro-abrasive polish and it will smooth down the edges of the scratches making them less or completely unnoticable. Because of the urethane clear coat its just like polishing the paint on the car. You would be correct if he were using a glaze to fill scratches in (like Pledge), but if he uses a micro-abrasive polish like ScratchX (or any plastic polish like Novus) it will remove the scratches assuming they're not too deep. I've been detailing cars for over 10 years and have used ScratchX and products like it to successfully remove micro-scratching from interior wood many times.

I've never heard of a case where someone has. Mine has over 100k and I've never had any problems.

Actually you'd be surprised, 2-4 year lease cars tend to be pretty well maintained...

You would get an indicator warning light in that scenario. I also disagree that the airbags would not function at all if the seatbelt were not latched (the passenger side does this, but not the driver). The system does however know whether you are belted or not, and it does use different criteria to judge when and when not to deploy the bag.

You can use anything that you can use to polish the paint. I'd try some Meguiars scratch-x.

Armor All is a perfectly acceptable product. I use it myself on tires. I'd never use it on a dashboard though, its too slimy.

I've been doing some looking. There are posts about airbags not deploying on the internet, but from what I can read they're all stories like yours where the situation seems to be the drivers not understanding that airbags do not always deploy. There are no hard news stories, and no investigations by the NHTSA into any of these matters, be they on Toyotas, Lexuses, or any other marque. Read this article: http://www.raa.net/page.asp?TerID=299 Exerpt:

Second generation airbags still deploy with plenty of force to break bones and cause significant injury. I have NEVER heard of an airbag malfunction on a modern vehicle, especially a Lexus. It is far more likely than not that the airbags were operating properly in this situation. Krissy, I know you're upset but you're not understanding what we're saying. The safety features are designed so that you don't have to think about what force needs to be present for the bags to deploy. The system makes that determination based on the forces present in any given crash. Your airbags did not deploy, therefore the forces present were not sufficient to cause them to deploy. If the airbags should deploy when they are not neccisary, they could cause you injury instead of saving you from it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the car or it being a Lexus. No need to worry. The car did what it was designed to do, it kept you and your family safe! AH, the plot thickens! You weren't wearing your seatbelt! The car also takes this into consideration when deciding whether or not to deploy the bags. Without your seat belt the airbags become even more dangerous. The belts are designed to hold you in proper position to be cushioned by the bags. Without the belt... You know the number one way to be safe in your car? Wear your seatbelt. You have absolutely no right to blame the car on your injuries, you caused them by failing to wear your seatbelt. If you don't wear a seatbelt you should be afraid to drive ANY automobile. As for finding data that Toyota/Lexus bags fail to deploy. You'll have to show me that because as long as I've been a Lexus enthusiast and around the Internet, I've never heard of even one case. Do the right, responsible, & intellingent thing for yourself, your family, and your society. Wear your seatbelt.

Congrats! Yeah, if you're happy with it don't have the ECM reflashed.

Can you post a picture?

Let me put it this way: If you walked away from the accident okay...you didn't need the airbags. The airbags are controlled by a sophisticated computer that measures forces, yaw, direction, and deceleration and determines whether the airbags are neccisary or not. Airbags themselves are dangerous, they operate with enough force to injure you themselves. Therefore if they're not neccisary they won't go off. A lot of people, like mccldwll, think airbags should always deploy and that is not correct.

Actually if there were no Lexus the car industry would probably be pretty different. Lexus really had a huge impact on what we now see as luxury sedans. They mainstreamed the V8 in the affordable luxury sedan, they've had a huge impact on ergonomics across the whole industry (optitron gauges, smooth touch buttons). By creating more affordable vehicles that truly competed with MUCH more expensive vehicles from Mercedes and BMW they forced those manufacturers to find ways of reducing the cost of their vehicles... Lexus has had a pretty big impact.

Thats what I would do. And don't bet that the salesman will be aware of the issue. On these forums it seems like everyone knows about it. I however have never encountered an 02-06 ES owner in person that has the issue.

On the ES330 the drive is in the dash above the one disc CD slot behind the tilt down nav screen.

www.lexus-parts.com They sell remote master keys pre-cut to the VIN for about $150. You can find cheaper aftermarket keys online, but they have the best prices on real, OEM, brand new keys I've seen.

You'd have to do work like that every day for 20 years to develop tremors...

I honestly don't think there would be that much variation among the model set. One way to make sure would be to disconnect the battery on one of the cars you feel has the lag and see if it helps.

Weird, works when I click it. Go to "My Controls", look down the list of options on the left hand side and click "Purchase Paid Subscriptions".

Well bully for you then To everyone else: Summer tires in snow and ice=stupid.

Which is also why winter tires have poorer traction in dry weather, the less contact area the less traction in that scenario.

Its larger than you'd think, bigger than an IS but not as big as an STS.

Huh? When did I say anything about the operation of the high beams? The high beams on the RX330 are HALOGEN, they are not HID. You said most bi-xenon headlamps have a halogen high beam. This is FALSE. The very definition of a "bi-xenon headlamp" negates the use of a halogen high beam.