SW03ES

My favorite parking ticket story happened when I was in High School. We used to have to park on a neighborhood street a few blocks down from the school because the lot was small and spaces were awarded based on a lottery system. As you might imagine, the neighbors didn't care much for a bunch of teenagers parking their cars in front of their houses every day. Well...one day we arrived, went into school, and when we came out after school the county had put up permit parking only signs up (they weren't there in the morning, they put them up while we were in school) and had given every student on the street a parking ticket. The parents raised hell with the school and they got the tickets reversed...but still lol

Did you read George W Bush's "Decision Points"? Because I did. I can tell you, unless he lied in his book, you are absolutely wrong about him wanting these banks to fail, and he took action to stop it...actually the largest moves to stop it, while he was President. And again, you keep mentioning health care. Please tell us what in this healthcare bill is going to "tear down" this country, and why? My problem with you Lenore is, like Jim said...there are none of your thoughts or your words behind your rhetoric. Tell me why YOU don't like the Healthcare bill, not what Bill O'Reilly told you not to like. What specific parts of it do you not agree with? I can appreciate your "gut instinct" and "world experience" guiding your viewpoints, but this is a complex world and a complex time. We need people in office that have more than "gut instinct", and as an American you, me, we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves about these proposals and plans and form our own viewpoint. I would venture to say, you have never even read or looked into any of these bills. Because Obama wants to do it...you are automatically opposed. I'm going to share something with you: This graph is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this shows total private sector employment (no government jobs are included in this) broken down from Jan '08 until today. I think you must agree, this graph shows a decided improvement in the area of private sector employment. I think, if you would open your mind up and tune out the far right rhetoric you would see that this economy IS FAR better today than it was last year, and the year before that. Yes it has a long way to go, but its headed in the right direction. I think again, if you would push past the rhetoric you'd see this President has done a good bit. You rail against the plan Obama rolled out yesterday to help underwater homeowners refinance. Can you please tell us what in that plan is going to "tear down" this country and this economy? Specifics please.

Thats great about the warranty, sucks about the deer...

Your 97 ES did not have a smart entry/smart start system. Its a high security system and you need the dealer's handheld in order to program new smart keys. 1997 was a long time ago. I've added additional keys on these systems, trust me you can't do it yourself. You may be able to program just the remote entry function, but the key won't start the car. Think about it, your 97 ES required a physical key to be cut in order to start the car. The 350 allows you to start the car using only the key's link with the car's ECM as verification that you have the authority to start and operate the car. If all you had to do was download a set of instructions off an internet forum and you could program any key to work with the system yourself, it wouldn't be very secure would it?

I would also check with a Lexus dealer instead of a Toyota dealer to be sure they aren't just confused. You can also try and find a salvage car to buy that part/window assembly from...

Best way to find out what the dealer will charge to program the remote is to call a dealer and see. Its not something you can do yourself, the dealer needs to do it so the system will recognize the new smartkey.

We've been over this and over this, I am not a liberal, I am a moderate. I was a member of the Republican Party until 2008. The first Democrat for President I have ever voted for was Obama. I'm a fiscal conservative, where I differ with conservatives is in their belief that the Bible needs to be used as a national handbook. If they would knock off trying to legislate their religion...I'd likely vote for them. Anyways, I will refer to a speech written for a certain scripted TV political drama to your repeated attempts to somehow insult me by calling me a "liberal": I feel like I have been run out of the Republican party by people like you. How much more plain can I make it. I tolerate your stand and viewpoint on the ISSUES. I have tried and tried to have a real discussion with you about the ISSUES, but whenever I try and do so you can't come up with any specific reasons or actions why you think Obama has been so bad for this country. No specifics about his healthcare plan and why it will "bankrupt America". You do nothing but spout right wing propagandist nonsense and when I press...there is nothing there. No independent reasoning behind your view. Your view is that the President of the United States is a socialist who's whole life has been created and tailored with the goal of becoming President, and using that position to attack and destroy this country's system of government. You think his birth certificate, his enrollment and diplomas at two well respected Universities have all somehow been forged in such a way as to fool the highest courts in our land. Some great conspiracy...to do something...don't know what that is...but it must be stopped. I'm sorry...but that is not a legitimate viewpoint...thats the viewpoint of a buffoon and it can no more be tolerated than the viewpoint that we're all descended from space aliens, and Obama's really the loch ness monster in a bad Halloween mask. Get a viewpoint that has a basis in reality, where you have given independent thought to what specific policies you disagree with, and why...and I will respect it all day long.

Exactly how I feel... And its people I know and otherwise have a lot of respect for, its always the same though...when you really press into why they feel the way that they feel...theres just nothing there. No reasons behind it.

I literally cannot believe that we, as a group of educated upper middle class people, are sitting here having such a discussion in 2011.

If he weren't black, and didn't have a funny name...nobody would automatically assume there was no way he could have been born in America or gone to Harvard or Columbia. He was head of the Harvard Law Review for God's sake, his name is all over their publications...Records? Don't you think if someone high profile was running around pretending to have been to Harvard...that Harvard would set the record straight? Show me a record from an expert that says his birth certificate is a forgery! You're the one making a claim here, back it up. The burden of proof is on you, not me. How does that logically even make any sense? So...a boy was born...they forged a birth certificate in Hawaii...50 years ago, forged documents and report cards, faked years worth of the Harvard Law Review, just so he could become President one day and do what? Pass healthcare reform without a public option? Don't you think if they were just making !Removed! up they would have taken "Hussein" out of his name? I bet you believe the moon landing was faked, that JFK was shot by Fidel Castro and/or the Mob too...seen the loch ness monster lately? We have laws in the country that lay out what background someone has to have in order to be elected President. Time and time again the mechanism that has served this country for a quarter millenia has found that he qualifies. Every peice of "evidence" the "birthers" come up with gets shot down. Not one credible source buys into the "birther's" argument, INCLUDING Obama's political adversaries. You people just can't believe a negro named "Hussein" can become President. Bottom line, its the only thing that makes sense. Don't like his policies? Vote him out, but save your hatred for the Klan rally please. And when have I said he's my savior? All I've said is the guy's not a radical Islamic Socialist bent of destroying the country, and that I don't care if he's black. All of a sudden I'M the zealot? Listen to yourself. Sheesh...what whack jobs you people are. Anybody so foolish and blinded by hatred and bigotry as those who believe as you believe cannot be allowed to gain control of this country. We're out in f!cking Wonderland here...

You didn't say no... So I am to believe that you are in favor of public lynchings of elected officials if they don't carry out their campaign promises?

Its 2011 my friend. Time to put the noose and hood away. And here's a Google search about George Bush being a war criminal: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Bush+and+war+crimes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 And about Ronald Reagan being !Removed!: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Reagan+!Removed!&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 Hey, according to your logic since there are Google hits it must be true right? Where, at that evil liberal factory Harvard? Yeah...nobody good or intelligent ever came from Harvard.

I never said it was all Bush's fault. For your information I voted for Bush. I'm not even saying its not Obama's fault, I'm just saying that I don't think he's some monster that became President with his goal being to destroy the country, like apparently you do. LOL! Well...that explains it. You're the one who brought up that he was black, not me. Obviously, whether you admit it or not thats a big part of your problem. You basically just called me a "N-word lover". Shame on you. I did not vote for him because he's black, I don't care whether he's black or green. What I am trying to figure out is why people just hate him so much. He's not especially liberal, his goals and agenda are not that different from other liberal Presidents we've had in the past. Take someone like Jimmy Carter. Very unpopular, policies that were very detrimental to the country's economy, but people didn't HATE him. You didn't see people making statements like "Jimmy Carter hates this country, and he and his wife set out with the goal of destroying this country". When pressed, most people don't even have a basic understanding of his policies (we have shown that lenore does not, for instance) and are unable to come up with any specific reason why they hate him so much.The guy tries to get healthcare for everyone and people accuse him of wanting to participate in age related genocide. Its CRAZY. The only possible reason can be because he's black and has an Arab sounding name. Its the only thing that makes any sense.

Doesn't really increase profit margins. They're just showing a lower "starting at" price, but once you add the options the prices are a little higher than 2011. Its just a marketing ploy, they can lure people in with that low starting price and low lease payment, and then they realize if they want anything other than the Laredo E, its going to cost them a LOT more. The $5,300 isn't just for the leather seats, its for the "X" package on the Laredo which is what I have. That $5,300 gets you heated leather seats, power driver & passenger seats, upgraded 18" wheels, bluetooth, upgraded audio with touchscreen media center (HDD Storage, etc), automatic climate control. The base Laredo is just cloth...

The 2012 has been out for a while, and actually the prices have been raised slightly, not the other way around. I don't know where Autoblog got that story...maybe for the base vehicles, but when you buy something with options, its slightly more If I build a 2012 Laredo X just like mine it comes out to $39,110, about $200 more than my 2011.

So...now you're saying we should assassinate our elected officials if they fail to live up to their campaign promises? I honestly don't even know if you're kidding anymore...

Do you people actually believe this crap? He's just a person like you and me. Do you honestly believe that he worked as hard as he did to become President of the United States just to "destroy" this country? What does he stand to gain from "destroying" this country? Why do you assume he and his wife hate this country? Because he has a funny name? You might not agree with what he's done or his platform, and if you don't then vote for someone else. But to make a statement like "He's a socialist that hates and wants to destroy this country" is pretty ignorant IMHO. I just don't get how people who are normally rational can be filled with such hatred.

I would change the oil more frequently, at least not let it go past 5k miles a change. A lot of idling classifys it s a "severe" maintenance situation. Maybe change the oil 4 times a year instead of 2. That being said, I think really you're fine. Like others have said, especially because its a hybrid, a lot of that time you sit there just on battery power, and the engine cycles on and off again routinely throughout the drive cycle. In my line of work I sit idling a good bit sometimes too, if I show up 20-30 minutes early for an appointment or something I'll just sit there and idle. When I was in high school I had to get to school really early because I didn't have a lot space and needed to park on a neighborhood street, they filled up fast and I probably sat there and idled for 45 minutes. That was in an old Explorer...and it was never worse for the wear. What it is doing is killing your gas mileage and wasting fuel, if you care. If that doesn't bother you I say change the oil more frequently but you're fine.

But, they also say: And Lexus says, specifically *do not* extend oil change intervals past 5K miles when using synthetic. Thats my only point. Will 10k intervals be fine? I'd guess yes. Will Lexus try and void your warranty if you have a repair and they can blame it on doubling the oil change interval? I KNOW yes. If you pay $80 a pop for synthetic oil changes, going to a 10k interval within the original 70k warranty saves you $560. Not a tremendous sum, and certainly less than a repair that might arise that could potentially be blamed on longer change intervals. Remember...it doesn't actually have to be because of extended change intervals...they just need to be able to blame it on that.

LOL, I appreciate that! Its okay, my Mommy says it makes me special.

I was going to say wheel bearing too...hopefully that fixes your problem!

The ones I had were the PIAA Forza Hybrid: http://www.piaa.com/WiperBlades/forza.html But, if you just order the PIAA silicone replacements (without the arm) they fit in the OEM Lexus arms just fine.

Very frustrating I agree. I have heard tell of a software update that does away with the auto-selection of the top song/artist/playlist...but when I asked the dealer about it they looked at me like I had three heads. Our Jeep has a better process for browsing within the iPod, but frustratingly doesn't remember what song/playlist it was set to when the Jeep is shut off and restarted. There's really no solution unfortunately...

Wow...

I also prefer a switch to the dial for the heated seats. Perhaps a button with different modes.