SW03ES

I'm not saying its good for you, but it doesn't kill people and its not going to eat through his seatbelt.

Yes I have done this experiment myself, coke will not dissolve a tooth overnight. I've seen it with my own eyes. It will dissolve a tooth in time but so will orange juice, water, milk, and any other liquid. Its a common grade school experiment. Chemist or not, you're off the mark here. Coke may contain carbolic acid, and carbolic acid may dissolve teeth and be poisonous in certain quantities but apparently the concentrations arent there in coke. Again, seen it myself. This is also not true, I have a friend that collects cans of coke, he's had FULL cans of coke for decades, and the coke is still in the can. Expiration dates on canned sodas are definately longer than one month. Thats absurd. Its a soda, billions of people have been drinking it for years. Putting it on your seat belto for 30 seconds isn't going to eat through it.

I've mentioned this before, but its become an issue again. I have a very dangerous problem with my ES when I'm driving in the rain at highway speeds. When you drive at highway speed in the rain for a good stretch without using the brakes, they grind VERY loudly when they are first used, pull to the left and there is a marked loss of braking effectiveness. I have never felt anything like it on any car ever, its very frightening and if you have sleeping passengers it will wake them up. At lower speeds rain is not a problem. The brakes are 100% normal when the weather is dry. They replaced the pads and the rotors under the brake vibration recall at 25k miles, now at 45k its back. They dont think they can get them covered again and the dealer is at a loss as to what is causing it, as am I. Any ideas?

Hey everybody, just wanted to let you know I have a brand new 05 ES, silver on black, as a loaner while mines in the shop. I've driven the 05 before but this is the first time I've driven it at legnth. First of all for styling I do like the new rear treatment but I still really dont care for the headlights. The grille and the fascia are okay, but the new headlights aren't my thing. Also still dont care for the new wheels. Love the new steering wheel with the radio controls and the A/C seats. Shoulda had those in 02... One thing I really dont like (this is the first 05 I've seen with the black interior) is the new silver color of the plastic surrounding the radio and the door handles vs the graphite on my 03. Its extremely garish and cheap looking to me, why they did this I don't understand. Also, still dissapointed in the ride changes that come from the 17inch wheels. Not a lot of difference around town (interestingly enough) but on the highway it makes the car feel less solid, the ride seem somewhat jittery and harder. So, the ES is still a great car but I'm very happy to stay in my 03 until I can get into an LS.

Thats assuming that service writers know more about these cars than Salespeople, which they don't. Do you know you need NO education and NO training to become a service writer for Lexus, or most other car companies ww? Ads in the paper all the time from the Lexus dealers here, its as easy to be a service writer as it is to be a salesman. They have no insider knowledge nor often any mechanical experience at all. They sell service to you, thats their job. First of all, Lexus doesn't do limited production. Nothing in their history has shown they have any inclination to do that, certainly to the extent that they have put into refining the hybrid system on this car and marketing it. They expect it to be a huge success, and they do already have some 20,000 orders.... Wait and see. I do also have to remind you that you dont have to have any knowledge of automobiles or even be a high school graduate to sell Lexuses. Consider that when you take info from car salesmen as truth. I deal with car salesmen for a living, trust me, most of them have no insight into what they sell and they get no more information about new products really than we do until they arrive. Car salesmen also like the sound of their own voices and will often talk about things that are blatantly untrue and total misinformation, often that they just make up. Some are quite good at this and are adept at making it sound like its coming from a credible source. It isn't. The big guys on this board know more about whats going on at Lexus than your salesman, trust me. Ask your Lexus salesman to describe how some complex function of your car works, say the adaptive lighting or the laser cruise control, VSC or the AWD system. Listen to what he says, I bet it'll be amusing. I've heard things from the cruise control uses sound waves to the adative lighting reads the road ahead of you and anticipates turns. Then ask him to talk about the breif history of a model, the LS or the RX and see what he says. I bet you he's wrong. I've had salesmen tell me the RX came out in 1990 etc What I'm saying is your salesman or service writer is no more reliable a source of info than anyone on this forum, in fact they're LESS reliable because you can guarantee everyone here has the interest, the time, and the means to find whatever information is out there.

Here ya go, its tongue in cheek but I'll find more: http://www.alltooflat.com/pranks/myths/teeth/ Heres a more professional one: http://truthminers.com/hoaxarticles/coke.htm Also do you ever watch Mythbusters? Its a fun show but they also do a lot of good science using sound scientific methodologies and they found Coke didnt do 90% of what people thought it would do. Here's a paper written by a brainy looking little girl... http://www.selah.k12.wa.us/SOAR/SciProj99/ElisaSciProj.html Sure EVENTUALLY Coke will effect the strcuture of a tooth, but how many people soak their teeth in coke every night?

Thats one of the fallacies, that it will dissolve a tooth in a day and other things wont. There have been scientific tests and I've seen tests firsthand, thats a myth.

I can't even imagine how I'd feel... Gotta remember though, thats just how life is sometimes. Unfair or not, nothing you can do about it now, being angry doesn't help anything, all you can do is look towards the future. You're going to be leaving April 20th, when you come back you'll have some cash in your pocket to get into something else. You enjoyed your time with the ES250, you had fun restoring it to a better condition, now its what it is and you take away from the experience what you can. All thats lost is money, something you'll make plenty more of in your life, and the metal structure of a car, something you'll purchase many more of in your life too. Just be glad you weren't hurt, if not for anything else than because early 90s airbags can be scary things even in low speed collisions, burns, broken bones etc.

Oh man Army, sorry to hear that. Gotta remember though, a car is just a thing and things can be replaced. Your luck is excellent, you're alive and well.

LOL, I got a PDA with WiFi too, posting isnt easy.

Those tires will last a very, very long time. I get 100k or so out of Michelin LTX M/S tires.

But again though, thats a different car. Did that car have all the sophisticated traction and skid equipment your Lexus has? I've experienced both tires on the SAME car, and the difference in snow handling is astonishing.

I'm thinking about this more and more. For the other models I disagree with how CL lays out the forums, I think it creates a kinf of hierarchy and keeps people posting only in the forums they have a model in. The RX400h is a much more significant departure from the RX line though...

LexKid- Thats not entirely true, I fully believe there are more good salesmen than bad out there, but the bad just give the rest a stigma. Coming from a profession that is stereotyped as being full of opportunisitic sleazeballs, I've met far more good colleagues than bad. But the bad ones are out there...

Can you post a picture of what they look like Jim? I wonder if they have them for my generation ES in Canada...

Cool then, I'll have to try that.

No, the clay may or may not remove the sealant though, thats still a matter of hot debate. Other than touching up the sealant every 3-6 months you should be set

They'd be a good choice probably but the may not come in the right size...

Thats not too bad, leaving the bumper as is?

The only think you should be able to do on it now is call 911.

I will call!

Wow Army, you are braver than I no question, undoubtedly. I am impressed. Best of luck to you in all your endeavors, and come back in 6 mos! Like Matt said your membership will be here waiting for you, Lexus or not, I promise.

LOL, I love stuff like this. Thats just the salesman trying to get you into an RX330 instead of an RX400h. First of all he's lying about May, the cars are already here in some places, arrived today, and spend more on gas if they're an aggessive city driver? Hardly. Worst case scenario is they spend the SAME, its IMPOSSIBLE that they'll spend more on gas. Driving the Hybrids aggressively does lower their mileage, but not beneath what you'd get on a normal gasoline powered vehicle of comparable design. Our Prius doesnt get great mileage because of how its driven but it gets 42MPG or so. Thats the oldest trick in the car sales book, get them to buy whats ON THE LOT TODAY, that means you get paid TODAY instead of a year from now when an RX400h may come in. Get a new salesman, you don't want to do business with that guy.

I wouldn't use the soft ones personally, the hard plastic kind that are painted to match the bumper look great, unless snow is a concern like you said. I know just what you mean about the rocks kicking up, the leading edges of mine are all chipped up and it only has 43k miles. They dont make mud guards for the new ES though.

Congrats on the new car! Do yourself a favor and go ahead and bite the bullet and replace the tires with something higher quality and quieter riding. Lexus puts terrible tires on their cars, and I wish I hadn't waited 25k to replace the original tires on mine. Good rubber makes a huge difference. Most of your problem is probably the run flats, replace those with some good quality normal tires and the difference will be unreal.