SW03ES

Thats another point too, when they're on the lot the smart keys are deactivated.

I dont know that I'd do the 05 wheels, I'm afraid the 17s would effect the ride. As for the headlights, I dont know. I like them, but something just seems a little riceish to me replacing certain parts with some from newer years, I dunno. The chrome strip isn't a big deal but I'm undecided about bigger things like head and tail lights. I'll have to think about it. Its down the street now having the inspection done (cars must be inspected in MD whenever they change ownership). I've already noticed a different feeling driving it when I own it vs leased, it is a different feeling. Leasing has a lot of benefits for someone self employed like me but it sure feels good to own it 100%.

I've noticed equalizers are becoming a thing of the past on OEM audio systems... Damn, I was just out and forgot to check the radio settings...

Thankya thankya. So now I'm going to do some things that I was a little unsure about doing since I didn't own the car. I'm going to improve my satellite radio with a VAISTECH aux in adapter and a new antenna mounted on the roof, install that 2005 ES license plate trim with the chrome strip, and might look into getting factory chrome wheels maybe this spring.

Why wouldn't these people stricken with the RX300 transmission failures?

As a matter of fact I just drove an LS430 with the Modern Luxury package today while I was waiting for a ding to be removed from my car. Definately my next car... No real reason to go with an 04 vs an 01-03 except that I think the styling is much better. The 04 has the addition of a 6 speed auto with a manumatic shift mode also but thats about all. I'd do an 02 if you can simply because its best to avoid the first model year of a design.

The smart key will drain the battery really fast, especially if you walk past it in the garage it will "recognize" you and turn on the interior lights etc. If I were you I'd deactivate the smart key through the week when you aren't driving it. We have it on our Prius and it drains the battery fast. Also batteries get low when cars are sitting on dealer lots. You got a really great price on that car so my guess is it was sitting there a while, that drains batteries too. That coupled with the smart key probably did you in. They routinely jump start cars on dealer lots because the batteries go dead all the time. If you call Lexus roadside they'll bring you a new battery and install it right there at your house.

I'll go out to my car and see how he has it set, I fiddled with it for a year and never could get it sounding as good as he did, its just someone with an ear for it vs someone without one (me) lol.

Yeah I'd love to see some pics!

Well I got a letter about a week ago from my lease company with a buyout price for my ES300, just like I did last year (apparently they send one every year). I looked at the price and it wasn't bad at all at $24,500. My lease is rated around 17,500 miles a year and so far I'm at 43,000 so thats almost 22,000 miles per year. If I continue the lease I'll be due about $3000 in mileage overage charges at the end. I did some research and this car would sell on the dealers lot even with my mileage for $29k or so and privately for around what the buyout was. So I called my accountant and we kicked it around, what kind of tax savings I could get if the vehicle were purchased vs what I get now with the lease weighed with the cost of paying the overage charges with it under advisement that I'd probably upgrade the car within 2-3 years and we both agreed, I should buy it. So I did, I liquidated some assets and overnighted them a certified check for $24,500. She's all mine, bought and paid for. Now all I have to do is get her inspected and go swap the tags next week and pay the sales tax after the bank transfers ownership. My dad always says when he pays off a car "The loudest thing rattling around in this car now is the deed in the glove box!" well I can say "The ONLY thing rattling around in this car now is the deed in the glove box" ;)

But, why worry about it now. Whats done is done.

I think Colin is just making a point, if you agree to change the fluid even though its "not needed", why not think about an external filter even though its "not needed"

No luck finding it anywhere. At the college I went to we have access to all of these things online through a system called OVID, as an alumni I don't have access to it anywhere I'd have to go down to the school and xerox the hardcopy in the journal its published in.

If I remember correctly you don't have nav right?

No problem, I'll kick around how to explain it better.

Silver- Yes, the lighter woods look much better with the tan interiors, I just don't feel it on black or grey. The 01-03 LS430 standard black interior came with wood the color of the platinum series and I thought it looked very garish to me. Jim- I've found that each car has a slightly different tone wood, I looked at a lot of LS400s when I was shopping and never found 2 with wood that looked exactly the same. As for the models of the LS you can tell from the exterior, you can obviously tell the different versions of the car (i.e. a 95-97 from a 98-00) but otherwise I think you're right with the exception of the 01 LS430 with base 16" wheels. In 01 they had a different design 16" wheel and there was so much outcry about how ugly they were they changed to the 00 platinum wheel (only painted, not machined like on the plat.) in 2002. So if you see an LS430 with this wheel its automatically a 2001. I'll see if I can find pics.

The ML system is a lot like the old Nakamichi system in that to be truly appreciated it has to be: 1. Tuned properly. When I had my satellite radio installed the installer tuned the system for me and it made a huge difference 2. Used with classical music. Both systems are very understated and are very good ad discerning minute portions of complex instrumental peices that you wont hear on other stereos, for normal rock and roll/country or FM radio you wont be able to tell a difference between the ML and the base stereo.

I have mine set up this way because I feel like you do, but the reception gets downright poor at times and I'm going to move it up onto the roof. They make sat. radio antennas now that are quarter sized. The problem is as the car moves around relative to the satellites the C pillars and the roof block the signal to the antenna. Not so much a problem in an urban area where there are lots of repeaters but it gets to be a problem as you get more rural and dependent on the satellite signal. For instance when I'm downtown I never have problems but in the morning and evening the signal's angle relative to the earth's surface changes and I get dropouts so bad out here where I live (10mi from the city) that I have to switch to normal radio. That would be less likely with the antenna on the roof because it would have greater exposure to availiable signals. Sirius is about to come out with an antenna that mounts on the inside of the rear glass that might be interesting. Kind of like the old cellular antennas except it won't need anything on the outside of the glass.

Nothing wrong with disagreeing at all, thank you both for doing it calmly though! I was concerned I'd come back and find people hurling firey torches at me. I'll address skre's post first then jrag's. It does drive like other cars that have the same type of DBW system. Yes sir, the LS430 is DBW and there are complaints about it too, and the RX330, and the SC330. Search through every forum on here, every models forum has at least one complaint about the acceleration delay because of the DBW throttle. My dad noticed it from the second he drove his 98 LS400 for the first time, right after the DBW throttle was introduced. He got used to it eventually, his 04 LS430 has it and every RX330 I've ever driven as a loaner has it. I dont know why but on this forum for some reason we have mostly ES owners and a larger concentration of people that have the problem are ES owners. I think it comes from search engine hits, the more we talk about it the more it pops up on search engines when people search for "ES Transmission" or whatever. It is a universal problem though. For whatever reason the ECT PWR function found on the LS, GS, and SC seems to dull the hesitation somewhat making the LS, GS, and SC seem like they don't exhibit the problem as much. Heh, must have something to do with the region then. Dealerships here have a lot of competition per vehicle make so maybe that makes a difference. For instance we have 5 Lexus dealers (with a 6th being built) within 30 miles. Thats common for all makes. Check the RX forum, the RX has the same problem. It doesn't seem as severe on the RX for whatever reason but its there, and some owners are just as mad as you guys are. I drive RX330s always when my car is in for service. jrag- I gotcha, thats a tough situation to be in. Like I said to scre above it must be a regional thing or based on the competition dealers have here. This is half true. The reason the DBW system operates as it does IS an emissions issue. Lexus won't tell you this but Canadian vehicles don't have this issue like you said, it has something to do with delaying WOT (Wide Open Throttle) to bring the cars under the US' stricter emissions standards. Thats why car companies are moving to DBW because it makes it easier to comply. The difficulty has been and continues to be figuring out how to refine the systems and remain within the emissions regs. As the regs get tighter and tighter this gets harder and harder to do. No problem at all, I'd be happy to. In fact I was driving around today trying to pay attention to what I do so that I could explain it here. Basically you have to learn to anticipate the hesitation and feel as it builds and dissipates. When you accelerate you have to pause your movement on the pedal once you feel the power starting to flow through and wait, you'll feel the pedal tense up and let go beneath your foot, the lag just happened. After that you can accelerate normally. You'll learn through doing this when it is neccisary and when its not, I've learned that usually its only neccisary when starting from a stop or coming back onto throttle from a coasting state. Now, at first this is going to seem really difficult and cumbersome but I promise you that you will get used to it. The pausing is only for a microsecond and you'll learn to anticipate the behavior of the transmission before it happens and then the car will feel like it drives like any other car. You'll learn instinctively to read the state of the transmission through the gas pedal and it will become natural. I don't know if thats the best explanation but its really something you've got to try.

The wheels grow on you... Light woods are in, the LS430 has several light wood options as does the SC430, on the 05 ES330 the tan and grey interiors have an almost yellow blond birds eye maple.

Yeah that should be a master key...

Probably how the photo was taken.

Here's one: http://www.ebizautos.com/shared/viewer_ope...&wid=800&pid=15 I guess you'd really call it orange. Thats another difference, the platinum cars are monochromatic instead of 2 tone except for the white.

Yep. I don't care for it either, the grain is nice though. Its birds eye maple vs walnut so the maple has a tighter grain to it and an interesting 3 dimensional sheen.

The plastic sheeting wont help because it doesn't cover every painted surface, new cars MUST be clayed immediately to remove ferrous contaminants before they corrode. The question is do you want the dealer to buff the car out, dealers are notorious for bad detailing jobs and paint can be messed up really bad by Bobby from the local highschool with the rotary buffer. They don't have real detailers because they refuse to pay real detailers. Why pay someone $50 an hour when the local kid will do it for $8! Mentality. You may be better requesting a $150 detailing voucher and then pay a competent professional on your own. The finish will have to be waxed after being polished also.