SW03ES

Definately a quality outfit. The only drawback is that its harder to take advantage of tiremakers 30 day test ride policy.

Those belts can get weathered by age and die out before their specified mileage time, but like others have said they're good belts and usually can last way beyond their specified service life. I'd get a second opinion from a secondary independent mechanic, let him know that you're shopping around for a good honest person to service all your vehicles (you have many, get my drift?) from now on and you'd appreciate an honest response.

Interesting...Im sure they do, why would they pay for the manuals when they can subscribe to that?

You mean the screws to remove the armrest? On my car they're underneath the bottom compartment door, don't know about your year.

Nope I just checked, the Triple Tread is ONLY availiable in a T rated speed, so double check that yours are H. Actually the Camry comes with V rated tires also. Yes the rating is a speed performance spec but it also affects the tire's handling and the stiffness of the sidewall.

Ehhh I'd stick with the Michelins over the Toyos. Can you get them from Tire Rack?

Now thats got possibilities, the one at the top. It follows the new design cues from the new GS. I still wouldn't put too much stock in it. The other one I've seen and don't buy, thats a reworked photo of an Audi A8. dens- an H2? Ugg, talk about the lowest quality interior on the road.

lol, you think people react to you funny in the Lexus roll up in a Mercedes, I know people who drive Mercedes and their cars get spit on, keyed, egged etc. Lexus is much more understated and "beneath the radar" than Mercedes. You'll get used to it.

In my experience these things are a PITA to balance properly. Mine had to be balanced twice and my dad had problems on both his 98 and 04 LS's. That doesn't mean BJs can't do it, it just may mean they need a couple of cracks at it.

If I were buying an SUV in that segment it'd be an Infiniti FX ;)

04- Again though, their experiences don't make any sense, the switch should make no difference when stopping the vehicle.

Well Lexus and Mercedes feel otherwise lol. The Lexus came out in 1990 specifically to target consumers that purchase the SEL line of Mercedes sedans, and they did. The current Mercedes design is specifically geared to compete with Lexus.

Again though, that depends on whether or not the dealership services a lot of Lexuses, they don't all have those manuals.

Be aware though that the 80k treadwear rating may reduce the smoothness of the ride, and the Triple Treads don't come in the V speed rating the car is designed for. I personally would never put a T rated tire on a car like this, you'd have no idea the kind of compromises to the handling. An H maybe but *I* still wouldn't. They may be good tires but IMHO they're not suited to the Lexus.

The low mileage is going to be of more value to you in ability to drive the car for an extended legnth of time than in trade in dollars. It make only effect the price you'll get a few hundred bucks. I'd drive it a while.

A couple years ago they changed the part numbers, Toyota dealers that service a lot of Lexus cars will know what parts work and will just order the rest to be couriered from a local Lexus dealer. Toyota dealers that don't will be lost and confused. Only you can decide what a loss of value is, if the nice facilities, free doughnuts, free Lexus loaners, and inclusion in the Lexus service history database are valuable to you then yeah you'd have a loss of value, if not then no there wouldn't be any loss of value. My advice would be to not use ANY dealership as a independent local mechanic that knows Lexus vehicles will do much better service at a more reasonable price than Lexus OR Toyota. If you're going to use Toyota I'd take the next step to and indy mechanic.

That would be a much better way of handling it I agree.

I totally agree with you, I'm just presenting it from their perspective, you can bet that response is closely tailored by their lawyers. All in all the practice of telling customers something is operating as designed is an extremely poor business practice from a PR standpoint and I try to communicate that to my clients but its difficult because thats the legally safe response. You're right, customers who have been long labored by problems like these would much rather hear "This is a problem with the transmission, DBW, whatever, I'm extremely sorry but there isn't anything we can do" than "thats operating as its designed" which makes the customer feel like an idiot, its like saying "You idiot, why don't you like our perfectly engineered system?". Its just admitting fault in a situation like this is not smart from a legal or liability standpoint. If dealers tell customers theres a problem then that gives fuel for class action lawsuits etc, if you were a lawyer and Lexus was your client you'd tell them the same thing. Its not right, but its business.

Probably not anything you could use yourself, I'd take it to an upholstery shop and see what they think.

I would (and did) interpret it as meaning when accelerating from a stop. It honestly would not have occured to me that it meant when starting the engine as that doesn't make any sense. Why would the car need a special mode to start just because its snowing and not when its not snowing? And why would that mode be part of the transmission which has nothing to do with the ignition system? What images are you trying to attatch? I'm just getting a blank paint screen.

More than likely some kind of drivers error occured that caused this accident. There have been numerous investigations of many many vehicles done by the NHTSA into unintended acceleration including in the Lexus line and they have never found any evidence that any of these accidents were due to equipment malfunction and not driver error. All automatic transmissions will cause the RPMs to rise as the car comes to a stop, sometimes it can be startling if you're not ready for it.

Well you can't say Mercedes went backwards, their sales are tops and tops above what they were back in the 90s. I hear very little negative about their cars styling and I think its deserved, Mercedes makes a beautiful car. What you have to understand is you're probably not the market Lexus is going after, can you afford a new LS430? Most people on this forum can't. They're not interested in keeping the people that buy them at 10 years old, they're interested in staying with the shakers like BMW and Mercedes and not turning into Cadillac. You've got to embrace change to stay competative in this market. Anyways again, I wouldn't be overly concerned. The GS is the forefront of the Lexus style to come and theres nothing radical or racerish about it.

No problem, good luck!

Well, thats an argument of semantics.

Right, after the exchange the prices are comparable but Canada has like 20% taxes on new car sales.