SW03ES

You can probably find it on a lot somewhere. As far as pricing goes, look around in this forum a little and see what you can find. I remember pricing being discussed in another thread not too long ago. Welcome to the club!

99- I don't know if I'd believe that or not. When you slow to a stop watch the RPM needle and see if it fluctuates more than 2-300RPM. If it does its definately shifted down a gear.

Does the LS have a reputation as an old persons car, probably in some places but not moreso than any other big luxury sedan. You might be happier if you waited for the new GS430 to come out in a few months, check the General Discussions section for some pictures of that. I'd go drive an LS430 with the sport package and see what you think.

My dealer charges $140 for the mini maint which includes oil change and tire rotation, thats with me bringing my own oil! No problem letting someone else do it, just keep the reciepts and I'd use a Lexus filter.

NYC drivers lol

The only thing I edited was I changed "You coward" to "cowardly" because I agreed that it wasn't a proper way to word that statement and it was unfair. I did this before I read your response to the thread, but I read it before I posted Thats all. I probably should have mentioned I did that but I was simply too angry and I forgot, I apologize. Because of some legal action? Huh? Legality has nothing to do with it, its not illegal to insult someone. Even if it were you have no way of contacting me to forward any kind of legal action and I have no way of contacting you. Anyways its not an admin function to edit one's own post, you can do that too as everyone can. You can also delete your own posts, but I suspect you know that already. As for people from the site PMing you and "thanking you" for your comments, don't even try and play that with me, thats a total cop out. Regardless if people PMed you or not, it doesn't matter because this has nothing to do with anyone but you and me. I have tried repeatedly to have a mature debate with you about this or any topic but it is impossible because you always chime in on my age and put me off as not worth discussing with or having no "credibility", that is completely out of line and I will not tolerate it. I did go back and search for your first post, and the post I was looking for is strangely missing which is rather interesting. Even if that wasn't your first post, I have no intention of "fabricating" statements to try and discredit you or whatever, I legitimately thought that was your first post. I still think it was and that you went back and deleted it but theres no way to prove that so its useless to try. I'd agree with you if we were discussing wedded bliss, or raising children, or how to live a proper life, or even how to best handle a lifelong career and I would gladly bow to your age-d wisdom but this is cars. I have been into cars as my primary life focus since I was a small small boy. I am not inexperienced in this area of life in any way shape or form. Am I the MOST experienced in the world or even in this club, certainly not but I am MORE than capable of holding a discussion with you or anyone else about the subject. Car dealerships PAY me for my knowledge about the customer service industry and how it relates to cars and to carbuyers, do they pay you? Now I spent time and presented you with a coherant argument backed up by facts and logic and you just shot it down without even discussing it with me because of my age as if I were some stupid 14 year old kid. I'm a 23 year old man that owns a company, I'm not some stupid kid. If thats legitimately the way you are, a bigot that refuses to acknowledge any kind of skills or information someone can offer because of their appearance or station in life then the hell with you. You're the one thats not fit to hold a discussion with me or anyone else here if thats the case. Thank you for the support Jill I appreciate it. Please don't ever be afraid to voice your opinion at the LOC Jill, not while I'm around. I will see to it that no one steps on you because of it.

YOU are the one who began discriminating against me because of my age. You've done this before and you knew precisely how it would make me react. I was perfectly willing to respect your opinions and discuss and debate them with you as equal members, you resorted to discrediting me YET AGAIN because of my age and suggesting YET AGAIN that my opinion is not as valid as yours. Don't play the innocent victim here because you're not. As for the good of our membership, my main concern has always been and continues to be the good of this site. Don't play the innocent contributing LOC member card either, because you don't do that any better. Your entire use of this site has been for your own purposes and when asked to pony up some cash to give back to it to ensure it will continue to be here, you refused, said it wasn't worth it and accused Matt of being dishonest with the membership about the goals of the gold member program, a program he, I and the rest of the site's administration worked hard to try and make worthwhile for our members. I on the other hand use my membership here to help fellow members and help to make this club as good as it can be. You have no position to ask Matthew McNally or anyone else here for anything.

The paint pens stay pretty wet..

The system just seizes up and the changer jams.

Really? The fit and finish in the one I sat in was fine...

And your bullheaded stubborness, arrogance, rudeness, ignorance, and hypocricy don't establish any credibility for you in my eyes either. Age doesn't make wisdom, as you'll learn eventually. Maybe when you get a little older. Ignore me if you want, you can't argue with what I'm presenting here and I believe you're incapable of even considering that you could be incorrect so I'd suggest its the best thing for you to do. You are in the wrong here and you know it. I try to have a legitimate discussion about this with you by providing evidence of my case and a description of why I believe the way I do and you totally write me off again because of my age. If you can't argue with my experiences discount them right? Cut them down, they don't count because of my age huh? Cowardly. I've accomplished more at 23 then you ever will, get used to it. Buy that Grand Cherokee quick please and get out of our hair. www.jeepsunlimited.com will welcome you with open arms.

I'll be damned!

Eventually

But you didnt win a cookie this time lol

Yeah supposedly Lexus/Toyota wants every vehicle to have a hybrid option by 2010.

gojo- Look into the Toyo Proxes TPT, really quiet and smooth tire with a 60k warranty and the best customer satisfaction rate in the tire industry, better than Michelin who is #2. They're also about $50 a tire less than the Michelins. As for TireRack you can't really take their surveys for much. For one thing they aren't fair, they compare tires that have vastly different numbers of miles reported as if they were equal. For instance one tire with maybe 10 surveys responded and 40,000 miles looks awesome compared to another tire, except that THAT tire has 80 surveys and 10 million miles reported. More surveys will always level out the results.

I'm actually fairly certain the grille is the same...

I don't know, the Land Cruiser is solid and trouble free.

Well thats the problem... I wouldn't put any CD in there I cared about because if it fuses then you have to have the whole unit shipped off and HOPE your CDs come back to you. Our Prius has the same CD changer used in all the Toyota/Lexus vehicles that have that single feed changer. They are *terrible*. Ours failed at 1000 miles, we got the CDs back after about a month, but I'm sure everyone isn't as lucky. The Toyota dealer had a giant box of CDs waiting to go back to their owners, the guy told me he replaces 2-3 changers a week and that burned CDs or low quality CDs can exascerbate the problem.

Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. This is why its not a good idea to buy a car without having someone thoroughly inspect it first. As for negative feedback, thats tough luck on his part. Thats the whole point of the feedback system. Its your responsibility as an ebayer to report bad experiences in the form of negative feedback. I like Army's suggestion, he should cover the repairs (or at least split them with you) or I would leave him negative feedback.

No reason to take it to an independent mechanic, make the dealer replace the alternator if its making noises that are obtrusive. If you push they will replace it, they think you're satisfied now. Thats an excellent point Army had about the alternator making a constant sound, I hadn't thought about that.

Actually Blake guessed it first lol

The master tech at the dealer said it was the alternator though...

Links to consumer advocation sites, problems with Jeeps and most notably the Grand Cherokee: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/jeep.htm Same consumer advocacy group about Lexus: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/lexus.html Compare the nature of the complaints! The complaints on the Jeeps are on the whole about newer cars, more serious problems. Some even safety complaints. The Lexus complaints are mostly about 10 year old cars and 700 repair bills. I can't remember the last time my Explorer went in for service and it cost less than $700. $700 repair bills on that make me thrilled!

My dad had his LS for 6 years and 160,000 miles and it never really cost him anything overly expensive to maintain it. He paid for the dealership service but he didn't HAVE to do that. Nothing ever went wrong with the car, I think it needed ball joints at like 140k and at 160k the air ride shocks were getting a little warn. He traded it on a new one. We have a friend that has 4 Lexuses, all over 200,000 miles one ES250, two ES300s and an LS400. One of the ES300s has over 300,000 miles. None of them have ever had anything but routine maintenance done to them and the occasional repair that just comes with the territory for their age. We have a neighbor with a 2001 RX300 with over 100,000 miles and they've never had any kind of serious out of maintenance repair. The reason its so "expensive" to maintain a Lexus is people take them to the dealer. The dealers are abhorrently expensive, but no more so than any other luxury car. So your point is invalid. All I'm saying is your experience cannot be attributed to the entire Lexus line or the experience of all Lexus owners as a whole. You have a bad car, and you have a mindset that makes dealing with such issues very difficult. There is nothing Lexus or the dealer is going to be able to do to please you, you had your mind up the day the car hit your driveway. Your very first post on here was that your wife had made you buy an RX300, and that you hated it. Thats before you ever had any problems at all. You're hardly an unbiased source of information. You also continue to ignore all the evidence of unhappy owners of their Jeeps I've presented. Because you've had a good experience, their bad experiences are invalid. They've abused their trucks or not maintained them properly. Because you've had a bad excperience with your Lexus, all our good experiences are invalid. It seems that to you, only your experience or experiences that match yours can be possibly correct, everyone else must just be insane. The hypocricy is so thick here you could cut it with a knife. I hope you'll remember this next time you set your guns on one of us who is satisfied with their vehicle.