SW03ES

Only 3 letters lol

Nope nope nope lol. Take the day off from work and install it today Steve!

But see, I can say all the same about the RX. You've lit into me on several occasions for believing that the issues you and some others have experienced with the RX aren't as widespread as you think, yet when I collect this information about the Grand Cherokee from a Grand Cherokee board you automatically write it off as isolated and because of poor maintenance! Read those posts! Thats not because of poor maintenance! You say you've had two, well my family has had 3 Lexuses and I know several people with RX's and they've been totally bulletproof. Lexus has THE best satisfaction and long tern dependability rating in the industry, and the RX is at or near the top of its class. Everything you just said about the Grand Cherokee in the face of what I posted is exactly what I've said to you and others about the RX! I find that hypocricy really amusing. "The advice you're giving this person to buy a Grand Cherokee in the face of these problems is dangerous." I guess the two of us aren't so different after all huh? You like Grand Cherokees, I like Lexuses and niether one of us buy into the claims that either vehicle is wrought with these problems. I guess if either of us lives in a fantacy world about these two vehicles, we're they're together huh? I'll bring the iced tea.

Thats weird, every other Lexus has one... You know what you can do? They sell little coin holders that attatch into the map pockets that you might find useful...

They have a contract with Cadillac. Actually the presidential limo used to always be a Lincoln up until some time in the late 70s. Apparently the gov't felt Cadillac had a better reputation than Lincoln for being a "purely American" luxury car. Thats fancy talk for Cadillac did it cheaper. Actually not a lot is known about the new limo, a lot of it is classified. I know that most of the car is built precisely by and to the secret service's specs, and very little of it is from the Deville, I believe only the front and rear clips. They even changed the door handles because they foung them unsatisfactory...

Something about the orientation of the LX's motor makes routine maintenance more difficult, and it holds more oil... Maint. costs on the ES are much cheaper than the GS430, but about the same as the GS300. There's a totally different price schedule for the 6cyl Lexuses vs the 8cyl Lexuses. Keep in mind also you don't have to service the car at the dealer. My dealer charges $97 an hour for labor and they're not the most expensive one in the area... Lexus dealers don't do oil changes, they do different levels of maintenance. A mini maintenance is an oil change, this costs $140 after I bring my own synthetic oil (5qts worth at $5.30 a quart. Never buy synthetic oil at the dealer, they charge $20 a qt). This includes the oil change, tire rotation, inspection of various things, top off all fluids, a wash and vacuum and a loaner car. Not bad. I always get the loaner car to make the price more worthwhile and always skip the wash because I don't want them to touch my car (dealers don't wash well). Now, the first 5k maint. is free on all Lexuses. You'll have to pay for the service again at 10k. At 15k comes the medium maintenance. This includes everything in the mini maintenance plus a transmission flush, diff. flush, replacement of the air filter, oil additive, fuel additive.They charged me $452 for this service. At 20k and 25k its only mini maints until 30k when they do a large maint. This includes everything included in both the other maint.s plus a coolant flush and a brake fluid flush, they charged me $615 for this. Then it restarts. 35k and 40k are minis, then a medium at 45k, more minis at 50k and 55k then another large at 60k with the addition of a replaced PCV valve and replacement of the fuel cap gasket. This will run $800 or so easy. Then it restarts, minis at 65k and 70k and a medium at 75k. minis at 80k and 85 then an extra large at 90k that will include everything in the 30k and 60k plus spark plugs and the timing belt. THis will be $1200 or so. So there in a nutshell is the maintenance future of a Lexus through 90k miles. The V8s are generally 25% more. Like I said though you don't have to service it at the dealership, you'll get a nice little book that lines all of this out and any mechanic can do the work as long as you use the right parts! Its really not so bad, honestly. Everyone thinks its a lot more expensive to own these things than it is.

My Explorer has load leveling in the rear too ;) And blake, check my edited post above about the Town Cars...

Nope, that was 150k on the original struts. As for the TC you know why there's so little legroom? The car is very, very old. The engine and transmission are ancient (and huge) the driveline hump on those cars is enormous. The TC is also one if the last (if not the last) cars to have a body on frame construction like a truck. Thats why they're so popular as limos, and thats partly why you see so many SUV limos now, modern cars aren't as suitable. Unibody cars just don't survive long as limos, new Devilles etc. There just isn't enough support in the structure without stregnthening it and that adds a LOT of weight. Think about it, do you see older Town Cars or older Cadillac limos around? Definately Town Cars, at least post 1996 when the RWD body on frame Cadillac Fleetwood was discontinued. Town Cars make great, long lived limos. SUVs do also, because of the full frame. In fact after Cadillac cancelled the Fleetwood they had to build (from scratch) along with the Secret Service a body on frame structure with RWD and make it appear to be a Cadillac Deville for the new presidential limo. The weak structure of the Deville simply couldn't handle that kind of weight. Just some trivia. A lot of the legroom we've grown accustomed to in newer cars is because of the unibody construction and downsizing of components like the transmission that eat into interior room. Very cool! B)

I doubt its a fuel pump though, unless you routinely run your tank all the way empty. Its not really a known Lexus issue. My guess is its the belts.

I'm dissapointed in the floormats that come OEM on the ES. They're nice and high quality for sure, but they have no nonskid backing and even with Lexus' anchors at the bottom of the mat my drivers mat always slides over to the right and when I have rear passengers the rear mats always end up under the seats. What does everyone think of these? http://www.autosportcatalog.com/index.cfm?...&pid=900&cid=45 I would skip the monogramming but these mats are really nice. 48oz per yard nylon carpeting with a pile almost 1/2 and inch thick! Thats probably 3 times as thick as the factory mats. That adds not only luxurious feel and look but sound absorption also. They're expensive though... Slightly bummed nobody can do an embossed Lexus logo like on the factory mats...

Oh yeah, it will whirr when idling, I could even hear mine at low speeds sometimes. It just seemed mine was worse at startup. My guess is its the belts, they'll replace them under warranty.

I know what this is... Can't wait!

Screw shopping, if his warranty covered all of those repairs AND agreed to a new transmission over a rebuild, I'd pay twice the $1500 he paid. Why would anyone want to shop for a cheaper warranty after that story? Thats a great warranty. Thanks for the reccomendation sg, I'm planning on buying an extended warranty for my ES after the factory one is up and will definately look into that company.

Actually there is a somewhat large group of dissatisfied owners trying to make Chrysler pay for their faulty transmissions in their Grand Cherokees and a gaggle of complaints and a pending investigation with the NHTSA about Grand Cherokees shifting from drive to reverse gears unexpectedly. Grand Cherokees also have as many domestic SUVs do extremely poor front brakes and are very prone to rotar warpage. This is a quote from a Yahoo Jeep Grand Cherokee forum Another Another Another Another Another There are more but you can read them yourself at http://www.autobytel.com/content/research/...n/Posts/fid/148 My point? You can find a group of people dissatisfied with almost anything. It would appear that even the great Grand Cherokee is not beyond reproach. As for your dillema DKRC I'd actually look at an LX450. Based off the Land Cruiser it is beyond tested to last for ages and ages. Much beefier than the RX.

My dad had a 90 Contie with air ride too, and a 93... Definately had to take dramamine if you were riding with him on a trip lol.

Happened on mine, especially after cold startups? The dealer looked at it and replaced the belts for me under warranty, said they had gotten a little dry. Problem solved. They were nowhere near failure, just the quiet nature of the engine making the slightly worn belts more noticable.

Honestly, its not really that much of a difference. My dad has had two LS' with air ride, his 98 and his 04. The 98 with air ride was SUPER rare, you almost never find a gen III LS with air ride. When I was shopping for my car I looked at 2000 LS's CPO and of course none of them had air ride. Comparing them to his 98 with air ride, the cars rode almost exactly the same. If anything the cars WITHOUT air ride felt more controlled yet just as smooth where as his car tended to wallow a little, was cushier on the corners. Could have been the miles though, the 2000 LS I almost bought had 30,000 miles and his had almost 150k or so I guess at that point. His air shocks were starting to leak a little right before he traded it too. Brand new to brand new they were probably pretty identical. I haven't really driven enough LS430s to know if its a difference or not with them but I suspect its the same. No way its worth the risk of that awesome cost of repair.

Mine does this too. Just had the dealer check it and they couldn't reproduce it either (doesn't happen all the time) they ispected and lubricated all the front steering, chassis and drivetrain parts. I was told by one owner that the problem was the secondary steering shaft and it had to be replaced. I asked my service rep and he says they didn't even check the steering components and would when I bring it in for the next service (you'd think they'd have done that when the issue is a light clunk when turning ). Do let us know what they replaced...

That might just be my next car in a few years, have to see it in person.

Check these out Mike: http://www.autosportcatalog.com/index.cfm?...&pid=900&cid=45 The Lexus mats are nice, but these are nicer! I just wish I could find some with the Lexus logo. They're 48 ounce per square yard, thats at least twice as plush as the Lexus mats....

You may never notice the hesitation, most people don't. It depends on your driving style.

I've been thinking about replacing my mats with aftermarket ones. For one they have no nubs underneath and they slide everywhere, especially in the rear. Thts beside the point though. I think charcoal is what you want, but make sure they're LS430 mats and not LS400 mats. The LS400 came with darker mats on the tan and grey interiors, for some reason the mats on the grey now are the same color as the carpeting. This color used to be the color of the upper dash. I think it still comes with darker mats for tan...

The LS is extremely poor in the snow with all season tires. I have heard several people though like 1990 who have snows on them though and are very happy. RWD is a preferable drivetrain to FWD in the snow, once its moving so I can see how snows would improve it drastically. I'd say my ES is substantially better than the LS in the snow, but thats only because the FWD drivetrain lets you get going from a stop, thats the main problem with the LS.

Eh I wouldn't have bought one I think, or at least I would have immediately swapped the 17s for 16s. 17s and even 18s don't seem to make much difference on the LS, but they make a big difference on the ES.

Cool! Its growing on me too, I really like the front end and profile, but the rear's going to take some getting used to.