SW03ES

I don't know why, the ES used to have it also. May have something to do with the ULEV rating.

It is in fact supposed to be like that.

Generally its very hard to get banned on the LOC, we've only done it about 3 times I think. We regularly ban people for joining the site to spam or just to advertise, but I believe we've only banned 3 members for innapropriate conduct. Innapropriate conduct includes being repeatedly rude, obnoxious, abusive etc to fellow members, posting innapropriate content such as pornography or graphic images etc. Thats pretty much it, nothing else will get you banned. On top of that we do warnings first with temporary suspension of posting priveledges so the member knows what he is doing wrong. If the behavior stops, he's welcome to stay. Now what does that mean? Well first we generally just ban the username expecting the person to be mature and leave where he is not wanted. Usually though this is wrong and we have to initiate an IP ban. We (as do almost all forums) log every users IP address. We can ban that address from being able to access the site. If that doesn't work or the person has multiple accounts with their ISP and thus multiple IP addresses we contact the ISP and report the member for harassment. Usually the ISP will respond by cancelling the member's internet access. We are all very sharp, we know who we have banned before and if they try and come back we will find them. I promise. In fact since this is an interesting first post I'm going to run your IP address through our system just to make sure ;)

The LS is extremely poor in the snow if not equipped with snow tires. If anything the VSC and traction systems get in the way so on the occasions I drove my father's old 98 in the snow I would shut it off. Its just not a good snow vehicle, heavy, RWD, and considerable power. I've not driven his new 04 in the snow but he says its even worse.

First of all glad you're okay. Second of all definately file a claim against this guy and get your car repaired. Why you would even consider letting him off without paying you the repairs on your car is beyond me. Have the insurance company pay you in cash if you don't want to have the car repaired.

Listen to what jragosta has to say, he's a level headed and logical person. The NHTSA is a private organization that is dedicated to maintaining a level of safety in the automotive industry. Before the NHTSA we didn't have any kind of requirements as to what kind of safety features and performance cars needed to have. If the NHTSA opened an investigation and then cleared Lexus of any wrongdoing then you can bet they honestly could find no evidence to support a wrongdoing on the part of Toyota. You say that Lexus needs to step up and take responsibility for their cars, but if they paid out for every type of problem or accident that even may have to do with the construction of the car they would be out of business. I understand your motivation, but the NHTSA has already done an investigation of this matter that probed much deeper than you'll be capable to do and came out finding no fault on Lexus' part. I've felt the "lurching" and as I said earlier it may have something to do with the DBW, it may not. It may have something to do with the A/C compressor cycling or something like that, most cars will display an RPM bump when that happens, who knows. Maybe the dealership has a name for it because its a normal condition of automatic transmissioned vehicles. Automatic transmission vehicles WILL move on their own when engaged in gear, this is called "Creeping". All vehicles do not creep at the same speed, and all vehicles do not creep at one specific speed. Like I said before, I've felt this but it has never once even begun to overpower my control on the vehicle via my foot on the brake. Now I'm not discounting what you're saying but you've got to realize what the response to this is going to be. There are so many unanswerable and unprovable things that may have happened. You could have relaxed your foot on the brake just at the wrong moment, who knows.

Kids climb into trunks while playing and don't have a way of getting out, that was the reason behind the latch. It just makes sense, you shouldn't be able to easily fit into a space that you cannot again get out of.

Because its a diesel. Like I said before our Prius hybridis a DBW throttle also and it doesn't hesitate, I've heard the same about diesel pickups with DBW. I think it may have something to do with them having more torque at low RPM compensating for the lag, both diesels and electric motors have a lot more torque than gas engines. Another peice of evidence for this is that in the LS and GS that have ECT modes on the transmission, the ECT PWR mode lessens the hesitation, more torque is availiable at lower speeds.

Sure, but I've heard the tradeoff isn't as noticable on the LS as one would think.

Nothing wrong with the Kia, we're just being mean LOL.

No idea. Its definately an extremely extremely isolated occurance though. I've felt it but its never even come close to taking control of the car away from me.

Those glow in the dark handles became required in 01 I believe.

But the fair market value of that car is like I told him, $5700. Thats nearly twice what you're looking to spend...

Glad you all are okay!

I still wouldnt be surprised if its totalled.

For that one, according to KBB about $5700 private party. Yeah sorry to tell you but $3,000 is putting you in ES250 or MAYBE semi-rough 92 ES300 territory. You're not going to be able to get a 94+ ES in good condition for $3,000. I'm seeing $4100 for a 94 with 230,000 miles in only fair condition.

Bummer! Depending on the year it very well may be totalled.

Thats if you believe that everything will go GSM. I personally am not so sure because GSM coverage is so poor in most of the US. It seems like maybe CDMA phones that have the ability to roam on GSM networks will be the future, its too soon to tell. Verizon and Sprint seem to think this is going to be the ticket. I don't keep phones more than a year anyways, something new always comes out and I have to trade up. It will be a long time before I ever agree to GSM service again, my fiance has Cingular now and it is completely poor. Its so poor in fact we're happily paying the penalty for ending our Cingular contract early to go back to CDMA. As for cameras and video feed, I've had a camera phone now for about 2 years (I got the first camera Sanyo) and still don't understand them. Sure they're cool for setting wallpapers and photo caller IDs but the pictures are terrible. The camera on my new V710 is absolutely horrible, much worse than the not even megapixel ones on the Sanyo phones I've had previously. The picture it takes is so small and dark it can't even be viewed on the phone screen, let alone in real life. Video feed? My previous Sanyo had that. I recorded 3 feeds ever I think. I haven't even tried to operate the video feed on my 710 yet, no desire to. Verizon definately has the best service, I'm glad I switched for that aspect even though Sprint had gotten much much better. I have however lost all respect for Verizon as a company for disabling the V710's Bluetooth data transmission functions to force customers to use their pay as you go PIX and messaging services. Very uncool. Mark my words in a couple of years we'll have a gov't ruling forcing all carriers to stop blacklisting ESNs so customers can be treated fairly. Verizon may have the best service but they're crooks.

I personally think the system works just fine for what you should be doing while driving, voice dialing, dialing from presets and answering calls. If you want to dial you can always dial on the phone. I'm not quite sure what else you'd want it to do. I have the V710 and we have the Toyota/Lexus bluetooth system in our 2004 Prius (I just installed aftermarket bluetooth in my Lexus). Basically any phone from SonyErricson will work perfectly with the system, the T608 from Sprint (which are availiable in extremely limited supply from Sprint directly by calling and ordering), the T616 from Cingular etc. My fiance drives the Prius and she has a T616 from Cingular. Phone works fine with the system but the service is so poor she's going to join me on my Verizon plan and get a V710. The problems with the V710 are as follows: 1. The phone will not ring, it only mutes the radio and displays caller id info on the nav screen but does not ring. This is because the phone is designed to operate in "handsfree" Bluetooth mode which the Toyota/Lexus system does not support. The phone expects the Bluetooth system to ring not the phone. The SE phones operate in handset mode which works with the Lexus system (the phone rings). You can tell that on my aftermarket bluetooth system because when the phone and the module are paired it rings through the speaker in the system. This doesn't happen on the Toyota/Lexus system because the speaker is not active until you place a call through the Toyota/Lexus interface. 2. You cannot transfer phonebook information to the vehicle. This is because lovely Verizon has disabled data sending capabilities of the V710 over Bluetooth so that customers have to use Verizon's pay as you use services to transfer data. Dirty. Verizon is coming out with a firmware upgrade in November which will allow the phone to operate in headset mode (so it'll ring) and re-enable part of the OBEX phonetools system so you can upload phonebooks. Both of these features are in the phone, Verizon just has them disabled. People are working very hard to try and hack the phone to re-enable these features Verizon underhandedly disabled. There's even like a $3000 reward for whoever can re-enable all Bluetooth functions. So in short the V710 will work in november, you can bet on it because Lexus, BMW, and Acura have all filed misrepresentation suits against Verizon because the phone won't operate as they promised their customers it would. If you like the phone but don't want to wait or don't want to do business with Verizon (I don't blame you) you can get the Motorola V600 from Cingular which is very similar to the V710 it just has all these functions unlocked.

Yes Alexandria is where my dad bought his first LS400 in 98 and took it back for service subsequently. They have a very limited loaner fleet mostly because they don't have a lot of lot space nor a big service awning. I was never very impressed with Lindsay Lexus. I bought mine at Lexus of Annapolis and service it at Lexus of Silver Spring. As for the TSBs, join www.alldata.com and you can access them and print them out. I know one exists for a creak behind the guages when the sun hits the dash.

Lemon pledge works fine

GS and IS with HID have yellow fogs, LS and ES with HID have white fogs. I suppose it has something to do with "sport" vs "luxury"? Who knows why? Actually HIDs were only truly optional on the 98, they basically became standard in 99 when they were adopted into the "premium package" that all LS400s that aren't special ordered come equipped with. So in short, you may find a 98 without HID but you won't find a 99 or 00, or at least they'll be more rare. If you think you may not have HID you probably don't, they're very apaprent.

Not base, but there m,ay be an option.

Another thing the rattle/tapping behind the guages is a common RX problem, there's a TSB that tells them EXACTLY how to fix it. Even if they couldn't hear it they should have performed the TSB. When they fixed the rattle in my rear door they didn't even try to replicate it, when I told them it was there they accessed the TSB and knew exactly how to fix it. Sounds like you need to head off to the underdog dealer like I did. Let them know that you are coming off a not so good relationship with the dealer you're using now and if they can give you Lexus level service then they can earn your business and referrals for life. If they're good they'll work to impress you, this is what I did. Thats what I do for a living I create custom customer retention programs for car dealerships and teach them on how to turn sales business into service business. What most people don't know is that a dealership makes WAY more per customer and in total off of service than they do off of sales. Thats where a lot of dealerships fail though, service. I provide them with the tools and the mindset neccisary to keep customers for life. You need to teach them a lesson, get the new dealer to work for your business, then when they do it rattle off a letter to the GM of the other dealer and explain to him why they failed in their job of earning your business for life and why the other dealer. Tell him he needs to read Carl Sewell's book "Customer for Life" he'll know what you mean. Hell, give me the name of the dealer I can help them out.

That is not at all acceptable for a Lexus dealer. My dealer has never kept the car more than a day to do anything and that includes dissassembling interior parts to get to rattles. I just picked it up yesterday from the 30,000 mile maint. and I had three concerns, a rattle in the rearview mirror, a clattering noise when idling, and a intermittant looseness in the drivers side front suspension that felt like a slightly worn or unlubricated bushing. As always I requested they did not wash the vehicle (dealers are notorious for poor washing that leads to scratches and swirls). I recieved an RX330 loaner and was on my way within 10 minutes, as is normal. This was 3:30 PM. I told them I needed the car by 3 the next day. The next day I get a call that its finished, roll up at 3:15. Service completed. The rattle was coming from clips in the windshield header that should have been removed at delivery (common ES problem) but just in case they replaced the rearview mirror anyways to make sure I would be satisfied. The drive belts were drying up somewhat causing the clatter, not needing replacement yet but they replaced them anyways to make sure I was satisfied. They couldn't replicate the suspension noise (it is intermittant) but they lubricated everything in the front suspension anyways just to make sure I'd be satsified. Only problem was they half assed washed my car when I asked them not to, when I informed them that I would have to be compensated for the cost of re-detailing the vehicle to return it to the condition it was before I dropped it off they were very apologetic and said of course, just call next week and let them know and they would credit that amount back to my credit card as a discount for the service I just had. I thanked them for their fairness and left by 3:45. The only reason it took that long was because I had to show them the damage I noticed done during the wash (very slight). THATS how a Lexus dealer should behave. Also don't always believe the reputations dealers have. A lot of owners respond in favor of a dealer because they feel they should. This dealer is consistently rated the lowest in the area, but its the only one I'd let service my car. Its a little older, not quite as fancy and I think that might be why it gets poor marks.