SW03ES

Well you don't want to leave the paint finish unprotected...

If you like a firm ride I think you're looking at the wrong car. The LS is designed to be the smoothest and quietest riding car on the road. You may be better off to look into a GS400 or GS430 instead, more mods to do to the suspension, and sportier in feel.

If you're going to upgrade it don't bother with the Nakamichi. I have heard them back to back and no question the Nakamichi is a better stereo, one of the best stock in any car. For some reason very few 00s have the Nakamichi though.

Also bear in mind there is no LS300, only the ES300 and the LS400

Thats terrible about the car! Hope you can get it fixed fast... You can get pads from www.properautocare.com I reccomend the Lake Country pads, get 2 yellow, 2 white and one grey ;) Don't forget a good 6' backing plate. We sell the PC buffer here with a cutting pad, polishing pad, and finishing pad and a backing plate. When all is said and done it might be cheaper. www.lexuscarcare.com

Really? I haven't noticed that... Try the Wax as U dry, that should help.

I was just actually going to send you an email and do that, let me do that now.

It depends on the tires. No Lexus comes with the Toyo Proxes TPT radials. The Toyos the ES comes with are Toyo Proxes summer tires (J33). Summer tires, whatever the brand, will always wear out faster than all season tires. Its unfair to compare a summer Toyo with an all season Michelin when it comes to treadwear. The Proxes TPT are an all season radial with higher treadwear ratings than the Michelin MXV4. You can't go wrong with the MXV4s they've proven themselves a good tire time and time again. The question is are they worth the cost. Many shops ask over $200 a tire for the MXV4s mounted and balanced, thats just insane whereas the Proxes can be had for $100-$130 a tire. Toyo has been the quality award winner something like 5 times in a row, and the Proxes TPT has been cited as their flagship, highest quality tire. I'm 100% satsified with mine, the tires made all the difference in the car. They're great looking tires too. Michelin is #2 in the quality ranking and the MXV4 isn't even on the chart. 15,000 miles is not unusual wear for a set of summer tires. The TPTs have a 60,000 mile treadwear warranty. Fact of the matter is, stock tires just suck. Owners of cars from all manufacturers complain about crappy stock tires. Michelin makes cheap tires with no treadwear warranty also, doesn't mean their higher line warrantied tires are bad tires. I've never had a car that came with decent tires, I always run the stock tires for 15-20k miles and replace them with good tires. The reason for your dissatisfaction is you're comparing your experience with the stock ES Toyo summer tires with all season Michelin tires. Thats like buying an SUV after owning a Corolla and complaining about the gas mileage difference. Apples and oranges.

None or very little for the first few months.

Which would you rather drive? A CrownRoyal? or an Avalon? Similar strata of car at a similar price...

The CrownSedan and the Century are fairly ugly (IMHO) but Toyota has some nice cars in Japan I wish they'd bring here. Especially with our Toyota selling cars like the Avalon yawnmobile...

All the Lexus dealers around here carry synthetic oil. My dealer charges me $130 for a "Mini maint" which is their oil change when I bring my own oil. If I don't bring my oil and they use their own conventional oil the service is $160, so they charge $30 for conventional oil, which is $6 a quart (WAY overpricved). The "mini maint" includes a tire rotation, inspection of about a dozen things, topping off all fluids, a road test, a wash (which I don't let them do) and a loaner car if you want one.

Pull out the big checkbook and get an 04 ;) :D

This is the big boy, the Century with Toyota's 5.0L V12. This is a Japanese businessman's car, usually with chauffer.

This is the Crown Athlete

This is the CrownRoyal

This is the standard Crown sedan, these are sort of like our Crown Victoria, used as taxis etc

This is the new Toyota Crown Majesta It has the LS430's V8 engine..sharp car

Yes, the Crown is one of the the "big to do" sedans in Japan, and fancier Crowns and Centurys are often used with chauffers. There are a lot of different versions of the Crown, and they all look very similar to the LS at one stage or another. The latest one, the Crown Majesta is VERY sharp. I think its a situation where the Celsior (LS) was designed to be a world car, with buttons in english, and styling and manners that are designed to be applicable in sevreral world markets. The Celsior was designed with the US highway system in mind. The Crowns however and the Century are purely "Japan" cars and Toyota doesn't feel they have the same world appeal.

Niether one will remove the scratches. The nanowax simply hid them, in a week or so they'll be back. You need to abrade the paint to remove scratches, no wax has enough abrasives to do that by hand. NXT CAN remove scratches when used with a buffer, as can cleaner waxes but not by hand. I've not used it but the detailers that have seem to feel its like most other consumer products, looks good for a week then the look fades. I just waxed mine with Poorboys EX-P their new pure polymer sealant and was very impressed, going to do a 2nd coat of Friday then I'll post pictures.

Thats an ES like mine. For some reason they don't sell them in the UK.

LOL, they look at you like you're an alien or something. Did the trunk in your Q ever jam?

They all want new ones ;)

It will fit, in that it will bolt up to the steering column. The problem is in the airbag like Lexus. said. If you also want to buy a 98+ airbag from an LS or LX it will fit, and the airbag dhould work.I've seen this done once. American stitches does a great job, I think its $400 or so for wood. I LOVE wood leather wheels, really spruces up the interior.

I think another issue may be reliability. My dad had some Lincolns and a Cadillac that had power closing trunks that were not at all reliable. If a loader at the grocery store slammed the trunk it would jam the mechanism requiring a dealer visit to fix. This happened the day after he got his 95 Cadillac STS, system jammed open and the trunk wouldn't close. He was actually worried when hje got his 04 LS but Lexus' system allows for a slam shut as it only activates when the door is lightly pressed against the lock. Malfunctioning door closers would have been a big problem for young Lexus reliability ratings. If you think about it early Lexus' didn't have many gizmos to go wrong, maybe thats why. I just remember what a pain it was always having to warn everyone not to slam the trunk. I can remember my dad hopping out warning "DON'T SLAM THE....trunk" too late, off to the dealer.