SW03ES

Yeah I'll buy em if you dont want em!

blake, you can always find examples to the contrary, but I have proved that just because something costs more does not absolutely mean its better. All I'm saying is be skeptical of information you take in. Don't automatically assume that because something is better because it costs more or because it comes from a manufacturer you "trust". Everyone have a motive. You mentioned this site, well I wouldn't take this site as very valid information when it comes to the relative comparisons of Lexus vs. other makes. You need to look at a LOT of information from a LOT of different sources and then use that information to make the best decisions you can for yourself. If everyone would do this before they fork over their money our business world would have a lot more integrity. As someone who owns a business let me tell you, there are SO MANY dishonest businesses out there, you almost HAVE to be dishonest to stay alive. People are so used to inflated lies that they're not interested in the "truth" that you have to offer because its not exciting enough. You say there's something called trust and common sense. Thats true, but you can't be TOO trusting. These people are out to do one thing and one thing only, make money. If they have to swindle you into buying an inferior product to do it then they will. Take Lexus for example. Talk to an audio installer or mechanic that has had the vehicles apart. They will tell you that there are a lot of differences in older Lexuses (your generation) and newer Lexuses (my generation), the new ones are not built as solid nor are they as over engineered. Whats happening here is Lexus has established their reputation as building "the best quality cars on the road" and now they've started scaling back the quality to increase the bottom line. In a lot of ways its better to buy the underdog because they try harder, you wind up with a better product that costs less. As for the paper, yes "everything comes back to the same thing" but we're talking its the exact same paper. From the same roll even, just put into two different boxes. Its EXACTLY the same. But should we just say that lying to the American people is okay because they're "wealthy" and successful? A lot of criminals are very wealthy also but they're still criminals. Ideally we'd like to have people get wealthy by actually coming out with great products, not by fooling consumers into thinking their crap is good. Thats why we're in this boat that we're in, all of America's problems come back to one thing, all we care about is money. We'd burn our mothers alive if it meant that we could have lots of money for the rest of our lives. Eventually when the rest of the world shifts away from that (which they're already starting to do) we're going to become obsolete. Look at the car market. Other countries put quality and engineering first, America builds cars so that they will make the maximum amount of money. Is Toyota in financial trouble? No, but Ford and GM are. As a matter of fact Ford has been examining declaring bankruptcy. They make some of the highest volume selling vehicles on the road and they can't make enough money, their market share dwindles and dwindles every quarter while Toyota, Honda, Nissan, VW can't keep enough cars on their lots. My predictions, within the next 10 years America will have no more car companies, both Ford and GM will be bought as Chrysler was. Why is that? Because they played the American people for fools for decades and built crappy cars. Americans bought them because they bought into their crap. Then all of a sudden it catches up with them and we have high profile scandals like the Firestone deal and the underdogs are right there to say "c'mon over".

I too like the M45, the style has grown on me.

We were driving around today looking at Priuses for my fiancee and we dropped into Lexus of Silver Spring, they had a black 04 Sport Design. It looks better in person, but not much. 1. I like the SportDesign badge, small and understated but makes the car look different. 2. I LOVE the black pearl badges. I had never seen an ES with them before. They looked awesome on the black, I'm definately going to do that to mine eventually. 3. The grey wood is pretty cool, makes the interior look kind of stark though. They must have dropped that whole "grey interior console will be black plastic" thing like we saw in the original photos, thankfully. 4. Still can't get behind the wheels. Stylistically they look good, but they're just TOO dark. If they were one or two shades lighter they'd look much better. They just look dirty. Not bad, I wouldn't buy one though. I'd still buy an ordinary ES.

Weird... It must be the Dunlops, or maybe one of the wheels is bent. My dad's previous 98 LS400 came with a bent wheel from the factory that had to be replaced. Again though, what are the tires aired up to, are they a couple pounds high or a couple pounds low? I would air them to 30 and see what that does.

The octane ratings vary in different parts of the country due to emissions regulation, altitude, local rules and regulations. Thats why Lexus specifies 90 octane or better, because this will always be premiun fuel wherever the owner lives. 91 is the highest you have availiable. In your climate and area it preforms just like 93 does in mine. That make more sense?

Blake, oh yes, we're all suckers to one degree or another. We've been programmed since birth to think that only whats more expensive or a name brand is worthwhile. To continue with the paper analogy, lets say that you just like heavier paper, who doesn't? So since having talked to me you know that two brands of paper, if they're the same weight (thickness) and the same finish (color, texture) probably came from the same mill and off of the same roll, and are sold under two brand names. Lets say you have two choices, HP brand and Office Depot brand, and the HP is $2 more. Now, you are educated now, you know they are the same. Out of the box they will look, feel, and preform identically. Which do you buy? If you answer HP then you're admitting that you are a slave to the brand name. You say that you can't think of many things that you don't get more when you pay more. I can think of many, I'll list them. 1. Cars. Is a Mercedes better in substance than a Lexus? We've all already made that choice. 2. Paper. Now we know that paper comes from only a few sources, yet recognizable brand costs more. 3. Gas. Most people always say "Buy only name brand gas" when in actuality, gas all comes from the same refineries. Different companies just fill up their tankers from the same source, its all more or less the same. Yet "name brand" gas costs more. Sunoco sells "94 octane" for $.20 more a gallon tahn 93, 1 octane cannot possibly make any difference in performance, yet people buy it. 4. Car service. We all say up and down that the dealerships overcharge on here, and that you get better quality at independent shops for less. 5. Clothes. I only wear name brand clothing, polo, dockers, etc. My fiancee has always bought off brand clothing. She always machine washes her clothes, I always dry clean mine. Her clothes FAR outlast mine. I have bought her expensive brand clothing as gifts, they always wear out before stuff she's had for years and years. 6. Food. Canned vegetables, cereal, other canned goods, produce all come from the same source and are bottled/canned/boxed by the specific manufacturers. Yet brand names cost 50% more on average. 7. Computers. My $3000 Sony computer just fried its motherboard. I took it in and was chatting with the guy who does the service. He says Sony, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, all the big names and big money computers are the ones that always fail. Cheap off brand or store brand (emachines, gateway, vprmatrix) or hand built computers are much more reliable. 8. Cell phone service. Some of the more expensive carriers have the least in thrown in services, the least minutes, and the least coverage included. Verizon wireless comes to mind. 9. Watches. I have a $150 Seiko watch that has never let me down that people always mistake for a Movado, a $1000 watch. 10. Credit cards. American Express has marketed themselves as the card of the elite forever, monthly fees, expensive rates for merchants etc. What they don't tell you is that other, free credit cards offer all the same frills, AND MORE, and are accepted MORE places. If you pay the whole balance off every month like you have to with an American Express card you wont incur ANY charges. Now, I've listed you 10 things that you pay more for and get nothing, or even less than with less expensive options. I'm not saying I'm immune, I have my car serviced at the dealer, I run premium fuel, I use synthetic oil, I'm wearing a $70 Polo shirt right now, I have an American Express card, and I have a Sony computer. I'm not saying people shouldn't spend money on these things, you only have one life and you have to do what makes you happy. All I'm saying is people need to think for themselves and be skeptical of where their money is going. My problem lies with people that make comments like "Don't be cheap", "Drive something less expensive" when people want to save money. I could say the same to all of you who dont use dealer service, you're being cheap but I wouldn't because thats your decision to make. Everyone has different priorities. I would never buy a used car, but that doesn't mean that I think buying new cars is better than buying used, or that my car is better than any of yours simply because I purchased it new. I realize that I have wasted money buying new, but I don't care. You can not care all you want, but you shouldn't allow yourselves to be duped into thinking you haven't wasted money by the advertisers. Just be aware of the truth, not what companies want you to believe because that is most definately not the truth.

I find the ES seats perfect, zero pressure points and zero fatique on long trips. I'm sure though with any seat there will be body types that just don't mesh with the design of the seat. An upholstery shop should be able to adjust the seat and rework the way the padding is distributed and get you to where you're comfortable. Try again to describe how the seat is defficient, its uncomfortable on the lower back? The bolsters are too far apart? Another idea is to sit in seats from various other Toyota/Lexus cars like the older ES' Avalons, Camry's Solaras, those seats should come in similar colors and should bolt into the car just fine. If one of those seats is more comfortable to you you should be able to swap the front seats out.

Ah! Here you are. I posted to your thread at the Sirius backstage board. I'll copy/paste that post here: I just installed Sirius in my 2003 ES300 w/nav and ML, its identical to yours. You however have one wonderful thing I don't have. You see in 2004 all Toyota/Lexus headunits are satellite ready. If you notice on your nav screen there is a button that says "AM-SAT", I dont have that button. Now this means you have several options. One, you can have a Lexus dealer install the Lexus XM kit. This will operate through the headunit and it will be seemless, you will have a new "XM" screen and all the song titles and such will be right there on the nav screen. I have been told that Sirius can be installed this way also with an adapter. The problem is that the majority of the Sirius units are the rather large PnP devices and the hard install kits like the Audiovox and Kenwood are old technology at this point. So its hard to hide them, and the ES doesn't have a lot of room to install things. Its even hard to find a shop that still has them. Like you I wanted an install in the sunglass holder or in the ash tray or something. I was in a 97 Jag XK8 yesterday that had a little Apline controller mounted in the headliner which was pretty slick I thought. I didn't encounter as much resistence from install shops about the Lexus as I thought I would. Like you I've heard things on forums about people being unable to find installers that would do it. I don't know if the shops around here are just more used to high end cars or what... I see you're not too thrilled about the install in the armrest, and I wasn't either but I've gotten used to it now and its not a big deal at all. Its probably the ideal way to do it in this car and its very easy to do yourself. Lexus' response to your inquiry will be "We do not support or reccomend installations of equipment by anyone other than a Lexus dealer" thats their response to everything. I'd look into an installation that uses the headunits satellite ready status though. Check out www.soundgate.com for adapters. Look under "Toyota" not Lexus. If you decide to let the Lexus dealer install the XM kit don't let them tell you it won't work, the Toyota Solara has the exact same navigation screen/headunit and the kit works on it.

Silver may be the best color for the gen III LS, my dad's 98 was silver. Are you sure those rims were +45mm?

I saw a nice wand at Home Depot I almost bought, had a nice flat sprayer and a deep hook which would make it great for wheel wells. If you REALLY want to get them clean remove the wheels first. While you're in there clean the backs of the wheels and the calipers.

Fabric softener will remove their absorbency

Did you wipe off the excess conditioner? No reason it should still be wet and sticky...

HRP- Thanks ;) As for the cops letting people go, my dad always tells a story about when he got stopped for doing 95 in a 65 right after he got his old 98 LS. The cop and him started chatting, the cop's father had just gotten one, and the cop let him go...

Oh yeah, theres always a market for parts, the car is worth more in peices than put together.

They're growing on me... Like blake I usually don't like aftermarket modifications on a car, I like to keep them original, but they look good. I'm not a fan of that color either, but for some reason it really looks "right" on the LS, don't know why. All colors look good on the LS' actually, I can't think of one that doesn't. Other than the 01-03 LS430 which had some attractiveness issues...

Not actually that great a deal. Thats about the same discount I got on my ES back when I bought it, they're just trying to do a "no haggle" kind of deal. As for the 3.9% APR, I think you have to have a 750 credit score to get that, which almost no one has, like 1% of Americans.

No offense, but you're a sucker. Just because something says its better doesn't mean its actually better or that its going to make what you're doing with it any better. If you were printing up official documents or something than the heavier stock would be neccisary, but for home use? Why buy anything but the cheapest copy paper? Who'se ever going to see it, you? And if you say it makes you feel better, you need the thickest paper to feel good about yourself? My dad sells commercial printing paper, he probably sold HP the paper to make that printer paper. All paper comes from a couple manufacturers, and then it is resold under specific brand names. My dad sells the paper to the end user from the manufacturer. Odds are both those papers came from the same mill. One might be a little heavier than the other, but not enough to increase the cost of production by 110%. So you bought almost the same paper and paid over twice as much for it. You got taken man LOL. I'm sure my dad will thank you for making his LS430 payment this month. Thats just what companies and advertisers have programmed you to think you're entire life, that something is better just because it costs more. Look at a Mercedes, is it better because it costs more? People who drive Mercedes think so. Advertisers have been doing this to you your entire life, if you don't learn to think for yourself then you're going to remain a drone. I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you. Its expensive! You say "trust the tag as well as the price tag, they have a reason", the only reason is they want to make as much money as possible. They love the hell out of consumers like you. They have to actually give me reasons their product is good to make me buy it, they don't like me as much. All they have to do to sell you on a product is make it cost more and tell you ambiguously its better. Why is it better? What will it do for me? Why should I spend my hard earned money on this product over the cheaper one? The answers to these questions are of no importance? I work too hard for my money to just squander it. Thats why advertisers spend over $850 a year on every person in the US, because there's a sucker born every minute. If they keep everyone feeling that having THINGS is going to make them happy, then they'll make 20 times on their investment like they do every year. And you buy into and trust these crooks? Anyways just because the Lexus manual says 87 may be used only in a pinch doesn't mean thats neccisarily the case. Keep in mind what I said, its all about image. If they admitted the car would run on 87 for some owners it would lower their feelings as to its "expensiveness" and "eliteness". People like that their big luxury cars guzzle premium fuel because it gives them another opportunity to show off and feel better about themselves. I think the members here that have older LS that run on regular fuel have shown that there's no harm. Maybe at 400,000 miles a ring might go bad a little early, but who cares at that point? In the life the car is going to have with you its not going to cause any harm.

Also keep in mind that the Lexus' parking brake is a interior drum, not the exterior disc that you use for normal braking. So theres no way theres any damage to the actual service brakes, but there may be to the parking brake. Drive it around, test the parking brake for grab, if all seems normal than its okay. The smell is going to linger a while.

There you go LOL

Yes they can. How do you wash them and in what type of soap? Do you use the same MFs for drying and wax removal? Try adding an extra rinse at the end and throw in a cup of vinegar, that will release all the wax from the fibers. Never use ANY fabric softener.

HRP- What you've got to understand is everyone has different priorities. Its worth the time *to you*. To most people a run through the car wash is good enough, if even that. Some people don't care enough to ever wash their car. I know people with cars far more expensive than your LS that have never even been washed once since new. Its his property, and only he can decide what is and is not important to him. Trust me, we all love a detailed car but there is absolutely no difference between a car that is washed regularly and waxed every once and a while and a car that is religiously detailed when it comes time for trade in. This was told to me by an automotive appraiser. That means that all the effort we put into our cars is for our own benefit. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. Advice is always welcome, but please don't admonish other members for having priorities different than your own.

The world didn't end huh?

Just because the guy can afford to pay $65,000 for a car doesn't mean he's not interested in saving money on gas. Just because you have money doesn't mean you just buy things without seeing what they cost or if you're getting the best deal. Did you all just walk in and pay sticker or whatever they were asking for your cars? I didn't, I negotiated hard for $4000 off, does that mean I should be driving a cheaper car? Come on. A common misconception from people who don't have money, people with money just should/do throw it around on anything regardless of the price. People who really have money don't waste it. If you waste money needlessly then eventually it will catch up to you and you wont have any money anymore. People who waste money don't really have any money in the first place, they just want to look/feel like they do. Whats parked outside all the really expensive houses in your area, the latest most expensive car? Not here, you see many more 4-10 year old Lexuses, BMWs, and Mercedes, old Land Cruisers. These people have more money than you could even believe. I think his question was is this a neccisary expense, he didn't say if it was he wouldn't do it. The dealership requires insane service intervals and charges $120 an hour, are you cheap for not having this service you don't need done? Anyways I digress, it just irritates me that people automatically assume when people don't just fork over the money for the highest level of something without asking what they're getting first that they: A: Can't really afford it B: Are cheap You MAY need to run premium fuel. Its not going to hurt the car if you try running it on a tank of regular and see what happens. Lexus' ECU is dynamic so it should adapt to whatever octane fuel that you put in. I know people that have LS and run regular gas. *I* run premium simply because it is an expensive car, and I do plan on driving it for a long time and it gives me better peace of mind. The same reason I use synthetic oil.

The offset on the LS stock is +50mm too ;) Not bad, might be a little too aggressive for the LS, I'll look at the pictures a couple times and see if they just take some getting used to.