SW03ES

14 years and 230,000 miles, I'd be impressed the only thing wrong with it is a slight vibration! Thats well beyond the lifetime of other cars.

Oh no, I'm not saying the hesitation isn't there, I can make my car experience the hesitation I'm just saying that for more drivers than not they either don't experience the problem, or it doesn't mesh with them as something thats not right. When they got the letter however and were told there was a problem, these drivers suddenly became plagued for this hesitation that they were told was there. The way I drive normally I never experience the hesitation, I dont know if that comes from the speed at which I get on the throttle in those situations or what... I do however consider it normal for a Lexus, my dad's 98 was the same way, as is his 04, the GS's I've test driven are the same way as are the RXs I get as loaners. Thats why I think it has more to do with the throttle than the transmission.

The guru report is definately worth buying BTW, as is our detailing guide which can be purchased in the detailing store, which I believe may be free for LOC members right now...

How do you figure? You're not going to be able to argue with detailers about going overboard lol Detailing is a hobby, some people garden, some play golf, some modify their cars, I detail my cars. Keeping up with all the latest products and techniques is very enjoyable and fulfilling. Gardening makes my knees hurt, golf bores me to tears, I dont like the way modified cars look, but I love detailing. A Saturday spent out in the driveway cleaning up a car is a good saturday. Its very relaxing, gives you the ability to control the outcome of something, gives you an end result you can be proud of, not to mention you can make a lot of money doing it. I could probably make an extra $1500-$2000 a month just detailing a few cars in the early evenings and on the weekends, which I may do this year when the weather gets nice... So, you can drive the dull swirled up car if you want, not me ;)

The reason is that Lexus is currently upgrading the system changing it from laser to radar to make it more accurate and less prone to interference. Because of that RX330s and LS430s will not be availiable with the laser cruise for a few months while production starts up on the new system. They're not going to tell you this because they dont want you to wait, but if you wait a few months the adaptive cruise will be back and better than the current system.

The 5 speed started in 02, but its a completely different transmission from the LS. The LS is a rear drive car while the ES is front drive. I'm still a little on the sidelines when it comes to these "transmission problems" the ES is "plagued" with. Sort of like the shift hesitation on the 02-04, I believe some owners experience it and of course it must be terribly annoying, but I don't believe most owners do and I think that hanging around Lexus forums will make you believe otherwise. I think the same is true of the transmission failures. The transmission is a hot topic on here, and people "feel" all kinds of "problems" that in reality are simply normal operating conditions for the transmission because of all the hype they're reading on here. More discussion of "transmission" brings more web hits for the term "Lexus transmission" thus you get an unrealistic proportion of owners that have problems vs owners that don't. I've talked to a lot of Lexus owners, I know a lot of people with Camrys and ES300s, and I know a lot of people in the auto repair industry, and none of them would characterize the ES as a vehicle that they see a lot of transmission problems on. Now engine gelling is a real problem with the ES, but not if you change the oil properly. You can really see this phenomina with the 02-04 tranny lag. Wasn't a big deal until Lexus sent out that letter informing owners that a "fix" for the transmission had been introduced, then all of a sudden you had people that had never even noticed a problem going nuts and suing Lexus in class action suits over the transmission, which they had no problem with until they saw an "in". If I were Lexus I wouldn't even have released that letter, just left it up to the dealers to communicate the issue to owners or simply make it a TSB and perform the upgrade if customers complained. IMHO I think Lexus' desire to treat their customers right backfired in their faces big time on this one. I actually think some of the issues with prior transmissions sprung up because of the 02-04 tranny lag, owners of older models jumping to the same conclusions owners of newer models did. Again, the more we talked, the more web hits and the more transmission problem people showed up... THATS why you can't really tell whats good or bad about a car from whats said on an Internet forum. Both the good AND the bad get exaggerated way out of preportion. Yes Lexus is a great car, one of the best, but its not perfect, its not completely silent (it is still a machine hurling down the road at 70MPH, albeit a quiet one), it DOES require maintenance (Toyotas wont run any further without maintenance than anything else), when cared for they will last a long time, longer than other cars, but they don't last forever, your 14 year old LS400 WONT drive like a new one and there's no point in spending twice its value to replace every component in the undercarriage, and new car smell fades in a Lexus just like a Chrysler... THATS the facts :D

Sure, quiz them but don't clue them into "oddities" that you may be experiencing with your car, like this one, that you've already solved or are waiting on. A service writer is basically just a salesman, his job is to sell you service. if you clue him in about some shifting concern you open yourself up to him suggesting a hefty repair bill you don't really need...

Just remember when talking to your service manager, less info is better lol ;)

He should look into his state's lemon law. He definately has a lemon and Nissan should buy it back from him.

LOL

It very well could be...

There are retrofit kits for power folding mirrors, try a web search and try on ebay...

Yeah you can use it with Zaino. SOME Wal Marts carry it, you'd have to call around. Most RV dealers or supply stores carry it also, but you can order it from www.campingworld.com they have a great price.

No the Sequoia is much larger than the 4Runner/GX. The GX and the 4Runner are definately the same platform. The next generation LX470 is going to be based off of the Sequoia platform.

Well I'm starting to see what wwest is saying. No, it doesnt matter that the torque split isn't 50/50, few to no AWD vehicles are. 50/50 torque split requires a locking differential, something nowadays only found in "real" suvs with a selectable 4WD system. He's saying that because there is such a strong bias towards the front you'd be so unlikely to experience slippage in the rear that you'd never see any appreciable power diversion to the rear. When you look at it like that, you could make a case for the RX's AWD system being a "scam" The only way really to know for certain is to drive two of them in the snow back to back and see if theres an appreciable difference.

Well if its charcoal then it could be the charcoal canister in the exhaust system... That should be covered under warranty...

Geeze... Look around at some other wood dash companies, all of them will sell you individual components from their kits, usually cheaper than that...

Could be a water pump, could be a thermostat, could be a bad blend door inside the dash...

Agreed, it sounds like perforation in the exhaust system...

Thats rediculous to rebuild the 4 speed on the ES300, you should shop that, get a second opinion. Is that from Lexus? I agree with dropspace if you can find a good low mileage tranny on a totalled ES somewhere snap it up...

Rapid- I'll try that on my car, what year is yours? The feature can be de-activated by the Lexus dealer, they're de-activating it for me when it goes in for service next week.

I'd drop it by Lexus and see what they say since its under warranty.

I'd like to see one in person, but unfortunately the wheels are hideous, the stock ones are much more attractive. The black wood should be cool, but again gotta see one in person. I love the colors, the Thundercloud looks similar to Infiniti's Diamond Graphite and the Graphite Grey Pearl is a awesome color, I would have gotten that on mine had it been availiable. I'm underwhelmed, BUT the package only costs $600, and if I were buying one today I might pay that for the cool new black wood and the choice of the Thundercloud or the graphite grey. However, I love my black garnet and I love the reddish wood....I dunno

Or simply pay a good mechanic to road test the vehicle and give you an opinion...

Well there weren't many differences between the LX450 and the Land Cruiser...