SW03ES

I too have noticed that when posting sometimes the post takes a while to show up, on cable.

Dyup ;)

Welcome mc! You were working on painting those headlamp lenses when I left, they came out well!

No sir, only 98 and up.

It is possible, but you'd have to replace (at least) the hood, grille, bumper, front fenders. I'm not sure if theres any difference in bolt on, but I'd imagine the radiator support is different as well.

There wasn't a Platinum series in 99, as a matter of fact I dont know that there was any type of special package. If you had a Platinum series it would have a badge above the trim line on the front fender. The black chrome emblem package is an option, one I considered on my car but the black garnet made the dark emblems wash out. It can look good, but I like some contrast. On a light car I'd definately do them. The "trunk badge" you saw may have been the installation of these emblems.

Steve Withrow I own my own small business marketing company, I live outside Washington D.C. I drive a 2003 ES300 Black Garnet on Black, Nav/Lev. No mods yet! Its leased, so I dont know what I'll do...

To me, the only thing nicer than my Lexus, would be a nicer Lexus :) My father has a 98 LS400, and ever since he got it, I've been in love with it, and Lexus cars. When I decided I was going to go out and get myself a moderate luxury car and I drove the new ES300, it was just it, out of everything I drove (within my price limit of about $42,000) it was the closest in smoothness, quietness, and quality to my dad's LS. It almost began like test driving cars like the BMW 3 and the Infiniti I35 were just an excercise in going through the motions. What I really wanted was a LS430 Ultra Luxury, but I can't justify the $1100 lease payment until I've moved my business into the next phase and I have more redundency and security. My next car will be that, either in black with black interior, or black cherry with black interior, a few years to decide though. I've honestly not driven anything that I would prefer over either my Lexus, or the LS430.

Or if its been run off a cliff, used to transport Afganhi refugees, repainted six times etc ;)

Run a carfax search www.carfax.com and have the VIN run at a Lexus dealership first though.

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't want them to rip out my sound insulation

Welcome Steviej! Well, 1SICK is a really good guy. I spoke with him several times during my experience on CL and he always seemed very real and very level headed. All I can think is that he closed it, not moved it or deleted it which he could have done. Technically it was breaking their rules, he got to it before someone else did, and they may have deleted it.

That sounds like a pretty good deal. What are CPO (Certified Pre Owned) ES's going for?

Remove the sound insolation and then have none? Is that what Lexus reccomended?!?!? Nice to see you here Stevie ;)

I've been here a whole month Nabeel and I haven't "corrupted" the site with my "style" yet ! Glad to see you guys here.

Real repairs can be done at Toyota also, and it wont need many of them. I did see Alexandria Toyota about an LS and were happy with them.

Kevin, My name is Steve ;)

I'll take some pictures of it once I get it clean lol, weather is terrible here. I'm discussing moderating with Matthew now too, we'll get this place runnin good ;) Main thing is to maintain focus, a discussion board is about people, and you have to keep communication and respect levels high. Members seem to get very little respect on CL. As I've noticed, you're gone if you disagree with certain moderators. Gotta make sure that doesn't happen here. I wouldn't waste your time trying to change the way things are done at CL, you're not going to get anywhere. I talked with Ethan until my fingers fell off from typing and I never got anywhere, and Daddy-O never responded to my PMs or emails. Ethan's a cold calculated business kind of guy, and you're not going to be able to warm him over with the human equation of things. Not to say he's a bad guy, I'm sure he's not, some of the most successful businessmen on earth are that way, unfortunately those people are seldom successful in life. I think we should just work with the administration of this site to make it the best it can be, and not allow the same mistakes to be made here that were made at CL. I have some good ideas about how to differentiate this site from CL so we each fill a certain niche, I'm writing them up for Mathhew.

I don't know that you'd get a lot of use out of it. A Lexus is a dead reliable car, and on the ES repairs aren't all that expensive, as they can all be done at Toyota even. What I would do is shop an outside warranty vendor like www.warrantygold.com. Before I got my ES I thought about getting a 99 LS, and they had a much lower quote than $1700 for a warranty on it, even with the LS being heavier, more expensive, and a V8. You can do better. I'm also right outside Washington DC and I dealth with every dealer in the area, what Toyota dealer is this and whats the price? There are some in the area you want to avoid.

Hey Zeta, welcome! I did hear about meZoom's ES. After MrSypher joined here I visited over at ClubLexus and saw it, I put her IM on my buddy list so I could catch her and tell her how sorry I was to hear about it, but I havent had the chance yet, I'm rarely on AIM. Moderating a forum is important, its important to keep people civil and its important to maintain organization and order with misplaced threads etc, but I think they've seriously crossed the line over at CL. I just recall looking at ALL the members that had been banned, and wondering how many of them could have been saved if the Moderators would just TALK to them. No one ever once contacted me to tell me that there was some issue with the administration and that somehow I was rubbing them the wrong way. If they had, then we could work through it and I'd still be a productive member of the site. I also saw the issue with jobindj's picture being revoked from some contest on a dumb technicality. Sometimes I think Daddy-O gets off on rules. I personally love his hobbys in his profile "snickering at others who dont drive a Lexus" oh please, we dont have some sort of God complex do we? How many great members have they lost out on? But, thats in the past and thats where it shall remain. I'm very excited about this board I think it has a lot of potential, I suppose I'll just hang my Lexus keys on the wall here ;) Stick around, get some of the other CL members to come over and join, no need to desert CL if they dont want to, just contribute to both sites. Competition makes for a better product, maybe some competition is what CL needs.

Matt, I'd be happy to help out, I've had some online forum moderating and administrating experience before. Let me know if you guys need any help.

Nope, the ES is on the Camry platform and its front drive. In my limited experience on CL, it seems to me that the most cherished members are the ones who really don't know what they're talking about, they just like to see themselves type. Since its so quiet here (for now) I say we make sure that's not the way things are done here ;) As for the front sliding, I do agree the traction control does a good job of keeping it at bay.

The ES300 still is and has always been FWD ;) Thats why it doesn't fishtail from a start. The only Lexus I'd drive in the snow other than the SUVs, I've driven my dad's LS400 (RWD) in the snow, and its useless.

I've heard great things about the Silvania Silverstars, they seem very safe (direct replacement bulb) are DOT legal and have much of the look of the HIDs.

Its not bad at all actually, I was fairly impressed.