SW03ES

What kind of phone is it?

Yeah I was going to do the LS, but what got me in the end was what got me back in '03, I just wanted a new car and I wanted to lease. The market is not so much better I'm comfortable with $1,000 lease payments for the LS...next time.

The parchment is really light, almost white, lighter than the tan would have been in your RX300. Kind of like the Ecru on the LS430. The wood is much lighter than what is on my 300, its not orange like it is in the 04-06 Lexus vehicles with tan, but its definately a light brown. I really like it, it goes well with the parchment. It has a beautiful grain. The grey and black interiors have a deep brown espresso wood which is also very nice. I think the parchment hides some of the material-quibbles I had with the 350, to me when I sit in one thats black it doesn't feel as rich...it was between this car and one that was smokey granite with grey. The grey interior has a black dash, console, door tops and wheel, black carpeting and just grey seats, armrest cover and door inserts. Its also very sharp, but I really wanted something different this time. Just went out and got the phone all set up, the contacts downloaded perfectly from my BlackBerry. Now I just need to figure out how to make the system understand a tone pause for my office voicemail system. iPod works flawlessly through the USB port. The car has the Lexus Enform system with Safety Connect, eDestination and Destination Assist. The Destination Assist has a 24/7 operator that will program a destination remotely...that's kinda bogus...it takes forever but its a decent workaround for the Nav lockouts. The eDestination lets you set up your nav destinations at the computer and it downloads them to the car. That might be kinda cool, I'm showing some properties tomorrow and we'll see how well that works. Apparently you can pre-send up to 200 destinations (say wha?) into folders of 20. All that !Removed! is expensive though after the 1 year trial, its like $350 a year for the Enform and Safety Connect. Don't know that I would re-up that. XMNavTraffic works very well, as does XMNavWeather. I can survive without my sports and stocks though...of course those are free! the Traffic and Weather are extra. In terms of ride and drive, its much heavier and more substantial than my 300, much more like the LS. It REALLY feels larger, and seems larger inside. Could be the light interior vs dark. Just driving it around though...feels like a huge car...which I like. Really really pleased with the car. I gave you 350 guys a hard time for a long time, but IMHO the upgrades for 2010 really make it a very nice car.

Oh yeah, I'll get pictures. The whole thing happened really fast, we got back from vacation yesterday and I had been talking with a dealer about it and figured we wouldn't be able to come together, then Lexus came out with this "golden opportunity" deal and he called me the day before we left and said he could do it with the additional subsidy and that was that! $41,215 and I got it for $35k. I've been swamped at work after being away and haven't had a chance to really get it all set up. Thats exactly what I paid for my ES300 in 2003, and it was $1,500 cheaper MSRP... I really like the parchment interior, its a nice change after having the black for so long. I LOVE the truffle color, you know me...I always gotta have some weird color.

Hey all... Well I finally pulled the trigger, brought home a new 2010 ES350 yesterday! Its truffle mica with the parchment interior. So far I love it! Didn't get the Ultra package, decided in the end it wasn't worth another $4k to me. Actually oddly enough I like the sound of the standard audio better than the ML... Still trying to get it all figured out, has a lot of tech! I love that you don't need the dealer to set all the LPS settings. Very happy with the car. I am going to keep my '03, for now at least. Manuevering the 350 around I'm surprised by how much bigger it feels than the 300...

How bad is the swirling you are trying to remove?

Actually the ES350 does not have a direct fuel injection system. The GS and IS do, but the ES does not.

The dealer is probably correct. The only time I have ever seen wheels pitted and stained like that is from contact with a chemical. In Michigan you have tough winters, could be whatever they use on the roads. How often do you wash the car? Do you ever use an automatic carwash?

Because its old, and there are very few of them...its a pretty rare car.

We just had the inverter WATER PUMP fail on our '04 Prius at 60,000 miles. The car has two water pumps, one for the cooling system and one for the Inverter. Here's the kicker...the inverter did not fail...and the inverter is covered under the hybrid warranty...the inverter WATER PUMP is not! Its covered under the powertrain warranty...which had expired. I ran around and around with them about it, reminding them that the water pump would not be there unless it was a hybrid, and therefore is part of the hybrid warranty...no avail. I asked what would happen if I just did nothing...and they responded that the Inverter would fail...when I asked them then would it be covered under warranty...they had no response. Didn't want to take the chance on a $400 repair ruining a $2,000 component so I backed off and paid to have it replace. Apparently the water pump is a common failure...I wonder if that leads to premature inverter failures...

I don't, and I'm out of town right now with the car without a tape measure...

Thanks man! I think I have a deal almost hammered out...now I just have to make sure I really want to do it. The ES I have is such a great car, its hard to justify replacing it...but its got 150,000 miles and needs tires...

No problem! Its tough, my 03 has a black interior and I am almost ready to buy a new 2010 and have decided I want tan or grey...I'm worried about that too...

For whatever its worth, the seat bottom design on the 04+ ES is different than on the 02-03. The seat bottom is longer and wider, and more squared off at the end.

Hey all, What kind of deals are you getting on new 2010s? I'm looking at the navigation car, not the UL, MSRP $41,200 or so... Any thoughts? Thankya!

You needed it because the dealer needed $200 ;)

The reason you aren't getting any responses I think is because you're asking people to actually physically go do something and report back, as opposed to simply sharing their knowledge with you.

The armrest cover is leather and your dealer is probably right. Try a product called leatherique though (Google it), if anything will get it out, it will.

I really like the IS-C...but I think I would go for the BMW too. I have a coworker that has an '08 335 convertible and loves it... I haven't driven the IS-C, but that 355 is the tightest and most rigid convertible I've ever driven.

That is really weird...let me look into it...

By hand you will need to concentrate on hiding imperfections not removing them, so look at nice polishes with lots of oils and plan on keeping a coat of carnuaba wax on it every month or so to keep it looking its best.

Oh yeah. Thats why I bought the Black Garnet. Whenever there is any type of metallic flake or pearlescance to the paint it will hide imperfections that much more. The black will show EVERYTHING. Lexus black has no clearcoat either and it is very soft.

But the selling proposition of the hybrid isn't really that its faster, its that it gets much better mileage.

Excellent!

Yeah $17.95 won't even buy halfway decent dino oil let alone pay for someone to do the change. The car holds 9 quarts of oil!