SW03ES

But for the small savings...why take the chance?

It was sold in 2003 or so, was never popular and was discontinued. They're really rare.

I doubt it...

Everything was dry. I had washed the car a couple days before but it had been driven on a trip in between and sat for a day...

Wow...keep us posted on that...

There's no speed at which you shouldn't use B...

Congrats! Its a great car, I've had mine since new and it just rolled over 146,000 miles and it runs and looks as great as it did when it was new. If you take really good care of these cars they last a really, really long time. I have always run 93, and thats what I would reccomend you do also. The cost difference is pretty small. As for the range, the DTE display is pretty innacurate. You'll find after you've been driving on a long highway trip and fill up you'll get a higher range...and if you disconnect the battery for 5 minutes or so it will reset the ECU and you'll find the range will read 320 miles or so when full. Over time it will drop back down though. If you actually calculate it you'll see the actual range is more like 350 miles. I get 18-19MPG around town and 26 or 27 on a highway trip.

I just replaced the battery about a month ago. I also had the emissions checked today as per MD law and it passed. I don't think it can pass with any codes stored... Continues to run 100% normally. Weird.

I mean...a dealer might have been selling them as a "dealer upgrade" but it is definately the OEM 16" wheel from the 2000 & 2001 Toyota Camry just chromed with a Lexus center cap slapped on. That is 100% a fact. If the wheels and balancing make any difference at all then the issue is in the wheels IMHO. If it were suspension or mounts then having the wheels balanced wouldn't make a difference at all. Does anybody disagree? I know the transmission mount can cause vibrations on the road in a RWD car...don't know about a FWD car. Anybody?

25,000 miles a year is not a huge amount. I've put around 22,000 miles per year on my ES every year since it was new. My Dad drove about that on his LS's when he was working. Your commute is going to be freeway miles which are easy, my miles are around town and stop and go since I'm a real estate broker. Listen to Jim and get those needed repairs done now, get the struts and the ball joints done at once, saves on labor. When you have 2 or 3 big things that need done...thats when you feel like the thing is going to drown you. Think about it this way. If you drive the Volvo for 3 years and put 75,000 miles on it then it has 100,000 miles and your Lexus has 200,000 miles. If you drive the Lexus your Volvo has 40,000 miles and your Lexus has 250,000 miles. Why have two high mileage cars when you can have one?

Those are not Lexus rims. They are rims off the Toyota Camry, probably a 2000 or so vintage. Here they are on the Camry: That rim is narrower than the rims that came on the ES, that rim is 16.6, the OEM rims are 16x6.5. I doubt if that would cause your issue though. Finiding that rim is going to be REALLY hard...especially in chrome. Look at the spare, is it the same rim or is it the OEM Lexus rim? The 02-04 ES only had one rim option. This one: They have the rim at www.lakeshorewheelandtire.com, go to "Product Catalog" and search for 2000 Toyota Camry...its $167. They don't sell it in chrome though. Those wheels would have been aftermarket chrome...I wonder if they are even genuine Toyota wheels...they could be replicas. That could be the cause of your whole vibrating issue... If you have a wheel or tire out of balance then it may be impossible to get the wheels to balance. The Primacys are VERY true and since you've been having this issue over a long time...I bet its a bent wheel.

And some dealers will not custom order a car. My dealer requires a $1,500 non-refundable deposit to custom order a car that is not configured as Lexus configures them. Looking through the allocations and requesting a specific car is one thing...but ordering a custom car is another. Lexus does everything they can to avoid doing that. If your goal is to save money...you need to buy a car that they actually build...

The answer to your question is yes, its normal. They have to find room in the production schedule, build the car, quality inspect the car, ship it to the US from Japan...and then truck it to Minnesota. 3-4 months sounds pretty plausible. I bet your special order costs you approximately $4,000 over ordering a car configured as Lexus builds and ships them. Things like parking sensors the dealer can install... Yowza is a good word...

Nope, level. Drove it home today and it ran fine. Another thing I thought of, they were blowing leaves and pollen off the driveway that morning...I guess its possible something got blown up in there...

IMHO means In My Humble Opinion... I mean...to custom order a car because you don't want a full sized spare (they will just take the spare out when it gets to the dealer...the full size spare isn't an option its standard equipment and you don't want a wood shift knob is silly if you ask me. Wait 4 months because you want to save $400? Lexus is offering 1.9% financing on the ES for 60 months, and the dealers are dealing. My dealer offered me $5k off list price (invoice) without any effort whatsoever. Thats not going to happen on a custom order.

Hey All... Well I'm out of town and we've got the Lexus. I started it up today to move it back in the driveway so we'd have room to grill some food. It started very rough, knocking, pinging and blew a big puff of blue/grey smoke out the tailpipe. After maybe 15 seconds the idle smoothed out and the smoke went away. Shut the engine off and restarted...no issues. Let it sit for several hours and started it again...no issues. Took it for a short drive...no issues at all. That was nasty knocking too...sounded like the pistons were slapping right into the valves. My cousin was out there when this happened and he says bad valve seals but I just don't buy that. Why did it only do it this time. No history of smoking, no oil use. Why would it have done this this morning and not yesterday morning when it had sat all night in the same spot? 145,000 miles...with the care its had WAY too early to think about any kind of valve seal degradation I think. No elevation change. No weird or even out of town gas used. I remember this happening one other time too when we were out of town few years ago, when it started real hard and I had to give it some gas to get it going and it blew a puff of the same smoke. It was totally fine after that too. I remember this happening to my Dad's old 98 LS once too...he was as shocked as I was. Any thoughts? Bad gas? Water in the gas line? Any truth to the idea of bad valve seals?

I did, its a great product.

You can't downshift because there are no gears...

They have to custom build the car...so 3-4 months is legitimate. I think thats foolish IMHO. They have GREAT deals on the ES now because of all this going on and you can buy one on the lot for invoice with no effort. What specifically do you want different?!?

I know exactly the mount you mean...and its great you like that but personally, I could never mount something like that in a brand new $40k automobile...especially when there is a very elegant hidden setup available. Multiple subscription costs? They're like $6 a month. Again...$40,000 automobile.

But you still have the ugly Satellite mount you have to look at on your dash. The Vais unit is totally hidden and operates through the factory head unit, much cleaner.

I'm glad to hear it! The endoscopy is no big deal. I've had that done a few times and they keep adults mostly awake and its very easy. They'll put him out and when he wakes up he won't remember anything about it or feel anything. keep us posted!

You see that in appliances too...used to be say a washing machine or dryer would be worth servicing and repairing...and they're not anymore. Construction quality isn't nearly as good and the parts are so expensive its not worth it.

I wouldn't accept the radio like that. Take it back and tell him you want one that is in the same condition it was in when you dropped the car off.

Have a safe trip home!