SW03ES

Hey there, welcome back!

Thats great! I know from your FB posts you've been itching to get home for a while...

Yep thats what it looks like. To me that is completely preposterous to do to a $40,000 car. That's the fix? In the very least they could design a new pedal.

Personally? I think there is a lot of industry pressure to make cars "maintenance free". You have companies like BMW having oil change intervals like 25,000 miles and paying for all the maintenance for 50,000 miles and doing relatively little. Lexus has just gone to 10,000 mile oil change intervals on the new cars with synthetic oil and they have always very staunchly been opposed to drawing out oil change intervals when using synthetic oil. If you have a BMW that needs oil changes every 25k...and BMW will do it for free for 5 years 50k miles...and a Lexus that needs a $200 service every 5k miles you can see the concern for Lexus. Now, with that said technology is getting better and these synthetic fluids and better filters can last longer between changes...so only time will tell I suppose. Analysis wouldn't have cost you more than $20 or so, and I disagree that nobody would care. I think such an analysis would have been of tremendous value to the Lexus community...

Ask him to send you the paperwork... I'd be fascinated to see what "paperwork" he has "confirming" that it has ML.

All we know is that the fluid she had drained was dark colored. You don't know what the effect on the fluid's functionality was though...

I wouldn't be.

Since its the best selling hybrid sedan in the world I'd say they designed it to look the way its buyers want it to look...

Or you could just look at the face of the radio... If it says "Mark Levinson" it has the ML. If it says "Lexus Premium Audio" it does not. Pretty simple.

Actually that beeping is the VSC system kicking in to correct the skid.

The LS400 and ES300 are completely different vehicles and the service is more expensive on the LS. Theres no reason we can't have a discussion in the LS and ES forums about this topic...

Really...thousands? Got some kind of link for that? A source perhaps? The most important parts of this sentance are '93...and 225,000 miles. I wouldn't call a transmission failure on a 17 year old car with 225,000 miles unusual or any kind of surprise. Even on a well maintained car, when the car is old enough to get a drivers license itself and has nearly a quarter million miles on it...reliability can be a crapshoot. Look at all the members here and at CL that have cars with 300k miles though and the original engine and transmission. Its a very reliable and long lasting car if you maintain it. I'm not saying you shouldn't change the fluid...I change my fluid every 15k miles on the ES. I'm just saying the argument that Lexus designs their cars...specificially the LS...to have components fail after a certain amount of time, and that they WANT transmissions to fail on their flagship sedan that has a reputation of being the most reliable car ever made so they will buy new cars is comple bullsh!t.

That is absurd I agree with you... Is it still under warranty? I'd try and make them cover at least part of that...

I'd definately ask the dealer about that... Sorry to hear about your husband. Stick around here, we'll help ya ;)

The slowing you felt was not physical braking as I told the guy above, it was probably engine braking or just general slowing caused by the strain on the tires through the turn...the brake pedal must have been your imagination. There is no mechanism within the car that will depress the brake pedal on its own.

Thats great! Keep working on it, the rest will come up. Its great for the whole interior...

What year is it? It may be a well made machine, but its still a machine and breakdowns do happen...

If it has the ML system...it has the logo. If someone is telling you it has the ML system but there is no logo...they are lying.

Oh no the graphics are always going to look the same. Even with the latest version the system is going to look the same, all it does is update the maps and the POIs.

To be fair, I've owned these cars for a long time and I have never seen this type of functional obsolescence in a Toyota product. In fact, I've never seen anything to make me believe that they don't want these cars to go on an provide excellent service for many many years. Nothing ages like a Lexus. I've also never seen a trans failure on an LS...

I do know that the 3 series wagon will hold two carseats, I have a coworker that had one and he had two carseats in the back...he traded it for an X5...

I think that was what they were thinking when they designed the HS...people who like the economy and idea of the Prius but dislike the execution...but I think they missed the mark. I think the HS is uglier than the Prius personally...the 2010 Prius anyways.

I was at the dealer today and saw the shaved accelerator, they basically lop off the two bottom corners of the pedal so it looks like this \_/ looks stupid IMHO...

I don't see the need to re-hash an old argument thats 8 months old...

Alignment isn't really going to be the issue...more the balance.