mhawkin1

The ES looks great without the spoiler in my opinion. Honestly, I have always thought the car is slightly too thick in the back section as compared to the front.... and the spoiler seems to exacerbate that appearance to me. (And a spoiler on an ES; it almost seems like an oxymoron. We have to keep in mind this is basically a meticulously crafted, Japanese Buick. :o )

Thought I would add my two cents. Sorry about the rip and accidents do happen all the time. Like you, I would want it fixed correctly. I have no qualms about asking people to be careful - we have very high curbs here in Indy and I am always telling people to be careful when they open the doors. One of my good friends, not two seconds after me saying "that is a high curb, don’t hit the door on it" ran the bottom of my door into the curb; the paint and plastic piece was scraped, etc. I would never ask a friend to pay for something of this nature; a situation like this really becomes a problem if the 'friend' does not immediately offer to pay for the damage. Learning experience for all; when you damage someone’s shizz….. you offer to pay for the damage immediately.

Every time someone dogs Indiana I say "at least we don’t have front plates!" ;)

Speechless..... in a bad way. Although I love the Dodgeball reference.... :)

I really like my wood steering wheel and the bluetooth - but I could personally do without the leather. I like the looks of the leather when new, but other than that..... not in love with it. But - white is a must for me. :)

What does your wife think of your RX? Is that not an option? I live in Indiana and if I lived anywhere north of Indy I would probably buy an RX. My experience with the ES is that the traction control is dialed up really high - i.e. the tires do not really spin, they just turn as fast as they can without slipping. This means if you are on an incline and the tires start to slip the car will just stop. The stability and traction cannot be turned off.... unless I just do not know how to turn it off... which is a possibility. For me the GS was not an option because I find its entire design, barftastic… for lack of a better word. Don’t shoot me, but have you checked out the new AWD TL? Or AWD G37?

I am guessing.... just guessing, that this road had not been traveled by too many ES 350 owners. I may be completely off base... but I think this car is typically owned by more seasoned folks - who may purchase aftermarket wheels at a lower rate than the general populous. Present company excluded….

To the best of my knowledge, they swapped a couple of the colors (i.e. added matador red) - that's it.

I think they are selling 08 UL's around here for about $38,000 new. There are many leftovers around the country - I would tell them what you want and have them find it. Tom Wood Lexus in Indianapolis has about six 08 UL's for this price. If they wont work with you - call Tom Wood in Indianapolis and ask for Betty - she is amazing. There is NO WAY I would pay that for an 07 with any miles. Good luck. Matt

To be honest - if I had the graphite color, I am not sure I would get the bra. In my opinion, the lighter the color of your car - the less noticeable the clear bra. I saw a bran new obsidian ES in the showroom and the bra looked shotty. I am also very sensitive to chips; I didn’t realize the difference in the low VOC(?) paint….. it seems all of my other cars (minus the Prius) had pretty durable paint…. and these two cars chip very very easily.

I must be confused.... I can't imagine what would touch/scrape the aforementioned plastic piece in the rear door jam? Is this related to kids getting in and out of the car dragging book bags or something?

I guess I am a bit shocked that brakes could last 40-50k miles. My good co-worker friend just had hers replaced (05 Maxima) and the car has near 60k. With all of the posts from people changing their brakes at 15-20k on their 350's I just thought Lexus brakes were soft or something.

I certainly cannot help you with your question (if I could I would)... but when you finish the job could you post the process you went through to change the rotors and pads and any issues you encounter? (I posted questions about this process and no one responded…) I think this might be a job I could complete on my own when the time comes. Where did you buy the parts – is there a good site on-line? How many miles are on your car? Mine has 9k and the brakes seem fine – but I read somewhere that it doesn’t hurt to replace the pads every 10k, because it is so easy and inexpensive. I was thinking about ceramic. Thanks in advance.

Hang in there... these are great cars compared to their competition. That said - mine was a nightmare the first couple thousand miles. See my post below and have your dealer call Tom Wood Lexus in Indianapolis if they have questions. This may not be relevant or related in any way, but I just got my 08 back from the dealer after 16 days. I thought my rattle was coming ‘from the back’ or ‘from the b-pillar areas.’ Turns out, it was two pieces of metal in the passenger door that were too close together. They sent the car to a body shop and had them spot weld the two pieces of metal together and the rattle is gone. If you would have told me the rattle was coming from the passenger door I would have laughed in your face – but the rattle is completely gone. They were also a dream to work with – I think I like the service department and experience better than the car! They said Lexus has had problems with the doors on the ES and the thin metal pieces being too close together. Apparently rattles can travel from one end of the car to another. This may not help, but thought I would share. (Good luck – my rattle was driving me nuts!)

Do you have aftermarket rims you are trying to protect? If so, what did you do with your stock rims? If not.... I don’t know that I would be worried about the stock rims in winter weather?

I know what you mean about the interior color; the Lexus all weather floor mats pretty much remedy that issue. Anything north of Tennessee you pretty much need rubber floor mats!

Congrats! Now.... go somewhere and get a clear bra before you start seeing chips on the front bumper. :)

If this is the wrong forum for this post I apologize. Has anyone replaced the brake pads themselves? Someone told me it was ‘extremely easy’ and for the price of the brakes I might as well change the front pads every 10k miles. (I live in a very metropolitan area and I am fairly hard on the brakes..) I understand the concept of changing the front brake pads; does the Lexus differ in any way from the normal instructions? Any instructions, tools needed etc., would be helpful. Does anyone have a recommendation for the purchase of the brake pads? Are ceramic brakes better than normal pads? Do you need special calipers for ceramic brakes? Thanks in advance, Matt

Does the Starfire Pearl have a clearcoat?

I had some issues with my tire pressure gauge in the winter. I had the dealership fill the tires with nitrogen and the light hasn’t come on since.

No need to be embarrassed; I re-read my original post and clearly left it lacking specifics. I have lived in Indiana for 29 years - if details are not needed, they are not given! :D (Indiana is actually great, not trying to bad mouth it.) If I look back, the 4Runner is probably my fault; I bought it originally. I guess I didn’t realize it was going to be a permanent fixture in our garage!

Both good suggestions. The real problem is that he doesn’t want a new car and constantly professes his love for the darn 4Runner....... I would love an LS - they have a grey ’06 at the dealership with 7k miles on it right now.... tempting. I had a ’93 LS back in the day and I swear it was built much better than the 350; although I really like the 350. (I will be sure to tell him that women like SUV’s and he needs to suck it up and get a Highlander….. ) Oh those pesky details....

I have had my starfire 350 since March 1st of this year. I have noticed that my significant other has grown quite fond of the car, swiping it each evening to go to the gym, run errands, etc. I am then left with our 1996 4Runner. This doesn’t bother me really... other than that fact that we have a very different definition for what constitutes a clean car and an acceptable parking spot. I have suggested trading the 4Run on another 350... to no avail. Any suggestions?

Anything can be done if you throw enough money at it. ;) If you get it fixed something else will happen. This was my justification for not having my entire front bumper repainted (that, and my distain for aftermarket paint – as evidenced in other posts :) ) after I received two tiny chips before I had my clear bra applied. I just touched them up and moved on….. which was hard… but I lived to tell the tale.

I would wait until you have 95K miles on your car and reevaluate the situation. You will have more experience with your particular car and a better feeling of whether you actually need the warranty.