appleton

Thank you for that. I totally missed it... had no idea there was a "winter" mode.

Shortly after buying my 08 ES 350, a service station attended lifted and propped up my wiper blades while cleaning the windshield. Soon after, I noticed that paint had been scraped off the edge of the metal cowling that partially covers the blades when they are in the resting position. I tried flipping up the wiper arms myself and sure enough they would not bend to open position without scraping along the edge of the cowling. Thought this was an engineering weakness, but never got around to mentioning it to my dealer. After my last regular maintenance service (now a year + later) I noticed that the wiper blades were resting "high" on the windshield to the point that they were a bit annoying. Thought this strange since no service was done to the wipers. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wiper arms have been replaced. Sure enough, now when lifted away from the glass they bend at the mid-point and no longer scrape against the paint. I will certainly ask my dealer about it at my next visit. While the new arms are a definite improvement (providing they lower the blades back below my line of sight), I find it odd that the work was never mentioned to me or indicated on my invoice. It makes me wonder if they were quietly fixing a problem in order to avoid having to repair the damaged paint? Wondering if anyone else has had their wiper arms changed or if their wiper arms currently scrape the paint when propped out?

To learn more about the Version 8.1 update, visit http://owners.lexus.com Select Manage Vehicles>Navigation Map Feedback You are supposed to find release notes listing the changes made since the Version 7.1 update, coverage overview and more. Unfortunately this is for Lexus owners in the US. I could not enter a Canadian address to see the information. Perhaps someone in the US could copy and paste the updates here in the forum?

The caller ID works with my blackberry and Verizon service. Then the difference is in the carrier. Verizon works, but Rogers does not. Interesting.

hi poncherello; So you have caller I.D. working with Rogers on a Blackberry? I'm am pretty sure that just having blue tooth does not guarantee that all of the features will work. Even the Lexus phone list indicates as much.

My Motorola Razr was on the Lexus list and works fine for making and receiving calls hands free. Caller ID does not work nor does the battery strength indicator through the car's hands free system. The cell signal strength does work. Rogers is my carrier if that makes a difference. I tried several phones and none were fully functional. Even tried a Blackberry (everything but caller I.D. worked).

I have the same problem with the same phone. Am using Rogers (Canada) as the carrier. Incoming calls do not display name or number on the Navi, even when the incoming caller is listed in the car's address book. Would love to find a solution to this. Otherwise the phone links, and works well.

Which way was the prevailing wind? :)

My Lexus definitely idles on the fast side when first started. It does drop down after two or three minutes. Don't know much about the mechanical explanation, but it consistently revs at around 1500 RPM on start up. I don't like to run the car inside the garage for any longer than necessary so am forced to put it in gear causing it to 'bolt' out at a fairly quick pace. It's true that none of the cars I've owned in recent years displayed this characteristic.

I bought my ES 350 at the beginning of winter. Noticed that it revs fast when first started. 1500 or 1600 RPM. If put into gear I feel catapulted out of the garage. I thought that it was a cold weather trait but now that spring has arrived, I'm still rocketing out of the garage. I will be asking about this at my 24,000 KM check up (15,000 miles). Has anyone else noticed this fast idle? Was it an easy fix / adjustment at the dealership? Oh and yes, my car is noisy with what has been reported as piston slam until it warms up.

Garaged when I'm at home. Parked outside when I'm at the office. The office is next to a very busy highway and an amazing amount of dust / dirt blankets the car in a single day.

Maybe a docking station for an Ipod or a storage compartment for CD/DVDs?

I guess I'm one of the "very few", mainly because it's easier to just put in the cassette, rather than converting everything to a CDr. Ok, UNCLE. After digging around in the basement, I came across an old box of cassette tapes that I probably made in High school or College. I was amazed at how good the Carpenter's sounded in the ML ES 350 tape deck. It was amazing enough that the darn things still worked. No 5.1 surround, but pretty good stereo and they brought back some memories. OK... I retract my earlier sentiments. The cassette deck doesn't seem like a silly idea after all.

For me, the space could have been used for something else. It's a personal thing I suppose. I was surprised to see it, but clearly there are a few people who get some use out of the tape deck in 2008. I suspect though, very few.

YIKES!!!!! It's time to upgrade, you are truly missing out on today's sound quality :) I tend to agree, but to each his/her own. I would have guessed there were very few people still using the cassette deck in the ES 350. 8-tracks are on another level. Hey, if the Lexus ride was just a little smoother, maybe we could spin some of those 'natural sounding' LP vinyl discs somewhere on the dash.