JEFFREY ETPPER

Nav is actually -bad- for resale value.

Take 2 months of the extra nav payment and buy a Garmin.

Or take 4 months of the Nav payment and buy a Garmin that does -more- than the 90s-era Lexus factory system does.

A nuvi will easily fit in the center console, so it's always "with" you when you need it... and you can use it in a rental car if you travel too.

For $300ish you can get one that also does bluetooth so you can call the restaurant you're going to, and it'll ALSO be able to do realtime traffic, which the Lexus unit can't. And it won't cripple itself when you put the car in drive like the Lexus unit will.

Nuvi'll run for hours off the battery too so you don't need to use the cord much if you don't want to.

I specifically ordered my IS -without- nav because I couldn't see dropping a few thousand on a unit that did less than one costing a few hundred.

You DO lose the backup camera, but the IS is a small car, so it's not much loss... On a suburban I could see it being really usefull... and you could add an aftermarket one of those for a couple hundred if you HAD to have it.

I own a 2008 IS250AWD with the NAV. I also have a 2004 RX330 W/O the NAV. In the RX I use a Garmin Nuvi 660. It is far superior to the 2008 built in unit. It is much easier to use, announces street names and has bluetooth. I think that the Lexus system would be more advanced than it is. Buy the Garmin unit and forget about the Lexus unit.

I am just wondering if anyone has religiously been using a lower grade than 93 octane in their IS250/350 and if they have noticed a difference in gas mileage/performance and or noticed any problems?

I have heard that you can use as low as 87 without any problems however I have also heard the opposite and the dealer states that the car might make some knocking noise's w/ lower octane.

It is understandable that you might get worse mileage with lower the octane but I was wondering if anyone has tried and had good enough gas mileage to make paying less worth it?

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I own a 2008 IS250AWD.

I drove the car about 4,000 miles on Premium fuel. After finally reading the owners manual I tried 87 octane fuel. I have driven about 750 miles on Regular and have not noticed a difference in performance and there isn't any engine knock. My car runs as well on regular as with premium fuel.

I didn't order it, but after I got my car I wished I had the seat memory. This is the only car in the house that everyone drives and now we're doing it manually. It came standard on a 99 RX! I also found out that I was so accustomed to the automatic wipers that at times I was using the wipers and it wasn't raining any longer. Sad.

I would not buy a Lexus without the Luxury Package.

I purchased a 2008 IS250 AWD in November, 2007. The dealer only had 1 IS in stock with the Luxury Package.

The Package contains the following:

Seat Memory settings for the driver & passenger

Rain sensing wipers

HID headlights

Auto dimming outside mirrors

Power adjustable steering column

Power rear sunshade

Illuminated scuff plates

I do not understand why there are so few vehicles with this package.

Buy this package and forego the Navigation System. Instead purchase a portable Navigation System. It will be better than the System that Lexus uses.