VGR

Maybe someone put regular gas in the car. It needs premium for flawless drivability. Those 215 miles on the car might have been very hard demo car miles. Hope it wasn't driven too abusively by aggressive test drivers. Doesn't take much reckless driving to bend and stress stuff in the suspension and steering linkage which may end up being a source of vibrations or pulls. Yeah these cars feel heavy and the speedometer can seem like it's lying. I think one reason the car feels this way is because the ES330 is significantly better insulated that any Avalon or Camry. Notice, for example, there are auxillary lower door seals and inside the doors there is sound absorption material. When I buy a new Asian car I always get one that was built in Japan within the past 2 months and one truly brand spanking new with just 4-8 miles on the odometer. I've heard there is a TSB out that suggests rotating the struts to cure drifting problems to the left.

My 1991 LS400 has 101,000 miles and the timing belt has never been changed. I was wondering if it might be possible to get another 25,000 - 50,000 more miles of life out of the belt if I drive mainly on the highway and without a lead foot? Anyone here ever get 125,000 or more miles out of their V8 timing belt? Anyone ever break their timing belt in under 125,000 miles?

The ES is perfect just the way it is for it's primary target market: financially comfortable 30-80 year olds who value isolation from road noise and harshness more than high speed cornering capability. These conservative owners value understated elegance. Headers, exhausts, chips and K&N's are for the street racer crowd. Even if a stock ES could do 0-60 in 5 seconds, the boy racers would STILL want headers, exhausts, chips and K&N's because the real purpose of those noisy, "cool" looking items is to make a social statement. to their peers.

Chalk it up to women drivers. Unlike most men, most women panic and fail to hit the brake pedal or emergency brake or turn off the ignition or shift the transmission to Nuetral. Scatter brain women were the primary complainers in the Audi case too. Women also file more frivolous personal injury lawsuits than men. And frivolous class action lawsuits against big companies.

Snake oil websites like that are a dime a dozen. There's alot of stuff about synthetic oil they don't want the public to know. Like synthetic provides virtually no engine wear advantage compared to conventional oil at normal engine operating temperatures and only a marginal advantage at engine start up, although that margin becomes more clear cut at winter temps near or below zero degrees F. The truth comes out when you look at the claims made on the bottles of name brand (not off brands like Amsoil & Royal Purple) synthetics like Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil, etc. NONE of them claim an engine wear advantage compared to conventional oil at normal temperatures. They use clever language like "greater film strength" "greater protection" blah, blah, blah. Nothing specific like: extends engine life 40% compared to conventional oil." The most important truth the lubewhore websites don't want the public to know is that a properly maintained and driven Lexus or Toyota engine will not be seriously worn even after 500,000 miles of using dinosaur oil. Lexus engineers know this and that's likely one reason why they do not embrace synthetic oil.

Is the top coolant hose the factory original one? How about the hose clamp? If it's a screw type hose clamp then it's not factory original. If the hose clamp is not the factory original them someone likely installed a cheap aftermarket hose.

Letting the engine temp gauge get in or even near the red zone is the #1 killer of cyliner heads and head gaskets. If owners would stop the car and call a tow truck or a mobile mechanic type outfil at the first sign of a rising temperature gauge they could save themselves thousands of dollars.

I'm curious to know about your buying experience there in southern California. Did you get try to get much of a discount off the MSRP (window sticker price)? Did you shop around and make offers to many dealers to find out what kind of discount you could get off MSRP ? If so, what southern Calif. dealers seemed to have better prices? Or did you mainly shop for the right colors and option combinations rather than price? After you settled on the price what sorts of other items did the dealer try to talk you into buying (extended warranty, etc.)? How much time did the whole buying process take after you agreed on price; i.e. did it seem to take forever or did the dealer get you out on the road in a reasonable amount of time?