fredw1

My experience has been that dealer-applied protectants are huge profit centers. I bought one once and realized that the "paint protection" was no more than a wax, and that the internal protectors were heavy-duty versions of ScotchGuard. We have leather seats in my wife's 2000 Avalon, and all they get is an occasionaly application of a leather conditioner. Almost anything on the carpets can be cleaned with a carpet cleaner. Even at half price, I'd say it's a rip. I had after-market tinting applied to a previous car that I had for six years, and never had any problems. Look for a reputable dealer with a good guarantee against bubbling and peeling.

I find this "feature" to be pretty worthless. I want normal intermittent wipers back.

After living in Cincinnati (where snow is not a frequent event, but still comes now and then) and driving in FWD cars with all-season tires for 25+ years, I got an RX-8 (RWD) in 2004. I had thought that all-seasons would still be good enough, but I was in for a shock the first night I drove home in 2" of wet snow on unplowed roads. I was all over the place, and couldn't even get up my slightly sloped driveway. After that, I took my 4WD Tacoma whenever it snowed. My lease on the RX-8 ended in December, and I had two choices: commit to the 8 and buy some snow tires or go AWD. Needless to say, I chose the latter. My IS 250 AWD handles the snow exceptionally well, with great straight-line operation upon either acceleration or braking, even with just the factory all seasons.

The owner's manual says 1000 km (620 mi), although my dealer said that driving it too carefully right away would not be good. I drove it pretty much like normal, but no WOT and no cruise. Now I'm at 965, and ready to roll.

Some posts mentioned needing the antenna to go up the A pillar rather than using the shark fin. Anyone know if this is the case?

The trick seems to be needing to hold in the odometer reset for 30 seconds or so. I tied with shorter times and it didn;t work, but the 3rd time worked fine with the four-step procedure.

I moved from an RX-8 manual GT (~238 HP), so I dropped some power as well, but my IS 250 AWD moves pretty well, and the extra seconds in the 0-60 time probably won't be noticed most of the time. I miss the ride-on-rails feeling with the RX-8, with the IS having slightly more body sway and looseness in the steering, neither of which is necessarily bad. With any car, there are negatives and positives. While I miss my 8, I'm very happy with my IS.

Got my '08 $1000 below invoice with 0.9% financing.

Merry Christmas to me, too. I just got my 2008 IS 250 AWD on Saturday. Love it.