Kevin W.

Hi Steve, Just for the sake of benchmarking, I bought an '05 ML a few months ago with 53k miles from a dealer here in San Francisco. Not a CPO car, but in good shape, 1 owner, no issues, Cypress Pearl on Cashmere (love that!) for $23k. It also had the smart key and wheel upgrades. I am a perfectionist and a few things bugged me at first, but with the help of the forums I have taken care of the little squeaks and rattles from the dash and the wind noise around the front windshield. Also put in some 3000k HIDs in the fog lamps which made a big difference on the back roads I drive. LEDs in the puddle lamps, license plate, and interior are also a fun upgrade. Hope you find a good one! -kw

I recently bought an '05 after looking at a couple of dozen 430s, 01-06 models. At first I was thinking the same thing: get an older one because they are significantly cheaper and not too different. Well, the more I looked the more I really liked the newer generation cars. And since dealers are pretty much giving them away, I decided to make the jump. Absolutely no regrets with that decision. The new cars look better, drive better, and the one I bought felt like a new car, even with 50k miles on it. I love the Modern Luxury package because it has the nav and awesome audio system without the hokey switches in the back seats where people rarely sit. Mine also has a smart key system which is great now that I set it to unlock all the doors instead of just the driver door. I have recently seen 04 and 05 cars with fairly low mileage listed for $18-$20k here in Northern California. Those disappear fast, but if you are patient and look on Craig's List every day, you will find a great deal. The unlimited Carfax report is well worth the money to weed out the cars that are undesirable. Happy shopping, foozool99. You won't regret getting a newer car, but if you get an older one you might ask yourself at some point, "should I have gone for it?"

i think you will be much happier with the sonus. i tried the silicone spray and wasn't as happy with it. when using the sonus spray i get about 2 good months of creaky-less driving. :) i live in socal and the drier the weather the creakier the windows. i've got it down to a pretty good/quick appplication now. i use a rag w/ sonus around the door panels and on/around the rubber on the door seals. also, i use a foam-wedge-on-a-stick w/ sonus to get up into where the window sits when its up. i really love this car and the creakiness is my only complaint - which i can live with. :) Yes, so far I'm loving my car too. It really makes a huge difference to have it quiet in the cabin. I do notice some wind noise which may simply be that because the car is so quiet, you kind of hear every little pin drop. I guess the 04s may have had a problem with the windshield, but the whooshing in mine seems to come more from around the front driver door. It makes me wonder if that, combined with the creaks from around the seals, may mean it's time to replace the seals. I wonder if anyone has had success there?

Correction: The first stuff I tried yesterday was a teflon spray. That definitely didn't help anything. I just went and bought a $3 can of spray silicone at Napa and it seemed to do the trick. Now just wonder how long it will last. In the meanwhile, I ordered a bottle of the Sonus stuff. Thanks for the ideas, everyone.

I am so thankful to you guys coz my 05 LS430 developed the same creaking sound and it was so annoying. The cabin used to be so quiet but the sanctuary was lost after rear left door/window seemed to be creaking. I bought some silicone spray yesterday and geneously applied to the door rubber and window seals and the creaking is all gone. I am so :) . Now i wonder was it the door or the window or both. I suspect it was the window. Will see if it develops again and try to narrow it down to door or window. Thanks once again. Hi all, I just bought an '05 LS 430 and notice that when the car is dry, there is some pretty noticeable popping and creaking coming from around the doors and/or windows. Based on what I read here, I shot the door seals with a dry silicone lubricant last night. It helped some but not completely. I'm going to try the window seals and frames tonight. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. Does the Sonus Total Eclipse really help more than anything else? If so, I'll pick up a bottle. Thanks for your input. P.S. I just drove the car around at lunch and tried lowering the windows a tiny bit and that indeed made the noise go away almost entirely. So I suspect the rubber window seals. This seems to be what other people are finding, too. What an annoyance.

I spent the last four weeks driving LS 430s in California and here is what I learned. We all know that now is a good time to buy, but I was surprised to find that the real deals to be had out there are from dealers. Private party owners still seem to think they can sell their cars for Blue Book value and this is just not the case. Dealers know that they have to make serious price reductions to move their vehicles. I did my Carfax and KBB research and then called half a dozen dealers. I said I was ready to buy this week and what was their bottom line on the LS 430 they had on their lot. For the ones who were willing to come down, I went I drove the car and then played the dealers off each other. I ended up getting an '05 with 50k miles for 30% under retail blue book. In fact, the car cost less than the "fair" price for private sellers and the car is in immaculate condition. I originally started looking at the 01-03 vehicles but everything was so inexpensive that I was able to swing the newer generation 430. Finance rates are ridiculously low now too. Good luck and have fun shopping!

I just bought my first Lexus, a 2005 LS 430 in Cypress Pearl. I LOVE this car. I commute on some hairy roads here in Northern California and would like to put some pale yellow HIDs in the fog lights. My question is, can you access that area to mount the ballasts without taking the bumper off? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks for your input.