squarehat

"Drape" is the bagginess of the leather between the seams. The stock leather on the 92-96 has little drape, as they went for a taut, sporty look. Look at the back seat of a 97-01 ES, you'll see what I mean by drape. As for the interior color change between 94 and 95, check out a couple of cars on eBay. The beige on the 94 has much more yellow than the 95. As for the price, it's likely an issue of low demand. Not many people are actively seeking upholstery for these cars.

Classic Soft Trim is a respectable brand. Those covers look like they have a bit more "drape" than the factory leather. Also, your sig mentions a '94. The 92-94 cars had a darker shade of tan than the 95-96, the seats in the pic look quite light to me. The covers pictured normally go for about $750 retail.

If you're going to try and use a TRD charger on the ES, 97-98 is your best bet, so you're in luck, as it's the closest to the Camry/Solara engines it was designed for and tested on. The 94-96 ES has some electronic incompatibilities to deal with (requiring some ECU swaps), and 99 and up have the VVT-i to complicate things. Make sure the engine seals are in good shape--running at boost will stress them. With aftermarket pulleys, the supercharged 3.0L V6 can put out 343HP at the crank, although I wouldn't recommend running that much power through the factory automatic transmission...Believe me, I'd love to have a sleeper 97-98 ES running HP numbers competitive with AMG and ///M cars :)

Also, bear in mind that the LS has a slightly different Mark Levinson system than the ES. So you wouldn't get quite the sound of the LS's system. (From what I've read, the SC430 has the best of the Lexus/ML systems--don't know, never been in a car with an ML system).

Lexus just put the ES330 info up! http://www.lexus.com/models/es/index.html Base not bad at all, considering the standard leather. And the options packages seem a bit cheaper than in past years, although 02-03 owners would know better than me.

Do regular automatics like the ES even have a "clutch" per se, or is it just a locking fluid torque converter?

Out of curiousity, what color is your car? A lot of manufacturers have oxidation/fading issues with dark red paints. Also, Lexus does not clearcoat black cars (supposedly the clear would show swirls too badly), so the paint itself faces the elements. That is one reason I want to polymer my ES with Zaino or Klasse in the near future.

There should be a trunk opener disable button in the glovebox, like Neiltyme mentioned. Hit that, then lock the glovebox with the master key. Also, you can fold down the rear armrest to reveal a keylock for the ski passthrough than can also be locked by the master key. If the previous owner didn't give you the valet key, you can get one cut at the dealer by giving them your VIN/registration (my guess is around $30-40).

1996 ES: Dislikes: Dated looking rear end with giant, blocky taillamps Leather on top of rear seat susceptible to sun damage, stretching the seams, despite meticulous conditioning Inability to use cupholders if ashtray is open to allow plugging in of phone charger Likes: Soundproofing, easy-to-use climate and audio controls, superb soundstaging from stock stereo, aggressive looking front end P.S.: SW03ES, take a look at the mirror on the new RX330. It's the same parts bin Gentex mirror in use on the ES & GX, a clever cost cutting measure made during the redesign. I'll still take it over a flip-style prismatic mirror though, although you'll get no argument that the roof mounted mirror in the color-keyed housing looks much more refined.

I, too have Silverstars in my 1996 ES. The color temperature on my driver's side headlamp actually appears to be a bit whiter (4000K by my unscientific estimate) than the passenger side (est 3700K). I've compared it to the stock HID in a relative's 2001 IS 300, and the driver's side is almost as white (brightness of course can't compare). To me, the Acura HID has always looked a bit whiter/bluer than Lexus HID, so I've got a slightly different basis of comparison. When I have time, I may swap the bulbs from side to side to see if the difference in color is due to the bulbs or the housing. If it's due to the bulbs, I'll buy a new passenger side bulb, which will hopefully match.

I have a 96 ES with OEM mats, I have a clip and hole for the driver's mat only.

A detailer's clay bar might help, too.

I've got 215/50-17s on 17 x7's (see my sig below). I'm pretty sure the offset on my rims is between +40 and +43, and they're just inside the fenderwell, the tuck is almost identical to the stock rims on a friend's IS300. No rubbing, etc, issues whatsoever.

Those were still the standard wheel in 2000, with the 16" split 3-spokes or the 16" Platinum Series wheels on higher options packages. In 2001, all cars came with 16", either the split-spoke or the Platinum/Coach wheels.

If you had the heaters, the controls on the 98's are on the wood plate right beneath the shifter.

I had the strong feeling that the first gen-ES used "protected" leather, although it does seem to soak up conditioner much better than some of the Detroit leather that's practically vinyl. Even on the LS430, "semi-aniline" leather is an optional upgrade (I think it may be standard on the SC430, which seems to have some of the nicest leather I've seen on any car with a 5 digit price tag.)

I'm guessing the tails were replaced, too. However, the car seems to be lacking many of the Coach Edition features, e.g. the dish wheels, black pearl badges, the wood plates around the window controls, can't tell if it has the perfed leather (heck, my car isn't a C.E. but do I have the C.E. perfed seats that I picked up at a salvage yard --$152 for the whole set!)

I know there are manual ones on the market, I used to park near a late-90's Accord with a manual roll-up sunshade that looked like a somewhat cruder version of the sunshade on the newer ESs. I had considered getting one to protect the top of my back seat from sun damage when the car was parked outside at work all day.

I remember seeing a very light blue when the 02's first came out, that must have been the Starlight Pearl. I'm also surprised to see that Millenium Silver is hard to find with the black interior--on other Lexus models (IS, GS, SC, and even, to a lesser extent, LS), that is a very popular combination.

Shop around, there are many places to find black pearl emblems. My Lexus dealer quoted me $221 for the complete set for my 1996 ES. I was about to do them, but like SW03ES, I also felt they'd blend in too much on my black car.

The store also happened to have the 303 Aerospace (I think they actually had two different 303 products). I may try it next time, since I went with the 3M, I have read several people praising the 303. However, I'm still convinced that the 3M won't have the same harmful effects that ArmorAll does.

on my '96, the CIG fuse is in the fuse panel next to the steering wheel.

I actually have trouble telling the Alabaster from Millenium Silver without being up close to the car. The Millenium Silver has a more metallic appearance with a hint of gold. I thought I remember a third color called Starlight Pearl that was almost silver too. I remember seeing the paint samples in the 2002 ES viewbook, and thinking "I know silver is the hot color right now, but why 3 of them?" Of course, 02-03 owners can fill me more in on the color differences, as the colors can be hard to judge from a viewbook.

You might want to try Refresh by 3M. It's lower gloss than Armor All, has UV protectants, and probably better for the vinyl dash. It's what I use. It also claims to be safe for leather, I put it on the top of my rear bench after I'm done conditioning as a UV protectant.

98ES uses H7. One of the improvements in the 97 redesign was the claim that the low beams were 30% brighter, based on using the newer type H7 bulbs and a more efficient free-form reflector.