patt

Are you sure it was a DVD? What the dealer gave us is a CD which plays audio tracks in a CD player and has a video demonstration when played in a computer. It is an overview. I'm about half way through and it is an overview of the basic features, nothing so far on speedyg's question. I was disappointed that it doesn't have pdfs of the manuals on the disk. It would have been so easy. They shouldn't take much space. With the hefty manuals, it would be easier to look for topics with search on the computer instead of having to page through paper. I'm so much more comfortable dealing with documents on my laptop now. I'll be away on business next week and if I had the file I could start working through the manual, but I'm not going to lug the books along. If we can ever get registered, they are suppose to be available for download from the Lexus owner's site. That is why I am frustrated about the VIN number problem. I'm very happy with the car, but feeling kind of grumpy about some of Lexus's customer support at the moment. The lady on the phone was nice though. Maybe I'll call back and see if they can email the files if they can't fix the VIN number registration problem promptly.

It seems like with all that is done for stability monitoring in the vehicle, they should be able to tell that a tire is acting oddly without much more.

In general, I feel that Lexus support of its US website lacks the quality that should be provided by a luxury vendor in general. Our experience with the Lexus Owners registration is another example of that. A user friendly website would not react to a problem like the VIN number not checking as valid by assuming the only answer was a user data entry error. The Lexus site puts up only this message: In other words, " it didn't work, you must be wrong". A user friendly site (and many that I've used do this) would at least put up a button or link for reporting the problem in case the system was wrong. I had to go search to find a phone number I could call to report the problem. We will see how long it takes them to actually fix the problem.

wwest, I'm sure that isn't the problem with my VIN number entry. I called Lexus customer service and they were able to put the VIN number I gave them into one part of their system. It came up as correct and had our ownership of the vehicle showing. That tells me that the second issue sandimas3 mentions also wasn't a problem. Then she tried to register at the Lexus owner's site and got the same result I got. I guess as far as the Lexus website goes, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Like sandimas, the "made in Japan" excuse lacks credibility. The number is in the US Lexus database so that the car can be sold and looked up. Something seems to be broken between that and the owners website.

When I try to register my Rx400H on the Lexus.com/owners site, it doesn't accept the VIN number. Have any of you succeeded? I called customer care and they say the VIN is correct but they also can't get the owners registration site to recognize it. They have kicked it up to technical support, but I'm wondering if it is just my VIN or whether someone hasn't gotten the Rx400H VINs in the owner's site system yet.

You can't put in addresses while you are moving, but you can do some things like choose a destination from a set of 6 or 7 pre-programmed destinations. You can watch a DVD if you get one with the rear DVD system.

I'm not sure what point in the process determines the date they put on the plate. Remember one of the stories on the final delay was a fit and finish problem with a dash component. They had to wait for replacement parts (or reworked parts?). If they didn't consider the manufacture finished until they had installed the part, there may have been a time when there were a bunch of these cars waiting around for that final touch. Hence the slew of March 05 manufacture dates. Our limited data so far seems to support that assumption.

The IRS has to review the car to put it on the list. The annoucement that the Escape was allowed came in December 04. Since they are allowing the Ford Escape, it seems likely that the Rx400H will get on the list, but I don't know how long it takes for them to update the list. Does anyone know how the deduction interacts with AMT? It won't help a lot of us if it reduces the income for the regular tax calculation but doesn't reduce the income for AMT.

Just a short note to let you know we got ours this morning. Pickup took a long time - about 3 hours because of the amount of stuff they wanted to go over with us. In addition to all the reading material, there is an interactive CD. I haven't played it yet.

Our car is at the dealers. They had hoped for it to arrive last night, but the truck didn't come in until early this afternoon. The tech's are working on prep and we hope to get it this evening.

It varies a lot from dealer to dealer. Some didn't do a list at all. Some only an informal no deposit interest list and some for deposits ranging from $100 to $1000. One would hope with a list with a deposit, the dealer would stick to the list order as much as possible. Even in that case, they don't necessarily get the colors in the order they request them which causes some shuffling.

The sticker on the California ones I've seen (two) also doesn't mention Laser Guided Cruise - only says Cruise Control. One sales man told me that it wasn't included because it hasn't been a popular option. I guess we will find out for sure when we read our manuals. Mine arrived this afternoon rather than last night. They are trying to get it ready for us to pick up this evening. Pfang, could you share what you were able to negotiate for the warranty? 100,000 miles is about 5 years for us and the base warranty is covers the first year and a half of that. If I can get a good price for the extended, I would do it but probably not for list.

When I talked to the dealer this afternoon, he said our Rx 400H was expected this evening. We were number 2 on the list, but the dealer just started the list 2 weeks ago so that list is probably more solid. Sounds like tomorrow is going to be a good day for a lot of us. (This is only one day earlier than I expected it, but Friday was suppose to be the outside date.) Did you see the post from the person who already got theirs? Sounds like we will have plenty of reading to do. B) And he said it had laser cruise control after all. From my test drive, I didn't find the breaks mushy. Guess it depends what you are use to.

Thanks for all the details. My sales guy said mine was scheduled to arrive this evening so there is hope it will be ready to pick up tomorrow. Waiting is so hard.

I agree with that. The lack of information has been worrying at times. But I expect I'll forgive them when I pick mine up.

If I interpret your signature box correctly, your 03 RX300 has only 65,000 miles on it, how can it be almost dead ? I'd expect a typical recently manufactured car (even an American made) to last well into 100,000 miles. ← Soobie, I agree. Our Camry has just under 200,000. As far as I can tell, the engine is doing great. The oil level barely drops over the 5000 miles between oil changes. Because of age, it could use a paint job - something we expect to do after we get the Rx400 so it won't be too much of a step-car. :D Over the years, it has required almost nothing beyond scheduled maintenance and wear items like breaks.

I believe that is inaccurate. There is no 650 V produced when the car is off. The reason there is a 12 Volt battery is that there is a relay that disconnects the main batteries from the rest of the car when it is off. When you start the car, the 12 Volt battery energizes the computer and closes the relay so that the main battery power can go to the voltage converter that produces the 650 V.

My husband chose not to test drive now for just the same reason as you. :) I couldn't resist the drive, but I can understand the other point. Plus I expect when we pick ours up I expect I'll have to let him will drive it first when we pick ours up since I've already had a chance. ;)

It is hard to know when one is getting the truth. Here is what I was told: Toyota/Lexus is being very careful because they don't want problems to show up after introduction that hurt the reputation of the car. A couple months ago, they found some problem (not specified to me exactly what the problem was). They fixed that. Then very recently they found a fit and finish problem with a dash board component that was standing slightly proud instead of sitting flush as it should. There was rework that had to be done to fix the problem. The old plan would have shipped cars over to stockpile a bit so they could all be distributed and appear at the dealers in a nice simultaneous introduction. With that final problem, they ended up holding the cars in Japan while it was resolved. Now that it is resolved, the logistics of arranging for the shipping capacity needed are slowing arrivals. The salesman claimed that the high cost of fuel was also interfering as they were trying to stick to the more economical ships. Supposedly, they have a big stockpile of cars over in Japan now in queue to get over here. Except for the last thing about fuel cost, that all sounds plausible to me. I've been there from the development engineer side. The last niggling little bug that has to be resolved before product release. I can picture the meetings. It is a minor defect but people paying $50,000 and change for the car are going to expect it to be perfect. I'm glad I wasn't in the shoes of the guys who had to solve the problem. Once the problem was resolved, the logistics of shipping have to be tough - They have the cars made, they want to collect the money, but there is a bottle neck of ships, customs, car carriers, etc. to get them to the buyer. But given that they have the cars made, storing them somewhere is probably costing money, there is the time value of money tied up in inventory, and these cars are going to sell for MSRP, it seems like they would be willing to pay some extra fuel costs to get the cars delivered and sold. So the one detail about "high cost of fuel" delaying things hurt the salesman's credibility with me a bit (by the way, this was not a salesman from the local dealership where I expect to buy my car). My car is in the country having come in at a port about a day's travel from here so it is suppose to show up by Friday. Apparently even the logistics of arranging car carriers for 400 mile drives is bogging things down. I'll be interested to hear what others were told.

Another thought about why the salesman is eager to sell to you. Most of the sales people are on commission. With a limited supply and high demand, the dealer may not care which customer buys the car, but the salesman is in competition with other rest of the dealership to be the one who sells the car. If he has a buyer ready to buy, it is in his interest to get the buyer in the dealership and close the sale before someone else does.

Sacramento Lexus got their test drive car last night so it was ready for test driving this afternoon. They let me take a nice long test drive. My main impression: smooth. We have all anticipated the excellent acceleration and by now everyone on this list knows about things like the silence when you turn it on and pull away. I'll try not to repeat the things the other drivers have already covered. What I didn't anticipate was how smooth this car feels cruising at a constant speed on the highway. We will have to be careful until we adjust or we'll end up with speeding tickets. Even at high speed when power is coming mainly from the gas engine, it is so quiet. Very little wind noise, vibration, or engine noise to tell you you are going fast. I glanced down at the speedometer and found I was going well over the speed limit. Handling felt very assured. Driving position and seat comfort was great. As a short person, I love the telescoping steering wheel. Trim - I liked the stainless steel a lot with the black leather. (That was on an RX400 at another dealer that I was able to sit in but not drive last night.) Unfortunately that color is just not practical for my climate. The one I test drove was ivory - the same interior we will be getting. It looks okay with the stainless steel but not as sharp as the black. With the ivory interior, the upper dash is still dark grey. As soon as we got into the sunlight I understood why. With the very slanted windshield, a light dash would produce a distracting reflection. To my eye, the ivory and dark grey color combination looked very nice. Since the test car was in my colors, it was really hard to give back the key at the end of the ride. Sure hope the real thing arrives by Friday.

Of course the cars coming to CA would be just a tad less "snappy" due to stricter emission control (that is still true, right ?). Even so, it's an awsome combination of performance and economy, at any price. Reliability remains a question mark, however; anybody know how the Prius stands in this regard ? ← I don't think so. That was true for many cars when manufacturers were just learning to deal with the emiisions requirements. In any case, the snappy acceleration on this car comes from the electric motors kicking in so emiisions controls don't affect it. Everything I've seen indicates that there isn't a special California version for this car. I just got back from driving one in California and it is amazing.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. $25 is the upgrade price for the map software (Street Atlas by Delorme) that I run on my laptop. It does a very similar job to the Nav system - finds routes, has locations of various businesses (though I think not quite as complete as the Nav system), attached to a GPS will give you directions as you go, etc. I would be very happy if that was the upgrade price for the car's Nav software. I can't remember the exact price for the Lexus Nav updates, but I think it was around $300 which is pretty steep.

I don't particularly mind the Nav cost. It can repay itself by preventing one accident one would have had while fooling with a map or non-installed GPS to pay for itself. Even when I have checked my route ahead of time, there are times when I would use it to find a gas station or other service that isn't visible. More than the initial Nav cost, I hope that at some point the updates become more reasonable. I update my computer mapping program every year because it is around $25 - the streets don't move much but businesses change and such. That price usually includes feature upgrades. The upgrade cost is way out of line and it is recurring at least every few years.

It is possible. If you look at it from their point of view, they don't have the hassle of administering a list and as long as there is demand they still sell their vehicles. The dealer we are buying from only started a list 2 weeks ago. As far as "maybe he just likes your wife," having a good relationship with the salesman can help in this kind of situation. Who knows how many Rx400H's are really pre-sold? Because no local dealers were doing an early list, we have a good position on a list in Southern Californa that we will be bailing on.