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Comments
That drive up to Julian can be a blast. That is, as long as you don't get stuck behind an RV or some guy pulling his horse trailer!
The electric parking brake is a technological advance as well as opening up room in the console. The '03 console is 100% bigger than the 00-02.
Like most of the other posters, I find the seats in my '01 V8 Sport to be extremely comfortable. Like you said, though, each person is different, and it's entirely possible that you and the '02 LS seats just aren't compatible. It happens sometimes.
The '03 LS starts rolling down the production line on Monday, so you should be able to try one at your local dealer by the end of the year, with any luck. Hope you find it to your liking, comfort-wise; it's a really remarkable car in so many ways, and the '03 should be an outstanding performance value compared to the competition.
Do this on a late weekday morning, and avoid the weekend warriors driving their appliances and flatulent Non-Sport Utility Vehicles.
no1trust, are you by chance a very tall man? Real tall people are the only ones I've ever heard complain about the seating position in the LS. ezair and myself are somewhat, um, "vertically challenged", the other guys posting here that I've met are a little taller. We have some big guys in our owners club and the seats are one thing just about everybody agrees on. Honest, not picking on you at all, you've just raised an unusual opinion. Do us a favor: if you end up buying something else that you find more comfortable, please post back here and let us know what it is.
I'll just add my 2 cents in about the seats b/c I find them the most comfortable I've sat in. We make an 8-9 hour trip from NY to Maine every summer. Before we got the LS, I was happy to share the driving with my wife. Now I do the entire drive myself. Not only is the LS a blast to drive but I have no backache at the end of the trip and always feel like I could go longer.
Wasn't aware of a TSB on the seats... I've only driven 02 V8 models at Hertz. Maybe it's just my personal preferences as far as seating, too.
ezair:
"Wife unit" LOL. Thanks for your offer but I live in the Vegas area. The Boss (not Springsteen) also is relegated to passenger status only, unless I am too tired to drive (hasn't ever happened on LS drives). Since the 2003 is right around the corner, I'm patient enough to wait on it. HID, THX, yum! I hope the steering wheel controls are still as handy (I found the mute button very convenient).
lobsenza:
No, all the Hertzs I rented were V8s; I made sure of that first before I plunked behind the wheel. To each their own, but I just was not interested in the V6 hp to even try it. The driveability of the LS was always most acceptable to me in the rentals. Every model had the power lumbar which was great.
I have also test driven them at the dealers; in fact I was initially put off by my first impression of the seat. I only learned to appreciate the LS's other attributes like its driveability when I could rent them for prolonged trips... I really couldn't do much evaluating on the 20 minute test drives from the dealer. If I like the 03, the additional hp will be just gravy; the 252 hp V8 was suitable for me.
scottc8:
No, I'm not tall... I'm only 5'10 w/average build. But keep in mind that everyone my height is not necessarily built the same; some people have differing proportions. I know I cranked up the seat height in the G35 coupe in the driver's seat the same weekend as my last LS visit; for the first time in a car ever I bumped my head on the roof. I've never had that problem in the LS or any other car. That may be part of the problem; I'm not able to raise the seat as much as I prefer in the LS, unlike some other models.
craigcurry:
Glad you find your seat that comfortable, but so far no car seat for me can match my LaZboy w/bomber leather. Do I really want to get TOO comfortable behind the wheel?
stanny1:
I'm just too chicken to blast thru hairpin turns or do anything like max speed; though the car would be my toy I still have my Boss as a passenger who would freak if I go excessively fast or whip around curves (Julian being a prime example... she was worried even with my relatively sedate driving). I get my kicks in the LS watching the Honda Accords' headlights getting smaller in my rear view, especially going up I-15 mountain grades. Of course the luxury makes a difference too, otherwise I could get any street rod to do that.
I have found other cars w/more comfortable seating for me, but I'm not trying to get involved in a comparo board and all that emotion. I'm trying to get a Big 3 "reward" that fits most of my wants & needs. Because of the price range there may be tradeoffs in some features I want; I guess there is no perfect car in this price range for me yet. Like I indicated before, I'm willing to try out the 03 when it gets here before I buy.
I know what you mean about different builds. I'm 5' 7" but tall from the waist up like my Dad and both brothers. Dad says people think we're tall until we stand up.:) I have my seat all the way down, but way forward to accomodate my short legs. They (tall) guys in the service dept. at my dealer have learned to move the seat back before they try to get in, and get out of the car before hitting the memory button to restore my settings.:)
forward - back
up - down
seat back tilt
seat cushion tilt
lumbar
The seat cushion that tilts independent of the back is really great. Once you get used to it, it becomes a can't do without feature. How the cushion is tilted also seems to affect how high you can make the seat go. I'm 6'2 and like to have the seat as high as it can go to give me extra leg room.
Ronnie - when I was considering getting an '02 back in Sept, 2 different dealers were desperate to get rid of their LSE's. One salesman must have told me 30 times that he could have get me in an '02 V-8 LSE for less than my '00 V-8 base lease payments.
One reason for the LSE fire sale may be insurance. If you saw the thread here and another one at that other LS chat site, a couple of different LSE owners appeared to be getting hosed on their LSE insurance. One complained to his ins. co, and was told that the high rates were due to the high LSE repair cost.
I know it doesn't make a lot of sense as liability should be the bulk of the insurance cost and not the extra cost to repair those fancy body panels. But just look at how much more the owners of any special model of any car have to pay. I think that it is an excuse by the ins. industry to milk some extra profits. The thought process is: "If you're going to pay extra for a fancy model we know we can suck a lot more ins. $$ out of you too." I've been looking at used Mustangs for a 3rd car that will be driven less than 5,000 miles a year and spend most of its life in my garage (married near midle age, no points, have not made an ins. claim home or car in 15 years). 3 ins. co's. told me that a Mustang Cobra would cost 2 times what a Mustang GT would run! That's a lot of $$ for a couple of body panels and 40 more HP!
I think it's more like 130 HP difference ... 390 vs. 260.
G.
I thought that this leak was "unique", however a friend of mine recently purchased a used 2001, and had to have the same repair done last week. His dealer told him that this leak is not all that uncommon.
I also have a master cylinder that's always "wet". I replaced the cap, but that didn't fix the problem. I added a "shim" between the cap and gasket and that's helped somewhat.
The other contenders were the Mercedes E55 AMG, Audi RS6, and Jaguar S-Type R.
The M5 was second fastest in 0-60 (Audi was fastest) and tied with the AMG in track time as slowest, with the Jag the fastest and Audi second (So much for Quattro superiority).
So the M5's mere 394 hp was quite sufficient.
Here's my take:
The M5 was the only naturally aspirated, was among the heaviest of the four, and had the lowest torque of the bunch.
So what gives?
Simple.
The M5 was the only car with a Manual Transmission.
That's worth quite a few horsepower and lots of torque.
Torque converters are torque sponges. It takes power to shift an automatic. I bet the M5 was first off the line.
It takes a lot more power to make an automatic faster. All three automatics had boost.
My dream car is an M5. I do dream about other cars fitted with manuals. Like the GS400, new LS, and other cars that would be a blast with a Manual.
I'm 54 and have only 20 more years to drive the many manuals that are starting to proliferate as the rear wheel drive renaissance continues and the SUV Revolt gathers steam.
And before some idiot makes Middle East oil unobtainable and gas is real expensive.
Enjoy life and control life while you can still shift!
I like what the Jag commercial implies: You promised yourself a Jaguar...Someday.(Someday is NOW!) There are no guarantees on tomorrow.
Lose weight NOW! Clean up your diet NOW! Drive your balls off NOW!
I had taken the spark plugs out for an inspection this past June, just before going on vacation. The left bank was annoying, due to the master cylinder's presence, but I still had the four in and out in a little less than an hour. I think that "R&Ring" the valve cover probably would have taken another 45-60 min, so the 2 hour number that I had heard was probably fairly accurate.
Where, how, from whom and for how much?
Still love my LS with 40K miles!
Thanks.
al
You are sooooo right here.
I do not have a MTX right now but my next car will.
Even driving in LA, being "involved" with the driving process is everything!
Pretty soon EVERYTHING will be "by wire" just like a video game. No feel, no connection synthesized isolation etc...
Power, control and feel are things that will seemingly be lost in the process.
So as you implied, It's time to have fun NOW! :-)
On Motorweek's review of the Aviator they noted the performance of the mini-Navigator and said if the Lincoln LS was a SUV it would be the Aviator. They got a 0-60 run of 6.9 seconds! Which I find hard to believe given C&D only got 7.6 seconds and they usually torque brake to the max for the fastest times. Could be an error or unusual climate conditions. Or may they were testing downhill with a strong tailwind. Either way mid 7's is very good for such a heavy vehicle.
Gee - I wonder if there are any other Lincoln applications for a 300 hp 4.6L engine??
It's the BMW X5 of the American SUV's! ?
Why do they put such great engines in trucks, and are afraid to in cars? It's an industry wide phenomenon. Trucks first, then cars (maybe).GM, Chrysler and Ford have the parts, but for some reason are afraid to put them together in cars.
Maybe you and I wouldn't buy the Aviator drivetrain in a car for the Aviator's price?
Like, where's the line?
LSE insurance as I said their is no logic in it but a while back someone did post here that their ins. co. said it was so expensive because it was a LSE. His ins. co. could have been jerking him around. Naw an ins. co. would never do that, they always do everything possible to give you the lowest rate.
http://www.marketwatch.com/pf/life/default.asp?id=2&siteid=mktw
Go to this link and then look for the story, "A luxury used car could prove costly".
How does $500 or $600 sound to have a stuck key in your ignition fixed?
I just got it and am still learning all the ins and outs but so far it works great. I've mounted it on the dash just inside the driver's A-pillar.
In this price range, I think this unit outperforms Garmins offerings especially since it accepts Secure Digital cards for memory expansion. Garmin sells a really nice unit called SteetPilot but its in the $750 range.
I did NOT place the order for the Mach 1.
Used luxury cars are no bargains. There have been many articles like the one that was the link was just posted to that have documented how used Mercedes, BMW's etc. are a very expensive propositions. A friend of mine is a Mercedes bigot. He keeps buying junky old high mileage Mercedes and then gets hosed on repairs. I've given up trying to explain to him how he's buying an old junk and then paying through the nose to keep it running. He has drunk too much Mercedes Cool Aid and just mumbles in response about how low the depreciation on a Mercedes is.
Even new Mercedes can be expensive to own. I have a distant relative that has more $$ than brains. Every 3 or 4 years he gets a new Mercedes S class. To me it is supposed to have FREE maintenance and warranty. Every time he takes it in for his "FREE" oil change, his dealer figures out how to run up $500 or more in billable repairs. The most ridiculous thing about it to me is that he thinks that Mercedes and the dealer are taking good car of him when they tell him that he had a cracked trim piece, so they replaced it @ $300 for the part and $150 for labor. He once even told me, those guys are really good, I didn't even notice that anything was wrong!
I've been looking at the Garmin Streetpilot myself; with the voice it's worth the $700+ in my opinion, since it's also transferrable to other vehicles too. Hopefully prices will continue to fall like VCRs & DVD players, so it'll be cheaper yet w/the car purchase.
No, the Meridian does not have voice. You need to spend the extra money and get the StreetPilot if you want that.
The Meridian is transferrable to other vehicles as well since, like the StreetPilot, it is handheld. Clearly, the StreetPilot, at twice the price, is a better unit. But I was not willing to spend that extra money now because of two reasons...
1- New technology comes out all the time and I would expect that these units will be surpassed by better stuff in a couple of years.
2- The 2003 LS has DVD navigation built in. :-)
Joe
2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser
2002 Ford Thunderbird
2003 http://www.motortrend.com/
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=13573
Cheers,
- Ray
Who would love to hear this idling under the tree on Christmas morning . . .
I have the earlier model of Garmin's ColorMap Street Pilot, and it doesn't have the voice prompts, nor does it have the ability to automatically create routes between specified points (that the new Street Pilot DOES have). I can change routes that I have uploaded to it, and I can manually add new routes to the unit itself, on a point by point basis, but it is a slow and tedious process.
However, the Garmin support software I run on my PC is quite wonderful! It makes it very easy to generate routes according to specified criteria, such as shortest time, shortest distance, avoid interstates or not, etc. Then, it is quite easy to manually modifiy those routes.
However, for long trips, I run into limits on the number of waypoints per route that I can upload to my old version of the Street Pilot and have to subdivide a too-big route into additional routes until I run into the limit on the number of routes (20 I think). Of course, if I had a laptop computer to take on trips with me, I could generate new routes with that and upload them as needed.
The new Street Pilot has much better limits and it is also a much faster unit. Anyway, my point is that the quality and features of the supporting PC software is also an important element when choosing a GPS unit.
Lincoln LS - the car we really don't want to like but can't find anything wrong with.
If you skip the complaining about the previous model they actually sound impressed - although not as impressed as we think they should be. Actually better than I expected. One problem, though:
"but we like the new wheel designs."
NOBODY likes the new wheels.
What does it say about the credibility and objectivity of a test team when it can't collectively locate either a battery in a trunk or dual-zone switches on a console? Sheesh.
"While no alterations have been made [to the transmission]" WRONG, the tranny is now synchronous and has one less clutch.
"...dearth of luxury features that other cars of this class offer, such as dual-zone climate control..." WRONG, already noted but blatently in error.
"Go the whole hog with the V8 Premium Sport and receive ... the aforementioned sport suspension." WRONG, the V8 Sport also comes with the sport suspension.
Pathetic.
Hey, Pat. Why don't you invite one of these reviewers to our townhall.
I do know that there were a few software releases, but it sounds like you already had the updated software installed.
Unfortunately I don't have any other ideas.
Mark