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I too am suprised that Lexus would let an interior so loud and plagued with flaws off the assembly line. The funny thing is ....alot of people are waiting for the GS350, I am wondering if Lexus even accounted for the additional torque load of the car with the interior? The 350 may be even worse off than the 300.
If they didn't bother testing the GS300 well in cold climates, I doubt they tested the increased torque.
I haven't bought it and don't plan to (mostly listen to news on XM), but thought others may be interested.
FYI: Removing the center console to hook this up is pretty easy.
I understand that the 350 is coming out sometime this fall--does anyone have a better idea of when?
If you take any trips or go to places for the first time, buy it. The GPS on my 300GS is great. Used on a family trip and it completely removed all the hassle and arguments a man and wife can have. In town, whenever we are going to somewhere for the first time, we use it - same result.
You should be getting a BIG discount on a GS right now.
Not sure what they are selling for now but should be better than that.
It now has 6000 miles and has been a very good car. Love the GPS,XM and bluetooth connection to phone. Rest of the gadgets? Well, the ML radio is not as good as the 2000 Jag. Other stuff such as parking radar, rear screen, sun roof and the other stuff almost never get used.
Not sure, but I suspect it is the cabin air.
At the time of purchase of the car, the dealer wanted over $600 for this and that seemed excessive.
Jane
Alternatively, please look at www.vaistech.com for third part choices, including Sirius and iPod integration kits.
I recall Consumer Reports saying that the GS had poor low beam lighting, but I couldn't imagine it would be this bad. Do others agree? The dealer gave me a new RX as a loaner, and the difference was huge. The RX's low beam HID's are far brighter, broader and farther ahead compared to the GS, and are similar to what I've seen in other cars with HID's.
I put in a complaint with Lexus today on the 800-25-LEXUS number. They are sending a specialist out to my dealer to take a look.
I'm curious to hear what others think. I believe Lexus needs to address the problem. I feel it's beyond annoyance and bordering on dangerous.
The problem arises from the comparison of the older incandescent lamps and the new HID lamps. The incandescent lamps were not very BRIGHT in comparison to the HIDs so the FEDs have mandated a much sharper cutoff point for HIDs so they do not interfere with the forward vision of oncoming drivers.
Regrettably the earlier HID implementations did not have these more severe restrictions nor does all those aftermarket HID kits to which some of us would like to take a hammer and SMASH each and every one.
Seems to me that a good solution would be to have one HID headlamp and one incandescent headlamp.
Or instead of the "sharp", definitive, low beam "high" cutoff "shade" how about a "progressive" cutoff, allow some level of beam "penetration" progressively less and less upward beam coverage?
"Fuzzy" low beam HID cutoff...?
Your comment about earlier HID implementations makes sense. My 2001 BMW 530's low beams were far superior to the GS -- more on par with how the RX looked.
We've all been on the opposite side of these lights, so surely they should be set to blinding. However I'm troubled by how mine work where I am regularly looking beyond the lights, even at below highway speeds.
My hope is that there's something wrong with my particular HID's, but after two checks at the dealer, I'm afraid not.
My last recourse is a specialist from Lexus who is following up on the problem. I'll post the outcome when I find out.
And I thought the HIDs are correctly aligned.
Then I found other people complained about this issue.
It's a potential problem if one drives on a dark street and
there is a parked car on the street. If one's speeding, he/she may not have enough time to avoid it.
In the manual, it says you can adjust the low beam
vertically or horizontally. But I am not going to do it since it's a brand new car. I will give my dealer service
a call next week to see what they say. In the mean time, I
will turn on my high beam on when I am on a dark road & no other cars around.
If they can raise my GS HIDs' beam higher, it may blind
the oncoming drivers. Then I will be seeing a lot of
their flashing headlights. That might be why Lexus keeps their HIDs low. But I think it's too low.
Please post the outcome when you have it.
Thanks.
We have had the local stereo shop install XM radio with the device from vais technology as suggested. The shop insisted that it had to run through the DVD system and use the multidisc screen to operate it.(this is the first of its kind they have installed in a GS300). We activated XM today but cannot get the interface to work except for skipping ten channels at a time. Also, curiously, all FM stations and the XM stations have intermittent skips during the music since the installation.
Any ideas that might help us address these problems?
I've been in numerous other vehicles with HID's, including Lexus RX's and LS's, and none of them have the problem. Their lights are all bright, wide, and appropriately far without blinding oncoming drivers.
I encourage other owners who are experiencing this problem to complain to Lexus at 800-25-LEXUS (Araceli Salceda is the representative who's handling my case, although there's been no response as of yet).
If it does, Lexus should have numerous complains by now.
Can you share how much you paid for your pre-owned 06 GS and what options are in the car? Did you get it from a dealer and is it dealer-certified? Or did you buy from a private seller? Thanks......
I was then transferred to an automated system to track caller satisfaction. When I gave the call a low satisfaction rating (their 1st question), they skipped the rest of the questions and said "thank you, good by". Seems like they only wanted to hear from satisfied customers.
If anyone had more information about this problem and/or Lexus' response concerning the problem, I sure would like to hear about it. If nothing else, this is going to cause me to have to take a second test drive, this time after dark.
I fear I am losing my proverbial erection over this car. I went to the Chicago AutoShow yesterday and checked out the other Lexus sedans: the LS, IS , and ES all have an AUX input. I threw out my cassette tapes long ago, so that's sort of useless in the GS.
I'm guessing that the GS must be due for a dash overhaul. Maybe for '08? Anyone have any ideas about this?
Have fun!
Good Luck
Joe
Joe
Then you will have a more "soft" progression at the upward edge of the low beams and still not unduly interfere with oncoming driver's vision.
I've had my new GS350 for a couple of weeks now. As described earlier by umalum, there is a very distinct cutoff, but the area covered seems much brighter and wider than the similar area covered by my BMW-530i and my wife's ES-300. So far, the low-beam lights have not been a problem for me except when approaching the beginning of a sharply inclined road. Until the front wheels get on that incline, I can't see anything that's even a few yards up the incline.
I am really enjoying the car except for one thing. All of the dealers in this area (San Diego) order only GS350s with the optional 18" low-profile tires. It would take about four months to order a car from the factory with the standard 17" tires. The tires make my car very noisy on concrete freeways and, in certain areas, cause my car to go into the dreaded "freeway hop" --- I'll be looking for a solution to that problem sometime in the future.
Second, my brother has an 2004 ls430 and it is perfect for me, as far as the roominess is concerned. Does the interior in the front seats feel about as roomy as that, or does it seem substantially smaller?
Anu insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The best thing to do is stop by a dealer and try it on for size yourself.
Buying a GS and using regular is like buying a $20 cigar and then complaining about the price of matches.
If you're not of a teeny-bopper boy-racer mentality, not often asking maximum HP of the engine, 87 octane will put you ahead of the other guy money wise.
Running regular fuel in a HIGH compression engine designed for premium is a lot like running a TOO LEAN mixture in a low compression engine designed for regular fuel. Timing could be perfect, absolutely optimal, but the lean mixture would still oftentimes result in compression knock.
Back in the days of carburation the only option would have been to change the jets in the carb to get a richer mixture.
NO MORE...!
These days if the engine controlling ECU detects TDC(compression) knock/ping and the ignition is already optimized the ECU will simply enrich the mixture to alleviate the knock/ping.
Obviously this will also work with a high compression engine designed for high octane but presently fueled with low octane.
So the question becomes....
Will the use of the richer mixture to overcome knock/ping overcome the economic advantage gained by purchasing the cheaper low octane fuel?
NO.
Provided you are not of the teeny-bopper boy-racer mentality and therefore are often in the WOT parametric realm. Absent a FULL charge, or nearly so, in the cylinders there will be no issue of TDC compression knocking.
Which brings us nicely to the subject missed in the link.
Knock/ping due to engine lugging.
This is when the "back-load" on the piston is so high it cannot travel downward as fast as the flame front is expanding. Obviously any fuel, of any octane level can and will be subject to this and just as obviously ignition timing will play no part in this issue.
But.
Lower octane fuel (think diesel) contains more energy and therefore burns more "explosively", more rapidly advancing flame front, and therein lies the problem.
Most modern day passenger vehicles have automatic transmissions so the controlling ECU executes a downshift if knock/ping is encountered in the parametric "region".
With a manual/stick shift the only option, regardless of fuel octane in use, is to enrich the mixture slightly until the driver gets the "message".
I would normally NEVER recommend this, but....
Premium fuel has a lower energy level and therefore a slower advancing flamefront once ignited. That will allow a leaner WOT A/F mixture and still not incur compression knocking and lower the probability of incuring knock due to engine lugging.
The above is dependent on the engine ECU continually "pushing" the parametric envelope and therefore "learning" of new effective parameters.
Again, obviously, absent the "boy-racer" mentality....