Animationguy, There was a Lexus TSB a little while back that could help you. Evidently they flash the car's programming to stop it from "talking" so much. They did it to my 02 LS430 and it seems to have reduced the chatter so to speak. I can feel your pain, listening to the "Lexus Link is Active" 10 times a day is VERY irritating. What possessed them to do that in the first place? Lonely Lexus Engineer? LOL
Does anyone remember when the next update will occur? For some reason I recall that there was going to be a spring update that includes more street addresses. The one in the fall added a few million POI's, but I think the spring update was supposed to add streets. Thanks.
i have a 2001 LS430 sport. I thought this car was electronically limited to 131mph. I tested it out today and managed to reach 140mph before i let up. There was no limiter. This car has some AMAZING high end power. The way it pulls, 110, 120, 130 the numbers just fly by so quickly. The ride at 140 is relatively smooth and quiet. It was quite an experience. For a luxury sedan, this car sure behaves like a sports car. I just wasnt sure on the limiter. Is it just false statemnets they make beacuse they assume nobody will go that fast anyway?
The people that think only German cars behave like this will be dis-appointed to read your report. Where were you - in Utah or Montana that you could go that fast. Actually I had the car up to 105mph on I95 thru North Carolina once and it was smooth as silk.
It was actually in long island, new york on the northern parkway going east. those of you who live here should know how great that highway is. At 105 mph this car has to be as sweet as it gets. Smooth, quiet and most importantly feels like a solid JAPANESE tank. Dont hesitate pushing it further, it can surely handle it. I still can not believe how it handled 140mph.
That is a pretty winding road too. Were you out on that usually idle stretch (with the old parkhouse or bathroom whatever it is) near the end before it becomes 347 (is that the right route number?) in the Smithtown area. I have to check myself on that stretch of the Northern state whenever I visit family in the Smithtown/St James area. Plus when you frustratimgly drive through Queens on the GCP and western Nassau on the Northern State Pkwy you need to floor it when you finally hit that open highway near the end.
By the way did you get the car at Lexus of Smithtown or over at Glen Cove. I know LI very well and I know the owner of Rally Lexus, MB etc. I have many family members and friends out there but I'm in central Jersey.
hey, yes i bought my car from rallye lexus in glen cove. I live right in that Brookville area. You are correct it would almost be impossible to reach that speed on the GCP or even in Nassau. This was in suffolk, not where the bathrooms are but a few miles before, although it could be done there also, but the traffic merges in right after. There is this one long straightway stretch with trees on both sides and it is almost always empty after 10am b/c nobody goes east. I forget what exit though. You are correct, to reach 140mph i did have to floor it. Most or like 90% of cars would not be able to reach 140 on that stretch, but we know how the LS V8 pulls. Haha i did see some lag from 135-140. It took a few seconds but I'll let it go.
I knew and dealt with Peter and George as I leased my first LS400 in 95 from Rallye. I worked with someone for 12 years who is closely related to the family. Check and see if they know the name Ilsa. I won't go any further than that as I hate to disclose names on the net. I switched over to Ray Catena because the service was so great and I thought it was the right thing to do in 98. Catena did all but the first two services on the 95 car. Catena alos pushed heavy on Lexus so that I could have a friend buy out the car at the lease price. Lexus wanted the car back.
How's your car doing and what are you going to do at lease end?
I will the next time I see Julie, probably in June. My son just had twins, and they were christened this month. We couldn't make it out (to CA) but Julie was there. He's coming with the babies in June and will spend half the time with us and the rest in the Hamptons with Julie. I'm assuming you are aware that Peter passed away last year. Did you catch the article in Autoweek just before Christmas about Julie paying $2+ M for the first production SLR at a charity auction in Christies? They're going to have it on the floor (may already) at their MB store. My car is due off lease in October. I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I promised my wife the next car and she wants an RX so I'm definately picking up one of those up. We own her Blazer outright, and I might just keep it until the next LS comes out, or I might just buy this one and wait. My commute is 3 miles each way, and I only put 10K per year on the LS using it as our primary car. so I can put up with the Blazer to go to work for a while and use her RX as the family car. It just makes so much economic sense to stay with an RX/Blazer combo. I'm changing my mind about twice weekly, and still have 7 mos to go.
Just after starting my '04 LS at night when the headlights are required, they quickly dip up and down. What is going on here? If someone is going to say they are being automatically aimed, please explain how if you know.
That's exactly what's happening. Most high-end luxury cars have automatic leveling incorporated into their Xenon lamps, the system is merely checking and setting the alignment upon startup.
This feature is what separates cars like Lexus, MB, BMW from much cheaper cars that also have Xenon lights, but no leveling function.
Another way to tell if a car has a auto-leveling feature is to catch one coming from the opposite direction, if the headlights appear to be flickering then they're being adjusted in real time for every movement of the car's body. This will be especially noticeable on stiffer riding cars like BMW M3s and such. The leveling system has more work to do with a stiffer riding car.
Thanks to those who replied, but I still have questions: "Leveling" or aiming with respect to what? Gravity? Why does an adjustment need to be done at each startup? I doubt that the system has the ability to look and see where the beam is being projected to. Or is it just compensating for loading of the vehicle by measuring suspension heights front and rear?
Your LS has two sensors which work with the HID lights. The first sensor is located in the front end(I think maybe in the HID light fixtures themselves) and the second sensor for the HID system is located right on top of the rear axle.
I'm concluding from your remarks that it is just adjusting headlight aim for suspension height changes due to loading. My previous two cars took care of the headlight aim by actually pumping up the rear suspension to re-level the whole car, including the headlights. Lexus lets the rear end sag, but re-aims the headlights?
You forget something, auto-leveling on HID lights also change due to other factors during driving, such as changes in road surface, braking, acceleration, etc.
Are you telling me that there is a fast-reacting real-time headlight aiming system there that responds to MORE than a static sensing (at startup) of suspension height?
I can't say about other Lexii but my 01 AWD RX doesn't auto-level above about 15MPH. Found that out when I added an injection current to the rear axle "level" sensor to tilt the HID upward with HB like my C4 does. Only worked at low speed.
HID is simply a "contained" welder's arc.
The ballast generates a "spark plug" level voltage, ~30KV, to initially "strike" the arc and then maintains it at about 70 volts via current flow regulation.
My conclusions after reading the posts here and what I could find elsewhere on the web are: 1. The car does a static (parked) measurement of the deflection of the rear (and front?) suspensions to deduce how much the body and the headlight aim is out of parallel with the ground. 2. The headlight aiming mechanism adjusts the headlight beam relative to the car body so as to aim the beam properly relative to the ground. 3. The system MAY make periodic updates while a trip is in progress, based on average suspension deflection, but does not compensate in real time for transient effects like road contours, braking, or acceleration. 4. The system does not sense the direction of earth's gravity to determine horizontal (as a common bubble level does).
My father in law has a LS400 with HIDs that I drive often and I have noticed many times while driving that it makes corrections, such as when braking or accelerating.
On the Porsche 996 when you activate the high beam bulb (incandescent) the leveling mechanism tilts the HID lamp upward about 2 degrees.
I have seen HID vertical movement on oncoming cars so some vehicles must react to even small pertubations in the roadway. As I said, the system in my 01 RX will only re-level when stopped or below ~15MPH.
Without pushing on it too hard yet I have found that I will get $3-3.5k off MSRP on the LS430. I'll shoot for $4k and be quite satisfied if I get that. My area is a Lexus hotspot. Imagine - the lease will be more than $150 (actually close to $200) cheaper than 2001 for a slightly higher priced MSRP car with more equipment. Thank-you Alan Greenspan. They had a Flint Mica sport suspension with ash interior coming in but it was sold right away. I'd take that color combo in a heartbeat. I also like the thought of black with the ash interior and haven't ruled out a cypress pearl. It's about 6-7 weeks too soon for me. But if a sport suspensipn LS430 comes in - in my desired color combo - I may bite the bullet earlier. My wife's silver car goes back in two weeks and my midnight pine goes back in late April. Both cars were flawless with 38k and 62k miles respectively. I'm also finding that the custom luxes are still coming in even though I had heard Lexus might cut that option grouping out.
The GX is still hard to come by up here and sells near sticker. My dealer is a big volume guy and he had all of 4 GX 470's available in his two dealerships. Only one was available in the dealership here. I've come to really enjoy that SUV - it rides great, handles very well and just feels great to drive. But there is nothing like an LS430. By the way I rode in my neighbors Range Rover up to NYC last weekend for dinner and a Broadway show. I had also test drove one in the fall. It's an excellent SUV but the GX is smoother on the road and has the better ride.
I posted a question a few pages back to see if any knew when the next DVD update is due. So I thought I'd try it again just in case the experts here missed it. So anyway, the last update was in the fall which added a few million POI's. I heard the next DVD would include a significant update in street addresses. Does anyone know when this is due? Many thanks...
13 inches of snow in 15 hours....no one's working today except online. My LS lease is up in June, so I will be interested in your decisions. I am still leaning toward the GS just for a change (better in snow).
I have not test driven the 04 GS or the 04 LS yet, but plan to take a drive when we thaw out. I would really like to do a 24 hour test with each, but I don't know if Lexus allows that? BMW is pretty good about overnight test drives with a demo.
I would still like to see them incorporate XM radio in these vehicles as part of the NAV-Levinson system. I think XM is a real winner.
Any thoughts on where the LS is going in 2-3 years?
That's a lot of snow for you guys. We had 18-20" in early December and when you have that big a storm early everything in the 10" or less range that follows seems like child's play. They all pale (for us) in comparison to the President's day storm last year (about 30") and the great 96 blizzard (3+ feet).
I've had the Lexus LX470 all weekend in the past. I wanted to make sure it would fit in my garage properly before I leased it and the dealer told me to keep it for the weekend. It's not Lexus but your local dealer who calls the shots on that. I had the GX for about a day a few months ago but they wouldn't let me hold that overnight because they had so few on hand for people to test drive. I took it on a dead day and brought it back in late afternoon.
I love the 2004 LS. Smoother than ever with some nice new features. The camera is great and blue tooth is a nice addition as is the 6 speed tranny. I only wish my samsung phone was bluetooth enabled as its the best cell phone I've ever had. I haven't looked into satellite radio but I thought it was preset for that. I have more CD's than I can keep track of (one of the businesses my former company owned served the music industry so the labels sent over new cd's each week. I must have 50 cd's I haven't even opened yet) so I am so amply supplied that I prefer my CD collection. I have made about 25 of my own compilations and I tend to keep them in the car.
Are you looking at the GS or the GX470?
I think Lexus will do a totally new LS in 2007 model year and it may come out in spring 2006. I think they will move to that new styling theme and probably offer a mix of engines and have a long wheel base option ala BMW and Audi. It's inevitable that they will also bring out a v12 version of both the LS and the SC models (and possibly the LX and GX) unless the hybrids are so powerful that they render the V12 useless. Natutrally they will stay on the conservative side of the styling for the LS but I'm sure it will have every new techno gadget imaginable. I just hope they keep away from the dreaded BMW i-drive. If they do go there they will do it in a far better way than BMW though. The LS is so user friendly inside though that I can't imagine any better simplification other than voice commands for everything.
Regards "wbwynn by ljflx" posting above: "I haven't looked into satellite radio but I thought it was preset for that." To activate XM Radio through the Nav/Audio system, one needs to have the dealer install a "Toyota Receiver" for XM Radio in a recessed compartment in the trunk, under the floor mat. It is not visible and does not intrude into the trunk. The black antenna is mounted on the trunk lid, measures about 2 1/2" square and 3/4" thick (ugly little bugger). Cost of unit and installation is about $800. The audio is of excellent quality. Channel selection is provided on the Nav/Audio screen and has room for six channel selections on each of three screens e.g. SAT 1, 2, 3. I rarely play my CDs anymore and I have had the XM about a month now. The subscription price is about $15 for activation and about $9 monthly for the service. You can pay by credit card (automatically) of the will invoice you quarterly, semi-annual, or annually for a $2 fee. Your other option is to have a $200/$300 aftermarket XM Radio installed to your radio using a splitter on your existing antenna and a stick on channel selector. The receiver will have to be placed somewhere. I choose not to go the aftermarket route. Hope this helps some.
Hello everyone! I have never posted on the Lexus LS board. The last time I posted with Edmunds was on the STS (Cadillac) board more than 3 years ago. At that time, I was very excited because I was about to pick up my new 2001 STS. To make a long story short, I was very disappointed with this car. I had all kinds of annoying problems with it. There is no way, the STS was worth the $55 grand. Thank God I leased it at the time. I am ecstatic to report to you that I have been driving a brand new 2004 LS430 for about 3 months now. I absolutely love this car. It is even better than what I was imagining. You have all seen the ratings of the 2004 LS430 on Edmunds. I totally agree that the LS430 is by far the best automobile out there for the money. I would never think of paying $20 grand more for a 500 Series Mercedes that does not have the quality of the LS430. The only negative thing that I can even think of is the fact that witout snow tires, you are in trouble if you live in a snowy climate like I do in the winter (IA). However, I was fully expecting this problem and I had the dealer install a nice set of snow tires & the problem is solved.
Now on to another subject. Among the many marvels of the LS430 is the fact that it is pre-wired for for the so called "bluetooth technology". About 2 weeks ago, I went ahead and purchased the Nokia 3650 phone with T-Mobile. After some trial and error, I figured out how to download all the contacts to the car's screen/navigation system. By the way, I was not able to download the entire phonebook contents all at once. I had to do it one at a time. The dealer has not been of much help so far since this is new to them as well. The annoying problem I have is this: Once I start the engine, a message comes up on the Nav. screen that says something like "Bluetooth cannot make connection". I look on the cell phone itself & it asks a question, "do you wish to access hands free operation"? If "yes" is touched then on the Nav. screen, it instantly says, "Bluetooth connection successful". Fine. However, several minutes later, I see that the same question comes up on the phone again. I touch "yes" again. Well, this process keeps repeating itself about every 5-8 minutes. The problem is that unless I keep touching the "yes" button, I cannot access the phone through the Navigation System. My question to any of you in the know is this: Why is this happening? I talked to tech support of T-Mobile folks & they seem to think that it is the Car's bluetooth system that sends a signal to the phone and that is why I keep getting this question. I am waiting to hear from my Lexus dealer the next few days to see if they have an answer. They are suppose to check with one of their field managers that was testing this same phone on the LS430. It seems to me that I should have an option of disabling the system to not ask me this question again and again. Any insight by all of you high tech folks would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I really like the features on the Nokia phone (Camara, video recorder, etc.).
$800 for XM is awfully steep...even by Lexus pricing standards and when compared to aftermarket alternatives. My point is that XM needs to better incorporated into the LS in a more efficient and less costly manner....like GM has done (one of the few things).
At the Chicago Auto Show, Lexus provided a sign up for a $500 Lexus Gift Certificate if you purchased any new vehicle from their dealer by March 31, 2004. I never received mine via e-mail and the dealer says they cannot help, even though I am buying an LS 430 and they know about the Certificate program. Does anyone have any ideas how I can get my Lexus certificate? Many thanks.
Just contact them. I put in a link just in case. They just sent me a $125 gift certificate form as well. All I have to do is test drive the LS430 by March 30th. Since I'm leasing a new one in the next 6 weeks I'll just go drive it one more time. My salesman says that they tend to do these promotions if you don't bother contacting them when they send you the end of lease notices.
why Lexus is a holdout for the old 5,000 miles interval for oil changes when so much of the industry has gone to oil life monitors which allow 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, and 11,000 miles between changes? I see where Lexus even says that the use of synthetic motor oil does not justify an extension of the oil change interval. I say the reason is simply service department income rather than something distinctive about how their engines are designed and are lubricated.
This past weekend I drained, flushed, and installed new anti-freeze to replace the factory origianl in my 92 LS400 with 92k miles. Still drives like a dream and other than a few mistaken instances back in 93 has NEVER been in the shop. DIY Mobil 1 oil and filter changes and one oxygen sensor.
It is true that the 1995 LS400 had relatively low headroom ( my 2001 LS430 is definitely improved).
I bought my 2001 because I previously bought a 1991 LS400 with 104K miles and drove it 3.5 years to 140K miles with no expense other than oil, coolant, trans and power steering fluid changes.
Sold it for 6 grand less than I paid, so I got to drive a Lexus for less than 2 grand per year.
I still miss that car. In some ways it is still superior to the LS430, though on balance the benchmark to beat is absolutely the LS430.
I'm 75 inches tall and found that I liked the head room in my GMC Yukon (read Cadillac Escalade). I find that the headroom in the LS430 since 2001 is at least as adequate. I can place my doubled up fist on top of my head without touching the headliner (seat in the lowest driving position). I often drive with my Tilley hat on with no problem.
I am about 80" tall and when I sat up straight my head was pressed into the headliner. After a few minutes i would find myself leaning to the right then putting my elbow on the armrest simulating a gangster lean. Not my style, so the car went away.
I sat in a 2004 and after powering the seat all the way down I could sit upright without my head hiting.
So maybe there will be a 430 in my future but I am more drawn to the kind of cars Cadillac is building now. The are more sporting than a Lexus and I enjoy a good handling car.
I got the certificate at the show the day before I was planning to purchase two Lexuses (one for a family member). That was an unexpected $1000 for going to the show. One certificate came as expected and I had to track the other down. Send a FAX to Creative Design Group at (310) 525-5249 since that is the header on the one faxed over to me. You can also try Chris Gunn who is the District Operations Manager for Lexus at (630) 505-4436. He is the one at the show who told me about the $500 certificate.
I am picking up my 04 LS tomorrow after driving a 90 LS for a dozen years. I expect to keep this one too and am anticipating that the dealership will offer me/push an extended warranty and I want to be prepared for them. Have any of you purchased this and have an idea of a good price for the extension? Has anyone bought one later after the sale? I usually pass on these things but I bought one on my 99 Honda Odyssey just before the warranty expired and I'm glad I did. In that case, there was a CA dealer selling the manufacturer's HondaCare warranty all over the country for hundreds less than my local dealer. I just sent a copy of my bill of sale, a mileage statement, and a check. Anyone know of a Lexus dealer that does that? I hope the Lexus people figure out the Bluetooth issues described in a recent post since I am anxious to get a new cell phone and use this feature. Thanks for all the wisdom gleaned from this board while I was preparing to buy a new LS.
A few days ago, I posted (post #5430) that I had an annoying problem with the Nokia 3650 bluetooth phone. It was repeatedly asking the question if I wanted hands free operation. Unless I touched "yes" everytime (about every 5 minutes or so)it came up, I could not use the bluetooth phone system on my new LS430. With the help of a salesman that is up on high tech and the local T-Mobile folks, we finally figured it out. There is a setting on the bluetooth menue of the phone that allows for hands free operation or not. The hands free operation was disabled. Thus, a simple touch of the "yes" command on this menue setting immediately solved the problem. It is now very convenient and safe to use this neat system. By the way, when I talked to a national help line person of T-Mobile about 10 days ago, he was feeding me the line that it was the car sending a signal to the phone & that's why I was having this problem. He was obviously wrong and really had no clue what was going on.
cyclone4: Thanks for the info, I'm still waiting to switch phones. Alltel does not offer "Blue Tooth" capability. The Next Generation (GSM/GPRS)coverage offered by AT&T appears to be restricted when compared to their coverage/offering on the "digital" system. I've heard of problems between the LS430 ignition and telephone. Have you experienced any problems in that area? Thanks again..
The Sony Ericsson T608 is available from Sprint for the Sprint CDMA network. The retail stores don't know anything about it. You have to call 866 PCS-AUTO to get one. No camera, but otherwise a very nice unit that gets great reception. I'm still waiting for delivery of my LS so I can't say if it will work, but I'd be surprised it there are problems.
Thanks "edspider1". I also have a web site that the local Lexus dealer gave me if I want to get one over the internet: http://lexus.letstalk.com. Sprint is another idea, thanks.
Comments
There was a Lexus TSB a little while back that could help you. Evidently they flash the car's programming to stop it from "talking" so much. They did it to my 02 LS430 and it seems to have reduced the chatter so to speak. I can feel your pain, listening to the "Lexus Link is Active" 10 times a day is VERY irritating. What possessed them to do that in the first place? Lonely Lexus Engineer? LOL
SV
By the way did you get the car at Lexus of Smithtown or over at Glen Cove. I know LI very well and I know the owner of Rally Lexus, MB etc. I have many family members and friends out there but I'm in central Jersey.
yes i bought my car from rallye lexus in glen cove. I live right in that Brookville area. You are correct it would almost be impossible to reach that speed on the GCP or even in Nassau. This was in suffolk, not where the bathrooms are but a few miles before, although it could be done there also, but the traffic merges in right after. There is this one long straightway stretch with trees on both sides and it is almost always empty after 10am b/c nobody goes east. I forget what exit though. You are correct, to reach 140mph i did have to floor it. Most or like 90% of cars would not be able to reach 140 on that stretch, but we know how the LS V8 pulls. Haha i did see some lag from 135-140. It took a few seconds but I'll let it go.
How's your car doing and what are you going to do at lease end?
My car is due off lease in October. I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I promised my wife the next car and she wants an RX so I'm definately picking up one of those up. We own her Blazer outright, and I might just keep it until the next LS comes out, or I might just buy this one and wait. My commute is 3 miles each way, and I only put 10K per year on the LS using it as our primary car. so I can put up with the Blazer to go to work for a while and use her RX as the family car. It just makes so much economic sense to stay with an RX/Blazer combo. I'm changing my mind about twice weekly, and still have 7 mos to go.
This feature is what separates cars like Lexus, MB, BMW from much cheaper cars that also have Xenon lights, but no leveling function.
Another way to tell if a car has a auto-leveling feature is to catch one coming from the opposite direction, if the headlights appear to be flickering then they're being adjusted in real time for every movement of the car's body. This will be especially noticeable on stiffer riding cars like BMW M3s and such. The leveling system has more work to do with a stiffer riding car.
M
"Leveling" or aiming with respect to what? Gravity? Why does an adjustment need to be done at each startup? I doubt that the system has the ability to look and see where the beam is being projected to. Or is it just compensating for loading of the vehicle by measuring suspension heights front and rear?
Your LS has two sensors which work with the HID lights. The first sensor is located in the front end(I think maybe in the HID light fixtures themselves) and the second sensor for the HID system is located right on top of the rear axle.
You forget something, auto-leveling on HID lights also change due to other factors during driving, such as changes in road surface, braking, acceleration, etc.
If you are climbing a 5% grade, do the headlights point horizontally into the pavement, or straight ahead at whatever is on the road ahead?
Why is it important with Xenon lamps and not with others?
Yes, something like that.
rennybosch,
The lights would point straight ahead, not into the road.
Auto-leveling is important with HID/Xenon lights because of their brightness. If caught at the wrong angle, you could really blind a oncoming driver
I've been scouring the net for information on how they work but so far haven't come up with anything. I'll let you guys know if I find something.
HID is simply a "contained" welder's arc.
The ballast generates a "spark plug" level voltage, ~30KV, to initially "strike" the arc and then maintains it at about 70 volts via current flow regulation.
s
1. The car does a static (parked) measurement of the deflection of the rear (and front?) suspensions to deduce how much the body and the headlight aim is out of parallel with the ground.
2. The headlight aiming mechanism adjusts the headlight beam relative to the car body so as to aim the beam properly relative to the ground.
3. The system MAY make periodic updates while a trip is in progress, based on average suspension deflection, but does not compensate in real time for transient effects like road contours, braking, or acceleration.
4. The system does not sense the direction of earth's gravity to determine horizontal (as a common bubble level does).
Agree or disagree?
My father in law has a LS400 with HIDs that I drive often and I have noticed many times while driving that it makes corrections, such as when braking or accelerating.
I have seen HID vertical movement on oncoming cars so some vehicles must react to even small pertubations in the roadway. As I said, the system in my 01 RX will only re-level when stopped or below ~15MPH.
The GX is still hard to come by up here and sells near sticker. My dealer is a big volume guy and he had all of 4 GX 470's available in his two dealerships. Only one was available in the dealership here. I've come to really enjoy that SUV - it rides great, handles very well and just feels great to drive. But there is nothing like an LS430. By the way I rode in my neighbors Range Rover up to NYC last weekend for dinner and a Broadway show. I had also test drove one in the fall. It's an excellent SUV but the GX is smoother on the road and has the better ride.
Are you getting pounded with snow down there?
So anyway, the last update was in the fall which added a few million POI's. I heard the next DVD would include a significant update in street addresses. Does anyone know when this is due?
Many thanks...
I have not test driven the 04 GS or the 04 LS yet, but plan to take a drive when we thaw out. I would really like to do a 24 hour test with each, but I don't know if Lexus allows that? BMW is pretty good about overnight test drives with a demo.
I would still like to see them incorporate XM radio in these vehicles as part of the NAV-Levinson system. I think XM is a real winner.
Any thoughts on where the LS is going in 2-3 years?
I've had the Lexus LX470 all weekend in the past. I wanted to make sure it would fit in my garage properly before I leased it and the dealer told me to keep it for the weekend. It's not Lexus but your local dealer who calls the shots on that. I had the GX for about a day a few months ago but they wouldn't let me hold that overnight because they had so few on hand for people to test drive. I took it on a dead day and brought it back in late afternoon.
I love the 2004 LS. Smoother than ever with some nice new features. The camera is great and blue tooth is a nice addition as is the 6 speed tranny. I only wish my samsung phone was bluetooth enabled as its the best cell phone I've ever had. I haven't looked into satellite radio but I thought it was preset for that. I have more CD's than I can keep track of (one of the businesses my former company owned served the music industry so the labels sent over new cd's each week. I must have 50 cd's I haven't even opened yet) so I am so amply supplied that I prefer my CD collection. I have made about 25 of my own compilations and I tend to keep them in the car.
Are you looking at the GS or the GX470?
I think Lexus will do a totally new LS in 2007 model year and it may come out in spring 2006. I think they will move to that new styling theme and probably offer a mix of engines and have a long wheel base option ala BMW and Audi. It's inevitable that they will also bring out a v12 version of both the LS and the SC models (and possibly the LX and GX) unless the hybrids are so powerful that they render the V12 useless. Natutrally they will stay on the conservative side of the styling for the LS but I'm sure it will have every new techno gadget imaginable. I just hope they keep away from the dreaded BMW i-drive. If they do go there they will do it in a far better way than BMW though. The LS is so user friendly inside though that I can't imagine any better simplification other than voice commands for everything.
Now on to another subject. Among the many marvels of the LS430 is the fact that it is pre-wired for for the so called "bluetooth technology". About 2 weeks ago, I went ahead and purchased the Nokia 3650 phone with T-Mobile. After some trial and error, I figured out how to download all the contacts to the car's screen/navigation system. By the way, I was not able to download the entire phonebook contents all at once. I had to do it one at a time. The dealer has not been of much help so far since this is new to them as well. The annoying problem I have is this: Once I start the engine, a message comes up on the Nav. screen that says something like "Bluetooth cannot make connection". I look on the cell phone itself & it asks a question, "do you wish to access hands free operation"? If "yes" is touched then on the Nav. screen, it instantly says, "Bluetooth connection successful". Fine. However, several minutes later, I see that the same question comes up on the phone again. I touch "yes" again. Well, this process keeps repeating itself about every 5-8 minutes. The problem is that unless I keep touching the "yes" button, I cannot access the phone through the Navigation System. My question to any of you in the know is this: Why is this happening? I talked to tech support of T-Mobile folks & they seem to think that it is the Car's bluetooth system that sends a signal to the phone and that is why I keep getting this question. I am waiting to hear from my Lexus dealer the next few days to see if they have an answer. They are suppose to check with one of their field managers that was testing this same phone on the LS430. It seems to me that I should have an option of disabling the system to not ask me this question again and again. Any insight by all of you high tech folks would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I really like the features on the Nokia phone (Camara, video recorder, etc.).
http://www.lexus.com/home/contact_lexus.html
It is true that the 1995 LS400 had relatively low
headroom ( my 2001 LS430 is definitely improved).
I bought my 2001 because I previously bought a 1991 LS400 with 104K miles and drove it 3.5 years to 140K miles with no expense other than oil, coolant, trans and power steering fluid changes.
Sold it for 6 grand less than I paid, so I got
to drive a Lexus for less than 2 grand per year.
I still miss that car. In some ways it is still
superior to the LS430, though on balance the benchmark to beat is absolutely the LS430.
After a few minutes i would find myself leaning to the right then putting my elbow on the armrest
simulating a gangster lean.
Not my style, so the car went away.
I sat in a 2004 and after powering the seat all the way down I could sit upright without my head hiting.
So maybe there will be a 430 in my future but I am more drawn to the kind of cars Cadillac is building now. The are more sporting than a Lexus
and I enjoy a good handling car.
Sprint is another idea, thanks.