evren

I'm about to take delivery of a loaded 350 (sgm). Excited as I am, I'm also a bit concerned that its a lotta car to handle, especially because I've had my drivers license about four months. I was wondering if anyone had any pearls of wisdom to share that might help me strategize as to how to take care of my new car and protect my investment. Any common mistakes that are easy to avoid? Any tricks that might keep me safe? Oh and any advice on disabling vdim to do some mad drifting? err, nix the last one, but yeah, pointers please?

nice forum y'all got here...

gsrthomas

iTrader: (1)

If you are thinking about drifting or doing any other dangerous maneuvers in this car at such a young age I guarante you will crash your brand new IS sooner or later.

My advice for you is to get an IS250 instead of the IS350.

speedyj88

#1) Congrats on your new 350

Also, dont worry about getting the 350 rather than the 350, as gsr mentioned. It really has NOTHING to do with how much power you have under the hood, just dont do anything stupid. (The 250 can get up to the same speeds as the 350). Also, if you're bent on disabling VDIM, do a little search and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results, again, make sure you do anything TOO stupid...a little fun is always okay :-p. Enjoy.

evren

The VDIM thing was a joke, I think the system was basically designed with people like me in mind. If I ever need to learn about drifting I sure won't be doing it in my car.

speedyj88

Haha, yeah, no drifting. But laying a little rubber in a parking lot wont hurt anyone

4CYLNDR

Nowadays, "laying a little rubber" in a parking lot will get you an exhibition of speed ticket, which is a misdemeanor in California, and punishable by up to 1 yr in prison.

I haven't been keeping up on the recent "turning off the VDIM hype" but if its true, i say, get 'er done and take it out to a track! you'll have a blast.

NotFatBoy

you should really consider going to a driving school session. The single best mod you can do to your car is YOU

TheRupp

Thanks, dad. J/k

I agree 100% with what NFB just said. I'm not very old either and I'm about to own my 2nd Lexus, 3rd car. I started out with a 2000 Cavalier. Some things may be tempting, but don't do it. This car is capable of 140+ mph. Don't find out where it stops.

My Cavalier killed itself after 42,000 miles (charge system was bad, alternator was bad, ignition was bad, transmission needed to be replaced). My Lexus has 57,000 on it and i have yet to have a major problem

Just take care of it. Don't put regular in it. You live in California. Cops are targeting people like you or me: young people driving expensive fancy cars (trust me, it happens to me as well).

NotFatBoy

Im only 23. When I purchased my Audi S4 I went to a weekend of driving school and it was the best thing I ever did.

When my IS350 comes in I cant wait to take it to the track....

kingrach

My advice is just dont be stupid. I ride a Motorcycle and I am a very offensive and defensive rider. Just take it easy and enjoy. You have a beautiful car so dont take it for granted and treat her like a princess.

IS3CM

Congrats on your new 350. What you need to do is drive the car and test your ability. You have only been driveing for 4 months so you wont have that much ability but you can learn really quick. Take the car somewhere when you know that your not likely to hit anything and practice simple driveing skills. Make sure that you work in the brakes before you go drifting the car. Practice heavy to severe brakeing that way if you get yourself into touble you know the limits of the car and how it will stop. Practice turning and brakeing really hard to see how it will slide out from under you. Just make sure that you do it in a parking lot or somewhere where your not going to hit anything if you loose control. Try finding a road with a lot of curves and take the turns slow at first and then gradually speed up but dont over do it. Basically test the limits of the car and yourself. Just be careful and dont do anything extreme when your not ready because I would hate for you to wreck it. What would be better is if you had another car that you could test your limits so that you wouldn't over stress the new car. If you use the 350 make sure that you break it in a little bit because everything its going to be brand new and not use to being driven in an extreme way.

umpalumpa

use your mirrors, especially in this car, make sure they are set up right. Please use turn signals...just a good habit for a newer driver to get into. Congrats on the car...i like the point someone made of saying it doesnt matter how fast your car is, its how fast you drive it. its hard to be responsible on the road at 16 (boy do i remember some ***** that i pulled off!) now at 31 and having a kid, it really burns me up when someone is pulling some crazy stunt near me, especially with my kid in the car. you might be indestructable, but other people arent! have fun, but be safe.

AgBlue

One thing to be aware of is the blind spots in the car. Get to know them, and get use to checking them when making lane changes. That goes for any car not just the IS350. But one thing I notice about the IS is the small size of the rear window and the blind spot over the left shoulder. Just take your time and learn to control the car. Practice makes perfect.

TheRupp

I know . I'm only 20. I've never had a car that I can take to the track

I was trying to look into some driving schools but the kicker is that I want to take my father with me; he'd love it.

I<3MyIS350

Hey, cool another fellow young man. Hows your insurance? I only have my permit right now but im getting my license Dec 5 . My friend has a SRT4 and hes getting about $325 a month, im pretty sure im getting around that price, maybe lower with good student rate (have a 3.8 gpa)? It's really hard for me to step off the pedal once i get to the high way... its all up to you and how -good you can drive it. If you know youre not capable of doing manuvers dont try anything stupid on it, its fast. Since youre young like me, the last thing you would want to do to the car is total it, your insurance is going to burst or not even insure you. You can always treat the car as if its still doing break-in . Have fun with it, because I am. I am starting to drive slow now, i've been getting only 15 mpg on this baby.