Gojirra99

I brought my SC430 in for maintenance, and while waiting to pick it up, I was looking at a LS since I may be in the market for a big luxury sedan in a year or two.

It is a premium package with ecru interior, and as I sat in it, the first thing I notice is that the grey maple wood paneling looks like PLASTIC. I thought it really detracts from the beautiful layout of the car's interior.

I have sat in a base model with ecru interior before and thought the blonde maple wood paneling looks more sharp and classy, offering a much better contrast.

Noting that the grey maple/ecru combination is mandatory for any LS above the base model, this combination may be enough to turn me off from choosing the LS and turn to another brand that offers similar features but a more flexible interior trim choice.

BTW, I don't like the black/bordeaux wood combination either since the dark bordeaux wood offers little contrast with the black interior. I much prefer the black/maple combination offered on the base model.

How many of you that bought the custom/premium/ultra premium LS actually really prefer a different wood trim other than the grey maple, but are stuck with it because they want the extra features that the base model doesn't offer?

Lexus marketing executives, are you listening?

Horta

Personaly I hate the Grey wood in the Ultra package. Now at the same time I totaly respect the car and wish I had one. But the grey wood has made me feel better that I dont own one.

I am hopeing that for 2004 they will change the Ultra pakage and alow regular wood color.

Jerry

meZoom!

you should see my mom's highlander....all sortsa wood chucked in there, and no wood where you'd expect there to be.

LS007

Not all Ultra Luxury's have Ecru Birds-Eye Maple (Grey wood) trim. It depends on the color of your interior leather and with a Ecru Ultra Lexury leather selection the only choice is Ecru-Bird's Eye maple. This could be why Horta is thinking *all* ultra luxury's have Grey wood.

BTW, I truely like the Bordeaux Bird's-Eye Maple with my black aniline leather Ultra Luxury. It blends well in day or night and doesn't stick out saying.. "I'm fake plastic wood". The Bordeaux maple is also available with the Bordeaux leather interior on the Ultra Luxury.

Horta

Your right. I just only like the tan interiors so I forgot about the burgungdy wood with black leather.

Manaray

I too love the grey wood...wish they had that option for my GS430...

splogue

Well, the idea is that the gray wood blends in better with the rest of the colors. Same deal for the deep red wood in the black and bordeux color schemes.

There is a *lot* of wood in this car. It really isn't necessary to make it jump out visually by contrasting the colors. It reminds me of the way television manufacturers crank up the default brightness and color settings so that they'll look good in the store for the sale.

To me, this looks more high-end and elegant than the contrasting colors of the other models. Only the Ultra Lux package has the gray/red wood color schemes, so if you get any other package you'll get the same contrasting wood as the base models.

And, for what little it is worth, *all* of the wood interior colors look like plastic to me, both old and new, because of the high gloss polyurethane coating.

Sean

Gojirra99

Colour combination preferences are , of course, subjective.

The main point of my original post is that Lexus should give buyers the flexibility of choosing the interior trim combination instead of deciding for them, especially for their flagship model. People are paying a premium for the ultra lux model and should be given that option.

Mecedes Benz are giving buyers of their S/CL/SL models the choice of walnut or chestnut trim at no extra cost.

splogue

Well, that I certainly agree with.

I suspect they limited the color choices because they don't import very many of the ultra versions, though who really knows. Perhaps the designers just figured these were the most attractive choices, so why would you want anything else? That attitude would be rather Mercedes-like! ;-)

Sean

Gojirra99

The problem is that if the dealer cannot find a particular exterior/interior colour combination that you want in their inventory and the inventory of other dealers in the rest of the country, they will factory order one for you, and the wait may be up to 3 months.
Yet Lexus will not allow the customer to pick the wood trim for a car that isn't even built yet. How difficult it is for them to just put in another colour wood trim that they have already available? I won't even call that customizing.

drink300

I just purchased a new LS430. I was going to buy the Ultra Lux package, but hated the grey wood so much that I went with a NAV/LEV package instead just to get the Ecru w/Bird's Eye Maple.

I am so happy that I made this decision, as I would have traded the car in after about 3 weeks of looking at that "plastic" wood.

drink300
2003 LS430 NL Parchment w/Ecru Interior