rominl

iTrader: (4)

hey jim i am very happy that you are taking our replies nicely. this is what i like about this crowd, everyone is cool about comments, and everyone just tries to help each other out

1. i guess i haev to go and drive the sc430 top down to experience it more. during winter time, i usually just keep the heated seat high heat and blow hot air, and it's all good. good thing is with the top down, all the heat blows to the foot area and rises up, nice design
2. the personaly settings i guess they just dont' want you to mess with teh computer too much? i agree with you that if we can change the settings, it would be great, but granted there are so many owners out there (and to be honest i always see some very funny and amazing owners asking questions at the dealership), sometimes too many options isn't necessarily a good thing.
3. about the nav, i can understand your frustrations though, coz' couple of times already i just want to change something fast and i had to stop my car. but afterall it's precautions so i can't say anything


now one thing i wanna complain that i discovered the other day... there is memory seat for the pessenger side too right? now someone please explain to me why the heck can someone ONLY be able to save a settings or change a settings when teh car is parked? when the car is in motion, you press the memory buttons and it will NOT work. i can see about teh driver side, but pessenger?!

Jim Herd

Since Rominl asked, here are the personal settings that are readily available to the owner on the Jeep Grand Cherokee:
Display – U.S. or metric
Auto door lock
Auto unlock on exit
Remote unlock drivers door only
Remotes each linked to each memory seat position (1 & 2)
Sound horn with lock
Flash lights with lock
Headlamp delay off
Illuminated approach
Auto headlamp low/high beams
Headlamps on with wipers
Front wipers rain sense
Service interval warning
Easy entry/exit seat
Trip computer – 7 settings

A total of 21 settings! And programming the darn thing is a no-brainer. Totally idiotproof, and hardly a liability risk in the entire group! I bet if Lexus thinks really hard and really long, they could come up with a better list, and give us owners freedom to play at will!

Jim Herd

rominl

iTrader: (4)

interesting list there. i know that in order to program the leuxs settings they will have to hook up a computer or something to change the cbest settings. i don't know exactly what other brands do though, like mb and bimmer as i said before. guess that's just how they want to do it.

one thing i wish happen was that the two remotes will adjust the memory seat settings automatically. i had that on my old acura, not a bad thing at all

1NICESC430

>I hear Christy Brinkley has a mole.<

Rockville

One of the strengths of the SC430 design is the minimal wind wrap you describe. That little glass section between the rear seat headrests (which double as roll bars BTW) is what stops the wind from taking off your toupe. The SC430 is ranked #1 in the world in the JD Power Initial Quality Survey. That means fewest problems in the first 90 days of any car in production.

Being an avid Mountain Biker myself I would encourage such outdoor pursuits just don't muck up your SC430 with a tow hitch as that would be a travesty. Buy an Old Jeep and you can also dinghy tow that behind the RV to boot.

If you ever go into the city and put the top up and down a few times IN COMPLETE SILENCE you will find people will stop and stare and then look longingly at the SC and maybe even you! You will notice that as soon as the chime signals the end of the process the music will get louder and the A/C or heat will be directed towards your legs. This is not the ASL. The ASL is supposed to react to ambient noise and can also be in play with the top up. Since you like to do things yourself you might want to store your favorite volume setting by holding the little switch beneath the left side of the steering wheel below the volume pull switches. Just wait till it beeps and it's set. Now anytime you want to "mute" or augment the volume just tap the switch with your left hand.

Have you selected a bluetooth phone to pair with your new SC430 yet? I can't wait to hear your posts about that.

I am somewhat of a Navigation expert but I hope you realize you just got the Gen 4 Nav. System which wasn't available before this year. If you have a favorite Silver Mine somewhere out there in the desert then you can mark it and get an exact latitude/longitude and come back with the RV and Claim your stake. A more practical feature is that there is 10,000,000 embedded phone numbers to reverse look up destinations with. Go to the destination screen and select page 2 at the top and put in the number of your favorite Physician or Shrink and then their address and practice moniker will probably come up. Then put them in MY Places is for the next time you have an appointment.

My favorite Nav. command is "Ice Cream Parlour" It does take practice so pick out a few and practice them until you and the SC are one and only then try to impress your friends.

Welcome to club lexus.

Jim Herd

Just FYI - Personal settings on the Jeep are simply programmed with a couple of buttons on the windshield header rail. And the two original remote door lock key fobs operate just like the Acura!

Here's the overall point.
Most of this stuff is very inexpensive for the factory to offer us, and many of these "nit-pic" features add up to REAL value! I would personally pay significant extra bucks to get some of this stuff. And what's even more important is this - I bet Lexus is losing customers by NOT having a comprehensive list of features to match the best of the best competitors. When I was an engineer at G.M., we had an entire department to tear apart every competitors vehicle - and copy the good stuff. Maybe Lexus has no such department.

One last point.
Exploring all the capabilities (and sometimes the inabilities) of my new Lexus is exciting and stimulating. (I guess I could compare the process with exploring the "features" of a new girlfriend, but I would never be so crass!) It is particularly rewarding to stumble into something that is not covered in the manual - this forum helps greatly with this!

Jim H

dseag2

Interesting observations. I owned a new '03 SC430 for a year and thought it was quite a bit of car for $60k.

I understand what you're saying about ASL because my Audi A6 had sound leveling that could be adjusted, but I really never gave it a second thought. I just turned it off.

As for wind noise, that was my first (and probably only) convertible, so I had nothing to compare it to, but I thought the wind buffeting was minimal.

Re: XM radio, it was just getting started during the year I owned the car so I bought a Delphi Sky-Fi and ran it through the cassette deck. The sound was still great. With that said, it is surprising that Lexus doesn't offer it now.

As for the other complaints, I would have honestly never thought of them.

I had various reasons for trading the car, many unrelated to the car itself, but my only real complaint was the handling.

Oh, and I heard Christie Brinkley's mole was actually transplanted from Enrique Iglesias.