I work in the industry. 25 is usually the breakpoint because the companies feel you are at an age that is more responsible and carry less risk granted you have the driving experience. Minimum 10 years or whatever criteria they use. High dollar value car equates to high insurance premiums obviously. The IS300 has highest in cost to insure in a national ranking. Since the parts for the car are expensive to replace when it comes time to claim, it is pricey to insure. They figure it's a sports type vehicle with high value, which has more risk. I didn't know this until I already purchased the car, but my rates are low to begin with.

 

So your dad drives a minivan and pays for the insurance on your brand new 06 GS? You have some generous parents there.

 

excuse me guys i've got a question, does the dashboard lightining have a dimmer ? i mean if it was green like a i've been told , can u switch it off or have it lowered ? frebay could u post pics of the interior when the lights are on ? and can u check on the "dimmer" option ?

thanx in advance , excuse me for this strange request but am really dissapointed by those "GREEN" interiors of toyota and im in serious thinking of having the new GS 430

 

The dimmer switch is to mainly control the brightness of the speedometer/tach and etc. You can dim it to the minimum or have it full bright. Also w/the lights on, it will control the contrast of your NAV from night to daylight mode.

If you've based your decision on the interior lighting of the dash/radio controls and etc, you're totally missing out on the rest of the car. There's more to it than the green tint of the dash controls. It's not obtrusive if that's what you're asking. I prefer it way more than my amber colored dash on my IS300.

 

Well hell drive the 06GS too....we agreed on hwo we were to pay for the car. The total tax return im getting from the government is about 4K and his is about 6K and im going to trade my car (95 lincoln towncar hardly worth 2K dollars..lol and put in an extra 3K for a downpayment of the 15K i mentioned. I am paying the 500/month payment on the car and he will pay for the insurance of all our cars (we have 4 right now....but the lincoln will be gone and the GS will be added...making that still 4 cars including the GS - and hes going to pay the premium for the insurance every month for all 4 of them which is about 850 a month....keep in mind - it does sound high...its because i have two twin sisters who are 20 and my mom doesnt drive nor has a license...the cars we have right now - a 2000 cavalier which just has liability....my dads dodge caravan which has liability... 05 solara which has full coverage...and my lincoln that has liabiltity.) we are paying 295 currently on these cars includign tax per month withh all us drivers insured on each of the cars. It will skyrocket to about 750.00 when the lincoln is taken out and the GS is added, ensuring just my dad and I. (another reason why we pay what we do is becauuse my sisters are underrage for females....the agent said they get the insurance break when girls turn 21..when they r an adult..and after that begin enjoyign lower premiums....so right now im getting a punch from that too.



It sucks not getting a break before 25, as Flipside909 pointed this out too and was exactly right in his last post. I doubt anyone who is under 25 is going to pay a realtively lower premium for this car. But then again - i dont think there are more than a couple of people under 25 getting this car.

 

flipside909, i know man, this car has many thing that made me really think of purchasing one , but u know , those green lights are annoying and they look cheap on a luxury car, same lights that are used in 80's corolla or something ... i hate it , i think they used some Xenon like blue lights in the LS 430 , why they didn't use that in this beauty ?

anyway i think i can live with those lights , but i need to test how this car drives before i go for one ,, thanks for the quick reply dude ,

 

Trust me on this. Once you get behind the wheel, you won't even notice the green illumination. It's very easy on the eyes at night to be honest.

 

Excuse me, but what green lights on the dash are you guys talking about? They are white. Unless you mean the navigation screen, but you can change that to 4 other shades. ???

 

we are talking about the lights of the control buttons , like the climate controls on the side of the navi screen , are they really white ?

 

they are a green color if i remember correctly. something i thought was weird was that the memory 1,2, 3 and set don't light up at night. also the lock button has one light, so you don't know which way to lock and which way to unlock.

 

Lock is always the one that's lit up. Toyota/Lexus did something different this year by making the door lock toggle left to right instead of front to back.

 

does this illuminate at night?

 

The window switches and the lock side of the door lock switch yes. And yes that whole panel is backlit. Light green/white.

 

my 00 still smells new with 50k on it and I smoke in it almost every night

(not talking about cigarettes either)

 

maybe the stuff you are smoking makes you think it still smells new.