manual guy here. like to turn my lights on/off myself. wipers...i only use the int. cycle....even with all of our rain. drivers that use their wipers here in triple speed crack me up....usually a white knuckle driver....leaning all the way up to the winshield to see.

 

that's one thing i don't like about the new lexus. there is no INT cycle anymore, it's replaced with "auto". so when it's very light rain, either i put it in auto and at the mercy of the sensors, or i go to 2 click which looks like a half retard already

at what rates, numbers? i mean if your driving somehow consists of constant dark / light / dark light driving, so the headlights turn on and off so often, then i have nothing to say. but normal driving and some underpasses here and there, i haven't see anything that points toward noticeable reduction of bulb / ballast life

this is actually one thing i am not sure. i once asked a cop about it and he said as long as i have DRL, that's enough in the rain. that's part of "headlights" from his definition. but i was skeptical about it though.

 

i leave everything auto, headlight, wiper, climate control.. manual requires just little extra steps, but once you get used to auto, it's just too convenient.. i agree with the INT cycle though..

 

I have both on auto, but I sometimes have to manually put them on when it's raining, as the law in NJ requires headlights on with wipers.

 

auto for both.
hate when people drive me car and change its settings.
another reason why i love the 3 memory seat feature!

 

i too leave the windshield wipers on off due to the dreaded rainbow mark on the windshield at inevitably the wrong time. but in the rare instance that i drive my car when its raining.....i put em in auto.

and the lights......i leave them off too. i regularly drive with my headlights and fogs on when its a little muggy or gloomy out and in the early night time or late morning. i like the way it looks. unfortunately Lexus made it virtually impossible to rig the fogs to come on with just the parking lights!!

so in a nutshell......manual wipers.....manual lights.

 

what rainbow mark are you speaking of? is this related to the rain sensor? I'm never really sure how the rain sensor works because sometimes it works fine and others not. I leave everything on auto.

as for the lights staying on after you get out of the car...if you press lock twice on the remote it locks the car and turns the lights off. that's how I always do it. I rarely ever use the button on the door handle to lock the doors.

 

Since your wipers wipe off everything in ur line of sight, the path of the wipers arches. That being said, the area that hasn't been wiped is full of dirt and debris which water does not just fall down evenly on your windshield, but falls down the edge of the "rainbow"

 

just like vuiskool explained in a slightly confusing way below???.....basically the rainbow mark is the dirt left behind on the windshield after your wipers cycle.

and i never use the door handle locking button either. i always press the key fob twice just like you said.

 

i don't know but i am not a big fan of the lexus rain sensors, at least here in cali. both my ls460l and gs350 when put in auto it's disastrous at times, wipers coming on when there isn't really enough rain to "warrant" it (and yes, i put it to least sensitive already).

 

I leave both items on Auto. I figure the DRLs provide enough visibility for others to see the car in dawn/dusk times. I find that the headlights come on just a bit before I actually need them to be able to see better. Although I leave the wipers on Auto, I sometimes have to flip them on manually in a light rain or mist. I've found the best results in leaving them in the Most Sensitive position, but they don't work perfectly.

 

Sometimes I'll leave the headlights on AUTO but I too sometimes prefer my lights to go on earlier at night or stay on later in the morning.

I don't mind the AUTO sensitivity of the headlights as much as I do the wipers. I find that they sometimes wipe too quickly for the conditions or wipe too slowly for the conditions (adjusting the sensitivity doesn't do much to help). If it's a light drizzle, I will usually turn it off and use the MIST function --if I have to, multiple times a minute (having it wipe at a constant slow wipe is overkill). If it's heavier rain then I will leave it at AUTO since it will wipe at a constant slow speed (unless it's really raining hard in which case I don't mind it going into warp speed wiping mode).

And climate control is always OFF for me in the summer unless I want the A/C on. (In the winter it's always ON, naturally. )

 

First, I had same feeling that I need to turn the light off. I solved my problem by clicking lock twice (turn the headlight off right away) on my remote. If it doesn't turn off right away, then you could program it to do so, I think.

 

Not sure about reducing life expectancy though it seems like the logical way to interpret it. The manual of my 07 Infiniti G35 specifically recommends to leave the automatic lights on and that turning them on or off would reduce their life expectancy. I have not really checked this on the Lexus 3G...

 

I live in Florida.

I leave the wipers on AUTO, if it rains the wipers run, if not they dont. Sometimes the mist is so light I have to manually activate them, but rarely.
This is my first car with auto wipers and it is amazing!!! An even better advance than when intermittent wipers were introduced.

As for the headlights, I only use the AUTO feature if I am on a trip. My problem is I have a garage as part of my house and if the headlights are set to AUTO they will come on when I pull into the garage even if it is bright & sunny out. Then the car leaves them on for 30 seconds after turn off. Definately too much wear & tear for me. I hardly ever drive at night, so the only time the lights are on is driving in the rain (required by law - no help from the AUTO function).