jayclapp

Lucky us. Todays USA Today has an article about the 2018 LS500. They are totally awed about the reclining rear seats with heat/cooling and massage features. They seem to forget that this is just an upgrade of the nearly same features found in our LS430 UL's. Is it amazing how advanced and ahead of their times our UL's are?

Just returned from a trip to Temecula, CA and my rear seat passengers were in great comfort and enjoyed the trip.

e60bmw

iTrader: (1)

Indeed it is funny, I saw a car I don't recall on motorweek recently and they were talking about the same features. People are always amazed when they get in my car the features and are even more shocked when I tell them its a 02. I keep my car very clean and in good shape, the inside looks like much newer than most any people think. Also the car has dual pane glass, the door in general feels much more solid when you close it compared to alot of cars. Also consider the auto closing doors, I don't know how many cars have that but its probably the much higher end ones.

1SikSc1Day

iTrader: (1)

I love my UL for the same reasons. Well ahead of its time in luxury options!
@ jayclapp. What were you doing in Temecula!?? wine country tours? lolz. Im a UL owner like 20 mins from there....

Johnhav430

I've always shied away from UL because of the suspension...saw a nice one in Greenwich, CT, a while back. BUT, my cousin just DIY'd his airbags in his BMW 5 series sport packaged wagon, and it was no big deal. He used aftermarket and even coded it to ride a little lower with less of a wheel gap. If Lexus had this, I'd be all in......my next car will likely have an air suspension, and it might be the new LS500 as a used car....(skipping the 460 altogether)

campisi

Yep. I love my UL and have never regretted buying it. Still riding on the original air suspension. My car looks like it's brand new on the inside and everything on it still works.

Legender

Would love to have the diamond pearl white with saddle interior, wrapped in a UL package with about 30k miles on it.
Let me know if you have one for sale

jayclapp

Went to a Great Nephew wedding at a Winery. My grandson was driver and we were accompanied with my brother and sister-in-law. Had a great time.

Bob04

Didn't Mercedes have massaging seats in the 90's?

Johnhav430

I like how with the UL, the cd is .25 instead of .26, I assume in sport. I suppose those numbers do not, and never have, sold cars, and so today there isn't much emphasis on it (I think the current gs is like .33?), but it shows what engineers could accomplish "just because" back in 2000....

How often do UL owners actually change the setting for the suspension?

jayclapp

The CD (drag coefficient) is not impacted by Sport suspension setting. The UL air suspension is set to automatically reduce the car height by one inch at higher speeds (I don't know the exact speed at which this occurs). The reduction in height decreases the area beneath the car which decreases the drag.

I chose the Sport setting for my recent road trip.

Johnhav430

Gotcha, I'm resolved to have this feature on my next car, plus many newer cars do have it....about all I can do on my ML 430 is to replace the driver side "pad," the little wedge deflector on the left side in front of the front tire, as it's weak from years of scraping pavement or blocks etc.

edit I realize this because I replaced a missing one on the right and it's somewhat stiff.

COOLIS

Mercedes has had reclining and heated rear seats since the early '80s. BMW brought them in on the 7-series during the late '80s, as well as rear sunshades. I think Lexus was the first to have the LCD panel in the rear armrest in 2001, at least here in the US. Infiniti quickly followed in 2002. I have a 2002 Q45 with the premium package and people are still shocked at the technology for a 15 year old car. It even has the backup camera, although the quality is terrible compared to my 06 GS430.

Johnhav430

My core requirements for a car today, new or used, are adaptive xenon headlamps (I prefer to LED), rain sensing wipers, some sort of LEDs such as interior lighting or exterior, on used cars gas struts for hood and trunk (seems to have been eliminated from most new cars/cost cutting). The LS430 met these requirements. I would mention that Toyota should have still had an intermittent override to the rain sense like the Euro cars. Because when it's been parked overnight, the rain sense does not work properly and causes a continuous wipe even though there's nothing on the glass, which is going to fog again due to temp. Believe it or not, some 2017 cars don't have what I'm looking for, even with a 30k pricetag...

Dylroberts

Love my 2006 green UL. Just turned the 50,000 mile mark & not a single abnormality / issue thus far in the almost 20,000 miles I have had it for. Keeping it forever.

2KHarrier

I've always shied away from UL because of the suspension...saw a nice one in Chicago a while back My neighbor just replaced his struts in his MB 500SL and it was no big deal. He used aftermarket and even set it to ride a little lower with less of a wheel gap. If Lexus had this, I'd be all in......my next car probably will have air suspension, and it'll probably be a late series 460 (not interested in the 500)