Looking at buying the 2004 RX330 and wanted to keep the price around 40K (live in the West). Planned on going with the Premium Plus package, but now we are contemplating "the works" which will bring the price up a bit. For those who have it: how much of a difference is the Mark Levinson upgrade and how much do you use/enjoy your entertainment, nav and/or rear camera?

Also, we live in the mountains of Tahoe with lots of snow and ice on twisty, steep grades - how well has your RX 330 performed in these conditions? Thanks for your opinions!

 

I cant speak for the 330 crowd but I cant put a price on the AWD in my 300, it works great! I use it to pull my boat, and I have put it in sand, ice, hit standing water on the road, etc and never had any problems with control, I would recommend the AWD, just my 2 cents, hope it helps

 

Get AWD for sure. I got the NAV package plus the rear DVD. Love it and I'm sure you would to.

 

I have the performance/nav package. The Nav is really pretty cool, and one of my favorite things about the car, but I wouldn't say its an absolute necessity.

Personally, I think the regular non-ML stereo is excellent. I'm glad I didn't have to choose whether to get the ML or not, because I would have paid for it, and I'm really happy with the standard stereo.

 

I have a Premium Plus and love it! I think the base sound system can boom. My salesman has been told by clients that classical music sounds better on the ML system (they claim they can hear things on the ML that they don't on a non-ML system)

 

disco_y2k, you said you ran it in sand, what tire pressure did you use? tia

 

I have the AWD prem+ with NAV (No-DVD Entertainment). We are very happy with all the options we got and the NAV with Back-up camera, while not a necessity, sure helps the "coolness" factor. I think it will be a key point in any re-sale. I have been surprised that there are quite a few folks in the forum who are not that impressed with the NAV. I have found it to be very good to excellent. My first NAV so maybe I am just niave. It definitely beats the BMW Nav without question.

The AWD just makes me feel better since my wife will be driving it and can use all the help she can get when it comes to driving on wet, snowy, or otherwise, roads. ;-)

I personally am not sold on having the DVD entertainment in vehicles, but that is my bias. It's great for long trips with small children but personally like something you can take out of the vehicle that can also play VCR tapes. We have a portable set up that I can take in and out of my truck (haven't tried it with the rx330 yet).

I also am very happy with the stock stereo and CD player. I listen to alot of pop, rock, and country so you can tell how refined my musical tastes are!

I think the other options we got were the towing package and 18" wheels. Not really a big deal to me, I kinda like the look of the 18" wheels, but wouldn't say it was "worth" the cost. Probably never tow, but like the idea that I could trailer a small boat if it came down to it.