RichardMor

My wife and I just completed a 5400 mile road trip in our 06 SC. Thought I'd share a bit of how it performed. Before we left, we had the 90K mile service performed - besides the TKT-21 Aisen timing belt kit, we replaced the radiator, upper/lower hoses, new plugs and wires, thermostat, serpentine belt and all filters (including the cabin). We drove from Seattle to - Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, (along Route 66), Albuquerque NM, Lubbock TX, Roswell & Lincoln NM, SW Colorado, Salt Lake City, Boise, Spokane & back to Seattle. We had planned to drive on the east side of the Rockies to Minnesota but weather make us second guess that route - will do that next Spring.

You all know the room in the SC, but surprisingly, we were able to pack quite a bit of stuff in that little car! Everything performed flawlessly. Previously, the temp gauge could be seen to fluctuate a bit on long uphill grades in hot weather. Even though we experience some 100 degree days, the temp gauge was rock solid the whole drive. The new radiator cost $80 and installation was at no cost (during the timing belt install). I highly recommend you consider that next major service.

I am not an easy driver (ask my wife!) and hate slow drivers, especially in the left lane, yet our mileage on most fill-ups was OVER 26 miles per gallon. Pretty damn impressive considering we topped out at over 120 miles per hour :-) a few times. I love the power of the SC when passing! EDIT: my wife just computed that we traveled 5,356 miles and obtained 23.996 MPG for the whole trip.

I have flown all over the world and am used to living out of a suitcase. But driving a great car all over our great country is a dream come true. I love driving (if it's a decent car) and seeing what this country has to offer in person is something I hope all of you can enjoy.

We met a few classic cars along Route 66. I had thought that would be a hoot, but after traveling along that byway for some distance, the itch seemed to have been scratched. Next trip will be along the northern States, visiting friends and relatives in Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio.

I have a question - we used the Nav system a few times and it worked pretty swell. Wondering, does the newer (15.1) Nav disc provide any additional benefits compared to what came in 2006?

Cheers,
Rich
Maple Valley, WA

2006 Lexus SC430
1990 Avanti 4-door
2000 Subaru 2.5rs
2004 Toyota Tundra
2008 Kubota BX-24 :-)

Bgw70

what a Great writeup! I cannot wait until I can join you by doing a retirement adventure!
I installed a gen4 nav unit with the latest disk, I guess the only thing New is the map updates...or do you have a gen5 unit?

Jabberwock

Thanks for sharing the trip insights and perspective. We will be doing a 3-4 week SC430 road trip this coming summer from Gulf Coast through New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. We did a 600 mile trip this fall and with some thoughtful packing the SC held everything we wanted and is a great road car. My 2004 SC only manages about 24 mpg on the interstate - my guess is the 5 speed uses a little more gas than the 6 speed on the 2008-2010 SC.

RichardMor

From reading previous posts about the SC Nav units, I believe the 06 to 10 cars had the latest version available as stock units in the SC - I'm thinking that is the Gen5. I spent considerable time inputing addresses and learned this unit is not very user friendly. Even though I got better, it still takes an inordinate amount of time. Often, we defaulted to our iPads or iPhones for driving directions - or used with the car. Of the 33 days we were gone, I'd guess the top was down 75% of the time. Even at 80 MPH, that cute (then annoying) Nav voice could be heard :-) I'm hoping the new Nav disc might provide more street names when providing directions. It often just said "turn right". However, it could be that we were in remote locations. It seemed to work pretty well in larger cities.

One thing we vowed to do was install an input on the radio. We often streamed local Seattle radio stations via a cassette adapter and the sound was terrible.

A side note, our car is Matador Red Mica. We came out of a store in Flagstaff and seriously thought someone had stolen our car. Then I thought someone took our car and replaced it with another (presumably earlier model year) SC. I tried our remote, the lights flashed and there stood before us was a (beautiful) silver SC!!!! Baffled me for a minute. Then I realized the yellow/orange parking lot lights somehow caused our car to appear silver. Strangest encounter I've had in a while. That ever happen to anyone else?

Caflashbob

our 08 has had a pioneer head installed in it by us after our purchase a year ago.

beatsonic external unit allows playing dvd’s on the top nav screen or using it as a nav.

woke up the stereo system with the much better graphic equalizer and a range restorer function to variably adjustablly expand the dynamic range of sources.

Plus we now have two external inputs that charge. One is Apple play also.

the Apple play input allows the iPhones nav app to run on the bottom screen separately from the tops screens nav or alternately dvd function.

the steering wheels controls are modded by the beatsonic so that the top left mode button switches the top screen between a blank screen if not playing a dvd or the nav system.

the up and down arrows under the mode button are now front to rear fader controls.

the pioneer has either a single cd/dvd input or a sd card slot that would allow a massive internal source of music or videos.

Plus the pioneer has a remote with it,

if your speakers are in good shape the difference in the stereo is very noticeable.

can program the two different nav systems for different possible destinations at the same time.

lexixel

Wonderful. This year I did 10k miles, 2/3 on road trips. But as the mileage goes up, I get a couple of issues:
1. I need to clean the MAF every few months, as it seems not to self-clean anymore. Time to replace?
2. The steering wheel can no longer telescope. I have it extended the farthest (which is still not close enough IMO) and left it there for a year (disabled auto retract) and last month I found that it's no longer working. Not in a hurry to look at that one.

Caflashbob

Car was made for smaller people hence the steering wheel adjustments. auto retract? There is a key out auto lift.

Tell me about how you know to clean the MAF?

howdybob22

Wow, good to hear. Definitely, on my bucket list for sure. Hopefully, not too old by then, but I'll remember to keep on that right lane if I drive too slow