wayner

My wife and I have two Lexuses (or is it Lexii?) - an RX400h and an IS350. We love them and find that they are excellently designed vehicles.

However the power jack in the center console of our IS350 seems to be very poorly designed as when you plug in a power adapter for an iPod/cellphone, etc you can't close the console lid. (Except for the 1% of power adapters that have a very low profile) In addition to that, it would be quite easy to spill a coffee or other liquid into this jack which could cause a short - my old house had power outlets in the floor and an electrician told me that you sould never put outlets in the floor as it is easy to spill stuff into them.

Wouldn't it have been better to orient this jack horizontally rather than vertically? Then you would be able to close the lid and there would be less chance of spilling stuff into it.

Or am I missing something?

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

That's odd. I have an XM Roady2 and cell phone power adapters and the console closes with no problem.

As for the spills, I think it won't happen because it's too far back compared to the drink holders. There is also a lid/cover on top of it when not in use.

kensteele

I think you are mostly right. We will never know why Lexus did what they did, there is no way to tell whether this was intentional, accidental, or simply the only choice based on time, etc. Luckily there is a very low cost 100% solution available to nearly every owner affected.

kensteele

Should add that the solution is an adapter you can purchase from Radio Shack or order on the Internet.....

Warning: this is not a solution for the very few who feel like this is a design flaw and should never have happened and this is a Lexus and they shouldn't have to pay extra, etc etc etc. That 1% or less is going to have to suffer forever and lose out completely for worrying about petty stuff.

wayner

IMHO the preferred solution would be to have proper iPod integration where you just plug your iPod in and use the Nav screen to control your iPod.

Either that or have a hard drive in the audio system so that you could copy all of your tunes to the hard drive that goes in the trunk or wherever. It wouldn't cost that much more to add this as you wouldn't need more than a 40GB hard drive, which are pretty cheap now, and since the vehicle can already decode MP3s from a CD it has all of the hardware required. You would just need to add some software to control song selection, etc.

kensteele

Perhaps, but in order to do this, you'll have to involve Apple. I'm almost positive that was impossible when this was car was being designed. Proper intergration is the preferred solution, yes indeed.

uschardcor

they did it so they can charge $100 for a special ipod dongle port charger w/ audio out similar to belkins just shorter.

my advice: go with the belkin ipod charger with the audio out on the plug, and shave down the top of it with a dremel like i did. there's enough un needed plastic on that dome to do it and not make it look like poop.

deuce2

solution: radio shack car adapter with 90 degree pivoting heat for $7.99

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

Bichon

For full iPod integration, yes. But they could have offered a Phatbox style solution, with an ejectable hard drive that you insert in a USB cradle (at home) to load up with MP3s. Once loaded, you pop it back into the slot in the car, and enjoy having your entire music library at your disposal.

johnnay

Prettiest solution (I searched forever) is the Monster icar charger (or something like that) - it's low profile and has an audio out jack - you just use thread a male to male 3.5mm through the coiled monster cord, and plug it into the audio in jack of the car.

Only problem is that I get a buzzing sound when the car revs - I'll have to filter it somehow, I suppose.

TimboIS

Except who wants to carry around a hard drive.

diablo1

You don't carry it around. It stays in the car except when you want to put new music on it. I think a built-in hard drive is a good solution. I bet more and more cars will be getting this feature. Mazda just announced it will be an option on their new 3 in mid-2006...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204181

deuce2

you need to get a ground loop isolator to filter out the noise.

kensteele

I'm wondering how this will work out for them in the future, with only a few pros, I can see lots of cons to a built-in hardrive.

TimboIS

My point being, why would I want a single usage item like the hard drive, when I can have an iPod. I can use it in and out of the vehicle. I'm sure full integration will come at some point.