Evitzee

This is totally false. The business world is rife with people who modified or misused a product, got hurt, and then sued the pants off of the manufacturer or whoever has the deepest pockets. And they often win. We live in a litigous society, for better or worse. It has been a long time since we have lived in a world when we could do whatever we wanted. But the US is still the place to be for overall personal freedom, even with Lexus playing daddy for us in ways that bother people.

golfproatl

I would not call your original post calm. Your choice of words to emphasize your points was totally inappropriate for a public forum.

You’re astonished at the degree in which some allow Lexus and the legal system to treat us like idiots?

I am astonished at people who research a product, know and understand the product, purchase the product and then complain about it.

Not a personal attack, just an observation.

r1lee

Hold on, I said in my BMW. My BMW does not have memory seats for passengers or driver.

Let me ask you then. What happens if you happen to put a baby in the seat or a larger kid and he happens to push the memory seat? The seatbelt my tighten up, and something might happen. We are also assuming that this kid doesn't know how to stop it. You have a problem don't you? My seatbelt on my BMW do not extend if my car is in motion. I can't say the same for all BMW's but mine do not.

The question is , does any body own a different brand of car, that allows the passenger is allowed to use memory if the car is in gear?

Mind you, i do believe that its crock that the memory seats don't work while in gear. I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

r1lee

James,
i agree with all your other points. But this one i believe we do not agree on. No other car company has this feature enabled, nor do alarm companies that install an after market alarm ever do this. This is a pure safety problem.

On the DVD Video thing, i don't know if it's legal down there. But up here in Canada, video cannot be displayed in the front seats of the car. It's a hefty fine, so Lexus Canada has a reason. Not sure what its down there, but motion video in the front seat rocks. I had it on my previous car, i just made sure i hit the button to change it if i saw any trouble.

r1lee

Exactly, and this is why LEXUS has decided not to take any chance in risking a lawsuit. If there's any sort of safety/restrictions LEXUS can put in place, it will.

Guys, you have to look at it from the manufacturer's point of view. They do not want a lawsuit, over something they could prevent. It makes sense, they might lose a few sales due to these annoyance. Even if they pocketed 10K profit off of each car. They would need to sell a ton of cars, if the US justice system ever handed out a $200 million pay day for some joe!

SoddingGit

Mine does (06 330i). I did it today. I got the car washed and they moved the seat on me. I put it in 1st and held the 'memory 1' button to get my seat back where it belongs. Then I took off like a bat out of hell, just because I could

sirkfc

And some of these "highly educated" people just spent the past semester of business school in a business law class, researching pretty deeply on product liability law. The words express warranty, negligent design, and reasonably foreseeable risk aren't taken lightly in this country... You probably have no idea how companies must worry about every single possible thing that can happen with any product they are even remotely associated with. This stuff bankrupts companies....

Trust me, there are only a few complete idiots here, and Lexus is not one of them.

A perfect example is what happened to Audi in the 80's. Stupid idiots who stepped on the gas instead of the brake sued for unintended acceleration. Audi basically died for 10 years and who knows if they've fully recovered. They were facing damages of over $5B from claims at one point. All because stupid drivers can't figure out gas means go... Still think cars shouldn't be tailored to the lowest common denominator?

tracerit

posting without reading the replies.


are all the problems the original poster mentioned problems with other cars (such as the Acura TL and Infiniti G35)?

projectdna

iTrader: (56)

so then... now that you're all red in the face from complaining about your 2is...

are you going to sell it?

neova

tsitalon....

by your name I guess you came from an Eagle Talon TSi AWD, which is the same car I used to have a few years back. Well, that car had none of the problem you mentioned in the lexus, but obviously it's not suitable for a baby seat and a 2 year old.

Lexus does not limit your ability to adjust your seats while in motion, just limits you from setting or recalling a setting while the car is in motion. The same reason why the driver isn't allowed to recall his seat setting while the car is in motion also applies to the passenger - there's liability issue that not just Lexus, but other automobile manufacturers will need to comply with. So Lexus isn't interested in "dumming" its customers, its just trying to cover its *** from potential lawsuit. Even if you won't sue, someone else might/will.

Perhaps some of your habits do not bode well with Lexus's built-in safety features which is required by law. So find another car that doesn't have these restrictions so that it can suit your habits. That's all!

Drunkebuda

Man just trade in the car and shop for one that will make you happy. Better yet just custom build your own car.

tsitalon1

Neova,

Yes, I fully built an 11.9 sec DSM. Infact selling it was critical to obtaining the deposit needed for the Lexus. I do miss 500whp and awd. Selling it, I came to the mindset that I need a car not only somewhat powerfull, but with a little something extra to make it seem worth it to me.


Guys, I feel this may have gotten out-of hand. I respect everyone here. Ultimately, I will have to decide what I want to do. Please do not misunderstand me. I am 90% satisfied with the car. There are times that I'm smiling ear to ear, there are times that I am so very frustrtated.

The issue could simply be a matter of expectations and lack of experience with newer model vehicles. Sure I knew I couldn't input destinations while driving, hell I knew almost everything about the car before I even went to the dealer for the test drive. However, what I didn't know was how much it was going to bother me not having that ability. I didn't know about the Key FOB being disabled while the car is running. I also didn't know that the passenger memory presets are disabled while in gear. Maybe I missed someone's post about that before I bought the car, but I doubt it.

Are these annoyances enough to make me sell the car....maybe.. time will tell. I picked the Lexus over the 335I because of the interior and the "gadgets/conviences". If I had truly understood that alot of the functionality of the conviences were disabled while actually operating the vehicle, I may have picked the 335I. Since I don't regularly sit in a parking lot to watch a movie, I question why it was implementated anyway. Do alot of you simply sit in your garage to watch a movie, or sit in a walmart parking lot to watch a movie. This makes no sense to me, they should of left that functioanlity out all together.

I could hack it. I am not necessarily adverse to modding, hell I did build an Eclipse from the ground up. I just have issue voiding the warranty on a $45k car. My luck, the damn NAV unit will fail 1 year later and cost me god knows what to fix it.

So in the end, I will have to decide what I want. Sure the IS is fast, sure it's smooth. I wouldn't neccessarily call it quiet. If what everyone is saying is true about most, if not all, manufacturers implementing these same restrictions, I might want to look at either a car with the same or better performance for less money, since I won't be able to use any other features while driving.

James

jdanon

I agree with this 100%. I have been wondering that myself. If you can't use some of the features while the car is out of park, why have the feature at all? When are you ever in the car when it's not out of park except for when you first start it or when you stop the engine?

Charlie C

Regarding the memory seat issue: I think that feature is fairly common. On my Nissan Pathfinder you can only use the memory while the car is in PARK. I tend to agree it's kind of a nuisance but you just have to learn what is possible and what's not possible. It looks like some others have mentioned ways to modify the door unlock issue.

I also agree that it would be nice if the Nav allowed routing while in motion. While I wouldn't try it while driving, it would be nice if the passenger could do it. I could see this being handy if you were on an interstate and wanted to find a route without first having to find a rest area which might actually be after the exit you'd need.

But knowing the limitations, we just have to learn to use the devices the best we can.

socalJD

Hmmm, let's compare your IS with an Acura TL:

Locks - same problem, if your ignition is on, your fob is useless. At least the IS has the smartkey, current gen TL still uses the key/fob . . .

Shifter - worse problem, if you accidentally turn the ignition off with shifter in gear, you cannot get the key out. You still need to put the ignition to 'on', place shifter to P or N to get the key out (doh).

Nav - here the Acura shines, you can enter nav functions while in gear or in motion. However the IS gen V LCD screen is light years clearer and sharper than the TL. The Acura does not play video Dvds at all, good thing since the screen is so shabby . . .

Memory - Acura locks out the driver's memory buttons while in gear as well, however the memory buttons work when the ignition is off, the IS requires the ignition to be on. The Acura does not have memory settings for the passenger, so this point is mute. Also, the TL's tilt and telescope wheel is manual, so it is not tied to the memory settings like the IS.

Couple of observations with my IS:

You already know about the LPS settings for having all doors unlock by touching the drivers door.

You can use the override to enable your Nav functions, altho it requires either a '06 Nav disk or a hybrid disk with 5.1 firmware. Takes less than 10 seconds to enable this . . .

You already know that you can hack your ML/Nav to view Dvds while moving. I haven't yet, but I have found that my 4 yr olds enjoy watching the Nav screen almost as much as a movie (set to 300ft with POIs on), the voice prompts add extra entertainment value. Besides on trips over 30mins, my kids will pass out . . .

In short, I wouldn't trade a IS for a TL just for the Nav fuctionality . . .