Phil

Does anyone know what's up with the Lexus phone? I ordered my 2002, 430 with UL package and they do not have the phone squared away yet. The phone is a $2,500 option they you can't get because Lexus doesn't have an agreement, or something, with the phone company.

Anxious Phil (waiting for his new car!)

New Owner

I thought Lexus had an OEM agreement with Motorola. At least they do as it pertains to my 96 and the "Portable Plus" handset piece. Mine crapped out. Took it straight to a Motorola dealership for repair. Tech says it has a bad logic board and has to go in for factory repair, probably cost about $125 to fix. Fine I say, lets get it fixed. However, the Motorola dealer says he cannot send it in because it's a Lexus phone. He says I have to take it to my Lexus dealer.

So I do that but my Lexus dealer's only offer is to replace the handset for a whopping $490. Imagine paying $490 for an obsolete analog motorola flip phone.

To summarize, be careful what you ask for. Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

DevilDog

The new Lexus phones will be re-introduced next year. They are still working some bugs in the phone as well as waiting for Sprint PCS to get better cellular coverage. The phone systems themselves are made by Denso. The handset is made by Qualcom.

My opinion is that it's a great phone. Dual mode, web browser, voice activation, and a 236 page owners manual to boot.

New Owner

If they're waiting for Sprint PCS to get better coverage, it could be a very long wait. Presently Sprint PCS' only interest has been in the major (top 100) markets and not even the entire 100. "Cream-skimming" is the word used to describe it.

That's fine if you happen to work/live in/near a major metropolitan area, but really sucks for the road-warriors among us. As of the 1st quarter of 2001 Sprint was listed as offering service only in 33 states and 78 cities/metro areas.

Here for your perusal is Sprint PCS' coverage area as of March of this year:

(excerpted from Mar 2001 PC Magazine with editorial corrections)

Alabama: Birmingham
Alaska: Anchorage, Irondale
Arizona: Phoenix, Tucson
Arkansas: Little Rock

California: Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Ventura

Colorado: Colorado Springs, Denver, Vail
Connecticut: Hartford
Delaware: Wilmington

Florida: Fort Myers, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West,
Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee, Tampa, West Palm Beach

Georgia: Atlanta
Hawaii: The islands of Oahu and Maui
Illinois: Chicago
Indiana: Indianapolis
Iowa: Cedar Rapids, Des Moines
Kansas: Topeka, Witchita
Kentucky: Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville
Louisiana: Baton Rouge, New Orleans
Maine: Portland
Maryland: Baltimore, Washington D.C. area
Massachusetts: Boston
Michigan: Ann Arbor, Detroit
Minnesota: Minneapolis, Saint Paul
Missouri: Kansas City, Saint Louis
Nebraska: Lincoln, Omaha
Nevada: Las Vegas
New Jersey: Metro area (???)
New Mexico: Albuquerque, Las Cruces,
New York: Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Syracuse
North Carolina: Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh
Ohio: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Oregon: Eugene, Portland, Salem
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
South Dakota: Sioux Falls
Tennessee: Chattanooga, Memphis, Nashville

Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston, Houston, Laredo, San Antonio

Utah: Salt Lake City
Virginia: Norfolk, Richmond
Washington: Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma
Wisconsin: Milwaukee

DevilDog

I agree that their cel service is least than desirable. I work and live in the Los Angeles area and I heard nothing but negative feedback from people about them. That's too bad, the phone it's self is pretty cool.

Someone at Lexus didn't do their research!

TonyN

iTrader: (1)

Hey i was thinking about removing my car phone and mounting a LCD TV screen there.. what do you think?Maybe the ones they have on ebay?
what do you think.
tony

gadgetguy

I have info. regarding the Lexus dual mode phone. Some of the info comes from a Lexus TSIB and some comes from my own personal experience.
From the TSB: The 2001 phone was relaunched 7/31/2001. The 2002 phone was launched 8/20/2001. The 2002 model is about $900 more in cost. The reason is that the integration with the Nav. system is much improved. I have the 2001 model and I'm very disappointed. More on that later. The phone is manufactured by Qualcom with Denso writing the phone software. Denso also generated the S/W for the Sprint Touchpoint 2100/2200 model phone which is exactly what the Lexus phone is.
Lexus chose Sprint PCS for the following reasons;
a-Technology (1.9 Ghz)
b-increased capacity resulting in least amount of dropped calls
c-improved voice quality
d-enhanced privacy and security
e-average transmitted power reduced
f-reduced number of calls dropped
My disappointments are as follows:
1- the phone will not transfer more than 10 digits of a number to the car. If you are calling a number that requires you select options or extensions you are out of luck.
2- you will lose the volume control for the sound system located on the steering column. It is replaced with buttons for speed dial. The speed dial is limited because there are only so many combinations you may generate using 3 numbers.
3- you may dial from the touch screen when stopped but once you press call you may no longer use the touch screen to send pin codes, enter ext. or passwords, etc. Note, the 2002 model will allow you to send pin codes, ext, through the screen after the call has connected.
4- the phone is located in the center console arm rest. It is not convenient by any means to use the buttons on the phone if need be. I have investigated relocating the phone to the ash tray area. I do not have the smokers kit installed therefore there is plenty of room to move the phone there and still be able to close the cover. My Lexus dealer will not relocate the phone because of liabilities and I fully understand this so I will do this on my own.

In conclusion I read somewhere in one of the posts that Lexus did not do there homework regarding the phone and I agree. A focus group of US users would have been great. I ordered my LS 430 with the ultra luxury pkg. in Nov. of 2000 and took delivery 4 months later in Feb. (several wks past due) Finally here was car with a great deal of sophistication, not over priced, but no phone. I ranted and raved, jumped up and down about the phone for 6 months and finally got one. I was disappointed with the phone. It is in my opinion the weakest link of the automobile.

New Owner

IMO there is no finer quality (performance-wise and sound-wise) than the recently discontinued Motorola StarTac. Fortunately you can still find them. That plus the Motorola #S6965 full in-car hands free kit (about $210 more) plus approx $150 installation makes for a magnificent looking and sounding in-car phone. No, it's not "integrated" into the car's electronics/steering wheel but it's out there on the console near the right-hand side of the ashtray and works mighty fine. With a professional install (fully concealed wiring) you can hardly go wrong.

tiger430

I have owned 7 Lexus autos in the past 5 years (immed. family) and have never been so disgusted as I am with this phone situation. The old Motorola built-in phone was outstanding, but then we were stuck with Sprint with no choice but to change phone numbers and carrier. Sprint is absolutely horrible here. Also, the quality of transmission is atrocious. To add insult to injury, you have to stop the car to dial a number, or else look down and back and try to hit these tiny keys. For a company that looked at first class airline seats and had focus groups to help design the LS430, they really missed the mark and have shaken my confidence. To me this was a deal where Lexus got lots of licensing fees upfront from Sprint and now I'm stuck with a piece of crap. It really irritates me to have to carry a Motorola Startac in the car so I can be reached and make calls. The Lexus customer service people have done what they can---but Lexus needs to step up and correct this problem NOW. Supposedly a fix has been on the way since about March, but so far NOTHING has happened and I'm getting very angry. I have bought my last Lexus unless this problem is fixed and soon!

DevilDog

tiger430,

Sorry to say their is no fix on the way. The phones are on sale now with some updates. But no changes as to the dailing when moving. You do have another option, Lexus will remove the phone and give you your money back. BUT, you didn't hear it from ME!!!!

petrojeff

Tiger, I have had numerous cell phones over the years, and without fail when researching plans and coverage, Sprint always has the poorest quality infrastructure to cover their markets. This will not change in the future. The phone looks great in the Lexus and is integrated well. Should you keep it, you will never be satisfied it. As has been mentioned before. Sprint probably gave Lexus some up front money and got the contract. The Lexus guys got sold a bill of goods. These guys are great mechanical engineers and designers, not communications engineers. The service department will try their hardest to help you, but it is axiomatic that you will never get a phone to work like you want.
Don't eschew the Lexus due to a bad decision by Lexus in an area where they really have no expertise. Go to Lexus, ask for your money back for the phone, and go from there. They will probably leave the phone iin the car, because it is worthless to them. Aesthetically your Lexus should not suffer. Giving back money will definitely give Lexus managemnet incentive to fix their problems. My opinions for what they are worth.

Stephen

Lexus phones are horrible. I have the Portable Plus in mine, aside from the expensive analog service, the handset is way too big to take anywhere, and the $2500 initial cost is insane. I disconnected mine.

As for the StarTAC, I do agree it was a fantastic phone. I had 3 that I put about 12,000 minutes each on. Only problem with them is that people who use a phone often (I use 4000 minutes a month) they dont last long. 10,000 minutes is mostly the lifespan of these things. Sprint's warranty is great though, if it wears out within a year (never a problem for me) they just give you a brand new one. I replaced my StarTAC with a Timeport 8767, and have just swapped it out the first time, unfortunately it seems to have the same lifespan as the StarTAC.

Motorola has just come out with the v60c which looks very interesting also.

DevilDog

Lexus will remove the phone, then replase any part that was drilled into or damaged. I know, I'm a Lexus Master Tech and done the de-install many times.

petrojeff

DevilDog, having Lexus return the car to its original state is even a better option than leaving the phone in. The definition of good service. Leaving the phone in would be cheaper, but not satisfy the customer. A good business decision. Now, if they could only understand cell phones!

tiger430

Lexus has offered to remove the phone and refund the money, but then what am I going to do----take it down to Cellular One and let some teenager drill the dash? Is there any way to put another hands free speaker phone in this car without completely ruining it? I'm willing to do almost anything to get an analog phone like I had in my pre-2001 cars. They worked great for me in this area. I do not want to take up leg room or have a phone drilled into the dash somewhere. Thoughts anyone?