mc003

has no one tested the NEW 2004 LS430??

so no one can answer the past post?

while test driving the new LS430, I have a few questions.

1) is it normal when you use the tip-tronic like shifter for it to
start in 5th gear? it seems odd, that if you are at low speeds
and switch to manual shifting that it jumps into 5th. While
driving Acura TL, it'll shift into the current gear you are in...
Why doesn't the LS430 do that??

2) does it seem like the gas pedal is ultra sensitive? when
driving it felt like just a little bit of gas made it launch. thats
not a very comfortable/smooth feeling. currently have the
original 1990 LS400, and it is a smooth pedal, and not
sensitive unless you stomp on it, which is how it should be
for a luxury car.

zdude

I own an '04 LS430 so I am a little past testing When I've used the tiptronic shifter I am usually down-shifting and it seems to down shift to one or so less gears than I was in. I have not pulled off the line using the shifter yet, since my car is new and its been crappy weather-wise here were I live If I get a chance to play with the shifter more, I'll do so but tomorrow it suppose to snow.
As far as the gas petal, mine seems a lot stiffer than the BMW I was driving. It reacts pretty much the way I think it should except for a few times when turning right and pushing the petal I felt a hesitation (it also did this in traffic once when changing lanes). My engine has a little over 1000 miles and most of those have been on the highway. Part of the launching you are feeling is from the six speed auto transmission. It takes a little getting used to but it rocks!
So far I am very happy with the car and the only thing that has me slightly worried is the hesitation I've felt but I have not had time nor the weather to check it out in more detail.

mc003

thanks for your reply. so i was wondering when u do shift into the tiptronic, what gear does it go into?
when i tried it at a stop, it shifted into 5th. and i thought that was odd. at a run (say near 3rd) what gear would it go into when u throw it into triptronic?

so you don't think the gas is a bit sensitive? i thought pushing a little on the pedal went a long way... felt a bit sensitive and what not. the older ls400 you would have to mash on it to get it to launch. and if u just normally pushed it, it would be gentle. but then again you are right, there are 6 gears now.

thanks for your input. thinking of getting on in replace of the 1990 ls400. btw, do you have the fully loaded one? what do you think about the LS430 and what did you drive before?

looked at bmw, benz, audi... for the price, i don't think u can beat ls430

thanks for the reply!

zdude

No, I do not think the gas pedal is too sensitive but any of the drive-by-wire accelerator pedals can be erratic. I was driving a X5 and its gas pedal was extremely sensitive and would easy lurch on take-off if not careful. I also own an E320 and 3 series. My E320 has been somewhat trouble-free but I recently had the a brake job, performed by my dealer @24000 miles, and now it does not stop as smoothly as before (it did not stop at all when I first went to pick it up, but that another story). It has been back to the dealer three times for that problem and the dealer has told me that they can not correct it and that the brakes are within spec and basically told me not to bring the car back (unless, of course, the brakes fail completely). At that time I was negotating a trade for a S-Class, told him he lost that sale, good-bye Mercedes. My X5 has been in the shop over 20 times with the last being a poping in the steering, after both control arms were replaced. BMW said the popping was in spec but none of the X5's on their lot exhibited this problem. They too told me not to bring the X5 back unless the steering fails. They would not give me the paperwork so I could prove it was in service for this problem, I was also looking at the 7 and new 5 series, good-bye BMW. I will not buy another German car. Period. I am going to get rid of the 3 series come spring (the air-conditioner does not work above 80 degrees and BMW says that is spec for the car). The Mercedes will also be traded shortly as soon as my wife decides what she would like, she currently is driving my LS430 (when I am not in it) and I think she wants one
So far, I am very happy with the LS430 and plan on keeping it for a while, I have the sport suspension with modern lux. and smart key. I was looking at a UL but my dealer could not find one with the color I wanted. I'll check the tiptronic and let you know what it does off the line and what its characteristics are. Frankly, I've had little reason to manually shift, the car is quite responsive driven in auto mode

LS430inTX

I have an '03 LS. The accelerator is the same as the '04. I have 2 comments. 1- whether the accelerator is "sensitive" or not is highly subjective. Your perception will be largely influenced by the characteristics of the accellerator in the car you drove before the '04 LS. 2- the LS has some intelligence in the engine computer that "reads" how you drive and adjusts, over time, how the throttle opens. When I picked up my '03 new, I thought the accelerator was very "sluggish". I felt I really had to push it to get the car to move. After a couple of thousand miles, the engine "learned" my style of driving and now opens the throttle much quicker for the same amount of pedal travel. You might look into seeing how to reset the engine computer to clear out the "learned" values and start over again with the learning process.

mc003

thanks for the great replies...

i also hear what you mean about mercedes and bmw. for some reason i feel they have the right to judge the customer and also the right to think they're more important than the customer. for example going to a benz dealer they hardly help, unless they know u are going to buy something right then and there. i was thinking of ML as another car, but i heard they have so many problems. i also noticed benz's resale are really bad. like you can get a 1998 E320 for less than $20k. while lexus seems to hold value because they're style doesn't change dramatically. i think thats really lame of the dealers telling you not to bring back the car to get fixed. if they said that i'd just tell them i wont bring back my business, friends or recommendations. as for the bmw and AC not working above 80 deg. well then, i guess everyone in AZ, TX, FL, and central america, africa, asia pacific etc etc... should not buy that BMW model since the AC wont work above 80. whoever said that must be ignorant. why would u need AC when it's only 32-80 deg? it's critical to have AC above 80.

i was also looking at the ls430 Ultra Lux. i heard they use those as limo's in japan. maybe thats why lexus wants a v12 to compete against the s500. thanks for checking out the tiptronic. but yes you are indeed right... driving ls430 you'll be less inclined to shift. i was just curious to why they designed it this way.

also thanks LS in tex. i didn't realize the ls430 has a learning system. where did you hear this? also i was curious if that system changes if the driver is different (i.e. there are 3-preset seating memories.) will it know if the driver changed?

anyhow i really appreciate these replies. makes me more confident in lexus.

also are there any drawbacks seen on the ls430? one thing funny no side markers/blinkers.

zdude

mc003, funny you mention an ML for another car. I owned a '00 ML430 and it was a lemon right off from the start (I traded it for my X5 after 10 months of ownership, what a bath I took on that one). The ML had a water pump/pulley go in first 400 miles then the paint peeled off the front and back bumper at 1500 miles. Want me to go on? I bought it from the same dealer who hosed me later on the E320 brake job and they promised me a loaner car if I had any problems. Guess what I got? A GEO! The other times I had problems - they were out of loaners. The ML drove like a wayward boat - the X5 was like a dream to drive but a nightmare to own. LS from tx was right about the LS learning your driving patterns, BMW's do that as well BUT their gas petals control electronics (like Lexus) not a throttle body and sometime the petals can be a little strange in their behavior. Check the BMW board about different gas petal problems.
I had a great 5 Series (I wished I never sold it) and my E320 has been great until the brake problem (although tonight it had a lamp failure with no lamps appearing to be out?) and my 3 series has been somewhat trouble free except for the air-conditioning that BMW refuses to fix and the transmission that goes clunk constantly (that too is within spec). If my LS430 is as good as it seems to be right now then all my other cars will be Lexuses within the next year. Word.

Mandingo

Do you mean that the a/c doesn't start when the cabin temperature is very high (eg. after sitting in the sun all day) or that the display won't go above 80 degrees?

If it is the former, then join the club - my X5 during the summer won't start the a/c for up to 10 minutes after starting. Which means you have the pleasure of driving a $50,000+ car that leaves you sweating and uncomfortable just at the time you most need the a/c. I have had to apologize to passengers riding in the car. What a joke.

Dealer couldn't find an issue and so the car still has the problem.

The good news? It's a lease and BMW are getting it back in February and I wave buh-bye to BMW forever as I take delivery of my 2004 LS430.

Add to that the other problems:-

Groaning steering column retract
Loose bolt in the frame rolling around
Buzzing sunroof
Interior Lights falling out of their sockets

... and I am all done with BMW.

zdude

Mandingo, I meant the A/C doesn't cut it if the temp is above 80 and the sun is shining. There is cool air blowing out of the vents but not enough to do the job.

mc003

i heard a lot of ML's are lemon's... just in general they have issues.

my god, a geo as a loaner? the least they could do is pay for a rental car company (budget, hertz).
can you imagine buying a benz and getting a loaner geo... that is unheard of. i remember when first getting the lexus ls400 in 1990. if it went to the shop for whatever reason they'd loan u a new ls400. even one time i think they loaned us the owner's wife's ls400. well we have a 1990 ls400 (first year) and it's
still running strong. nearly zero problems (tail light went out once) and battery died on us. but that is nothing...

thats really stupid of the AC not working well in 80 deg weather... like i said, why do you need it so much in less-than-80. it's critical for AC at above 80... hmmm... hard logic?

well now i'm going have to test the gas pedal more now to see if it does indeed adjust. if that is the case then i think the new ls430 is a go. that and the tiptronic issue were my only quesitons. other than that, it's a solid car.

so zdude u have zero issues w/ the ls430? any at all to gripe about??

Shaffer

Being a Mercedes fan as well, I am a member of a few Mercedes clubs. I have heard a LOT of BAD things about the Mercedes ML SUV. Keep in mind- it is made in Alabama- which is one reason I hear that they are junk. Someone on the site said that their mother had a ML. She went into a store and heard this on the intercom system: "if you are the owner of a Mercedes ML320- your car is on fire!!" She rushed out only to see the car totally engulfed in flames!!! The fire chief said it looked to be an electrical fire in the instrument panel, since that is where the fire started. Witnesses also said that the front interior was burning first. This is only ONE terrible story I have heard about the ML. What happened to the 1980s Mercedes (diesels) that would easily go 400K, 500K, or even 1,000,000 miles? They do not make them like they used to. However keep in mind that the Mercedes made in Germany still seem to be good cars, but not as good since Chrysler bought Mercedes.

LS430inTX

mc003, about the intelligent gas pedal thing...my salesman told me this and I also remember reading it somewhere...just can't remember where at the moment.

zdude

Ok, I've played with the tiptronic today and it works like my old X5 works, kind of. If you flip to Sports mode it shows fifth gear but it is not in fifth gear. I took off hard and it was first gear but shifting was more aggressive than in Drive. I could then downshift to any gear I wanted IF it was in the range that was acceptable to the computer. You could not downshift at 60mph to first or push it to fifth when doing 5 mph. It is pretty close to the BMW shifter. If you need to take off in second then use the snow mode switch. Hopefully this clears up some questions.

mc003

hey thanks a lot for testing it...

so thats interesting, its not really in 5th, but shows 5th?
i wonder what the idea was behind it. so how about if you
are on the freeway, and throw it in tiptronic? i then assume it'll
be in the correct gear also? thanks for the tests!

that ML story is quite scary. also who knows which benz are still
built in germany? oh btw i think mercedes bought Chrysler, not
the other way around?

well i guess these past posts confirm my questions... thanks.
i really appreciate them all. and thanks zdude for testing it out.
btw, i didn't know there was a snow mode. how does it handle in snow?

LS430inTX

Some more answers and comments:

There is no "memory preset" capability on the intelligent gas pedal so it can't adjust to different drivers that way. It will adjust to any driver's style but it does so very subtley and over hundreds if not a few thousand miles.

The "snow" mode - has been available standard on the LS for some time. "Snow" mode takes over the intelligent gas pedal and slooowly opens the throttle. It also adjusts the transmission's shift points that will put you in a higher gear much quicker than normal. Don't know how well it operates in actual snow since we never get any down here in South Texas. I have used it in rainy weather which can be just as treacherous as snow and ice down here and it works very well by itself and even better with the stability control system.

Regarding zdude's comments about the BMW A/C, I think I would have that checked out by some reputable, non-BMW A/C expert. BMW would *not* be able to sell a vehicle down here in South Texas that couldn't handle a paltry 80 degrees outside. That's just insane. In contrast, one of the major selling points of the LS430 for me was the A/C. It freezes my nuts off! And that's without the rear A/C on! This car's A/C can handle 100+ degree days with ease and I love it. (I was warned Toyota had some killer A/C units in their cars)

mc003, you asked about gripes on the LS? One of the biggest gripes I have with my LS really applies to more than the LS model and it is the near impossiblity to modify the sound system in any way. I wanted to add an XM receiver but couldn't because the sound system is such a proprietary, non-standard design. I couldn't even use an FM modulator because the antenna connectors on the LS were so bizzar and non-standard. I wound up cutting the antenna cable and splicing in some standard connectors so I could add a FM modulator. (not for the faint of heart) You can't even rip out the sound system and put in your own without completely disabling other systems in the car like the NAV system.