Mandingo

Mercury Metallic, Euro Tuned Suspension, Modern Luxury.

A bit overwhleming at first - I was even having problems with the Smartkey (trying to open a rear door but kept pushing the black button on handle which locked it again- D'oh).

Also took a while to work out how to associate my Smart key with my seat memory settings.

I'm now beginning to appreciate what this car can do and its starting to put a broad smile on my face. It accelerates like a scalded cat (even with only 42 miles on the clock) - put your foot on the floor and everything outside starts going backwards real quick - and the Euro suspension makes corning very flat and reassuring. Steering is also a nice middle ground between responsive and not being too twitchy (much better than my old ES300 which was "vague" at best). Ride feels like a nice blend of sports and luxury - near ideal for me. Fit and finish seem perfect, not found any defects at all (so far). Love the a/c - it really does an awesome job of making the cabin feel comfortable at all times. Once I got the hang of the Smartkey I'm now loving that too (wasn't sure at first). Mark Levinson sounds wonderful, seats are buttery soft but very supportive and the Ash interior with the darker wood is beautiful.

Negatives?

I'm still working out the 2004 navigation - they have added a lot to the 2003 system and it is now a bit cluttered IMHO. Not quite iDrive frustrating, but certainly going to take a few weeks to get confident with it.

Low profile tires make some road noise but nothing too bad - an acceptable compromise for the handling improvements and those 18" wheels, but you can hear them rumble over everything but perfect roads. Might get quieter once they've worn in a bit?

Voice recognition is a bit temperamental - anyone else having problems with recognizing "HOME" in particular? I resort to the touchscreen instead for this function.

Overall, one day in and I've got a nice warm and fuzzy going on.

Richie

Congrats on the new car.

D2-AUTOSPORT

great car Mandingo, glad your loving it. Have you ever driven a GS400? Could you compare acceleration/passing performance between the two?

Thanks and once again congrats

98 LS

Mandingo ............

All I have to say is ............... Hell Yeah!!! ........... Ride on Bro'

Mandingo

I test drove a GS400 a few years ago and it felt quick too. Not sure I can compare the two (too much time elapsed in between).

The LS430 0-60 acceleration is quoted at 5.9s but it's real power becomes obvious in passing - in situations where my old BMW X5 would have been a 50-50 ("do I accelerate out of this situation or brake?") the LS makes it a complete no-brainer - pedal to the floor, there's a quick downshift, a *slight* rise in engine note and then you are slammed into the back of the seat and the rest of the traffic is hurtling backwards in the rear view mirror. And the most amazing thing is how it just keeps going - I chicken out LONG before I have any sense the car is begining to run out of breath - on one occasion today after I joined a freeway on full throttle I soon backed off and lifted off the gas - when I glanced down I was doing just under 100mph (but it felt like 70mph).

It's funny how 0-60 times and acceleration numbers seem like splitting hairs - 5.9s versus 6.3s versus 6.8s etc - but when you're actually driving those different cars the performance differences *feel* very noticable.

p.s. anyone know how to wire a Valentine One into an LS430? I have a feeling I might need it soon

D2-AUTOSPORT

Thanks Mandingo, you make some great points

I had the same experience when I test drove my GS400 after coming out of my 96 GS300, I was expecting the 400 to slam me all over the car, but it is so smooth the power is deceptive. I did the same thing, punched it on a on ramp, I remember thinking to myself "this thing isn't all THAT fast", then I looked down and I was going 115mph!!!

You're right once again, cars can not always be reduced to numbers, according to the numbers my car should outrun a 2004 S500, but my brother and I raced them and he had a slight advantage, maybe the larger displacement, or just two drivers of equal ability!!

Thanks for the feedback, as soon as I saw the 04 LS, I said it will be my next Lexus vehicle!! I just dont want to loose the feeling of urgency when I mash the go pedal at 80-90mph!! I swear I love these engines!!

Enjoy your ride man, any mods planned? Here is a little inspiration!

Mandingo

Actually these were the mods I had my eye on ...

D2-AUTOSPORT

Cool man, the Wald package for those cars is very nice! Good luck

RajaReMax

Congrats on the new car Mandingo! The mercury metallic is nice! I went with the black/ash & its now 3 months old. They're simply amazing cars, without a doubt.

I'm unaware of the correlation between the smartkey and the seat memory system, please let me know what I've been missing.

{-.-}

AWSOME looking car

Welcome to CL......... let the MOD's begin

Take it easy on the engine until its broken in good......... its hard to resist but be cool

Mandingo

My problem was I was having to press memory "1" each time I got in the car to get my personal settings back.

Turns out each Smartkey can be automatically associated with one of the memory positions 1, 2 or 3.

If I recall correctly by pressing and holding "1" (or whichever number slot you want to associate) and then pressing LOCK (or UNLOCK) on the Smartkey the memory setting gets associated with that key from then on.

Now just by opening the car door with that key in your pocket all the memory settings in position "1" are set up as you sit down.

Do the same with the other Smartkey for your wife for position "2" and she will have the car set up properly for her settings as she enters the car with her key.

Perhaps your dealer already did this for you? Or were you pushing memory "1" each time?

buttons

WOW--I just like the neighborhood where the photos were taken--nice property.

Technics

First off...........I love your screen name man.

Secondly........I love the car too! Congrats on the purchase.
Remember to throw a couple of coats of wax on that bad boy too.

gewe21

..on your new LS430...

And also, greetings from an older, slammed downs LS430 in Wisconsin, and hopefully will be another inspiration...

eblue

best damn exterior color of the lot, in my opinion. i had to choose moonlight pearl because i like the beige leather and especially the california golden bird's eye maple,better than the ash grey/burl walnut. otherwise it would have been merc mettalic for me too.

notice how most advertising shots and videos use the silver grey ext color ?