Datacom9

Hi all,

Just bought the car in the title, and am extremely happy.

Two seemingly minor concerns, though:

The car came with new Michellins & factory wheels, and the tires seem extremely sticky/noisy when parking/u-turning. Feels like AWD (though of course its not). The turning radius on this car is amazingly tight, but it feels extra "odd" when I turn the wheel all the way. Like turning on sandpaper.

Also, the car seems kinda hesitant at low speeds, as if the E-brake is engaged (its not!). Also seems to want to go into overdrive too soon. I just don't have anything to compare it to, so I'm not sure if this is normal. It was certified 2 days before I bought it, if that means anything.

Anyway, I'm light on the gas pedal, especially around town. That's when it feels sluggish/low torque. Nooo hesitation when I'm heavier on the pedal, though



The car came out of the CPO inspection 2 days before I bought it, so I'm thinking it is just part of getting used to things. Btw, MPG has been 22-25 local driving.

I'm used to driving stick-shift sports coupes, so maybe I'm just not used to the LS. Or maybe I need drivin' lessons. Could this be a wierd effect of "drive by wire"? Just feels like the car is out of touch with the gas pedal at low speeds (5-25 mph)

Input?

lexusthai

Well, let me talk about the low speed/torque thing. Now that u mention it, I feel that mine is sluggish too. I also have a CPO 02 LS430. But it hasn't felt sluggish until u mentioned it! "Now" I feel it! LOL

Perhaps the 3UZ engine was designed to have less low-end torque so owners would get a smoother ride around town. With u stepping out of manual box sports car, it would feel much slower in the LS. Apart from the LS, I have a 620 wheel horsepower car. This LS is very slow when unfairly compared to that car. (http://www.spw30.com/cefiro.html) Try switching the transmission mode to sports/power, this holds in-gear longer, taking u to higher RPMs. I sometimes change the gears myself when I feel like having fun.

I don't think your LS has a problem. Ur getting 22-25 MPG local driving. That's amazing, I'm getting 11-12 mpg in the city of Manhattan.

But if it's as sluggish as if the e-brake is "partially" engaged, then u do have a problem.

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

Not sure what you're saying here....

The LS was designed as a comfort hog's road car, with the expectation that the throttle would be used pretty lightly most of the time, and the owner would want the car to be SMOOTH and serene. As such the shift points are programmed to occurr early unless the throttle is used a bit more aggressively. You can switch to the sport transmission mode and it helps a little bit, but it still isn't going to shift like a lot of other cars if you're gentle on the throttle. FWIW, this is one of my 'complaints' about the LS as well. I wish there was an option to bump up the tranny aggressiveness a couple more notches.

It means you probably paid a bit more, and you probably got some additional warranty. Beyond that, it depends upon the dealer and what they ACTUALLY did in terms of inspection and correcting anything that wasn't perfect. In my EXPERIENCE, many of the CPO programs are Bull***** with regard to the 12,000 point inspection program or whatever nonsense they claim -- in many cases the cars get essentially the same treatment in the shop as any non-CPO car on their lot -- if they see something glaring, they fix it. I have personally driven CPO cars and noted 4 or 5 things that a blind monkey could have spotted that needed attention -- loose gear shift ****, rattling center console latch, coloring crayon marks on the back side of the seats, shot turn signal bulb, A/C needed a little top-off charge in order to cool properly, etc.

Sounds like it's working as designed.

vraa

iTrader: (2)

Adaptive transmission is my guess.

Floor it everywhere you go. Throw the power switch on and jam it into sport gear.

That should loosen up the car very soon

Make sure you're not in snow mode -- that is 2nd gear start I believe.

Craig B

You should check tire pressure. I had a 2002 LS 430 and ran the tires at 35 PSI. What is printed on the door is too low in my opinion.

Craig

2007 LS 460 SWB

Datacom9

Thanks for all the great replies. I do think the odd feeling is the combination of the new tires and the nature of the car. I drove open highway for a few hours today; a-m-a-z-i-n-g car for cruising.

I've tried you guys' suggestions, and I do see subtle results. It may be my imagination, but it seems to be getting better (as the tires smooth out a little?)

I played close attention to the shifting, and and least one of you guys described it perfectly; seems that the car is looking for the perfect gear for smooth, effortless acceleration. Unfortunately, that seems to translate into a non-responsive engine feeling. That's the only area I think BMW may excel in.

Btw, I experimented with that "power" button. I thought it was just a gimmick until I hit the gas. Very nice /Borat

Also, I discovered that mp3's at 256bits or more sound much better on the Levinson stereo. Much richer sound

vraa

iTrader: (2)

Wait until you switch to a fully lossless format like Flac. It makes a world of a difference.

I have Metallica's Kill Em All which I ripped *years* ago in 128kbps. Then I have a Lamb of God cd which I ripped in Flac and then burned. It sounds so much better. The Mark Levinson system really plays up good music (and exposes the bad stuff too).

Datacom9

What do you use to burn FLAC? I'm using a 4 year old version of CD Creator (Hey, it works), but I know its not the best. Doesn't recognize FLAC, so now its really time to upgrade.

Thanks for the tip, btw!

vraa

iTrader: (2)

Oh whoops -- You don't burn flac neccesarily.

I'm talking about sources. If you buy a CD from the store and throw it into the cd changer you'll get the best sound (of course excluding dvd-a and super audio and all that extra jazz no one cares about).

But if you put the music onto your computer and then burn it to a CD, you're going through a "lossy" format meaning a portion of the song (usually frequencies the human ear can't hear and a little more) is cut out. The reason to do this is to make the files a more managable size. We're talking about going from 700mb to 70mb for a CD. Big difference. However, as you compress a music file you lose quality as you've found out by the difference in a 128kbps mp3 compared to a 256kbps mp3 (or higher upto 320kbps mp3).

Flac is a lossless format. It's digitizing music without losing any quality. I believe AAC is similar. That way if you go download some Flac files from the internet you can be sure (assuming the source of those flacs is perfect) that the audio is perfect quality.

However it takes up a lot of harddrive space. I predict it'll be at least another year until harddrives are so big that flac will be mainstream (or another lossless codec, aac, whatever.)

If you're on Windows use Nero Burning Rom. Best burning program I have ever used.

If you're on a Mac, I think you can use Burn or SimplyBurns or maybe iTunes. I can't remember, usually when I download flacs I convert them to 320kbps mp3. I don't have much harddrive space.

Datacom9

Ok- turns out I think I did it right. I downloaded the free trial of dBpower to convert flacs to MP3 (256kbps). I have read the 320 is usually overkill


So yeah- I definitely can vouch for you Metallica experience. HUGE difference. With accoustic music, you can hear the fingers on the guitar frets. For a stock stereo, I think thats pretty good.

I was mislead to believe that Mark Levison upgrade was overated. I have a completely different opinion now! My LS doesn't have the hard drive though (I bought the model just before that came out; the price was right and the car was available

Anyway, thanks again!

vraa

iTrader: (2)

Personally I'm a Nakamichi fan --
But I love the Mark Levinson system. Personally it could have a little more bass for the heavier metal I listen to, but it's *perfectly* fine for 99% of the music out there.

What kind of music do you listen to Datacom9? I want to give it a shot so I can experience the difference as well.

Datacom9

Right now, Old 60's Jazz type stuff (Les Mcann, Curtis Mayfield). Carlos Santana sounds great in the car, too! I've become a music snob, now that 128kbps sounds like poo in the car.

The new Robin Thicke CD also showed a difference (to me, at least). I'm not a huge fan, but two or three of his accoustic-type tracks are quite good.

I play guitar and I like accoustic melodies too (Dave Mathews, Stone Temple Pilot Accoustics, even Prince Accoustic sets). I've always felt that Pearl Jam "Ten" was well recorded. I keep forgetting to grab the CD to listen to for comparison, though.

vicpai

.....one reason I'm hesitant to upgrade to an '04 LS 430 which I really want to do!!. I've now listened SEVERAL times over and over and over to convince myself that the Levinson is acceptable, but the sound simply isn't as "full sounding" and "balanced" as my Nakamichi, which is really "music to my ears" .

The main problem with the Mark Levinson seems to be the bass. It's simply not as powerful, accurate and "tight" as the Nakamichi. I don't exactly know how to describe it, but the bass in the Levinson seems slightly "knocky" or "tinny" rather than "thumpy". I listen to a wide variety of music, including a lot of Jazz pieces which requires "powerful" and accurate bass (not the "boomy" kind), as well as 70's music which also seems to sound much better on my Nakamichi (I actually took some CDs of mine to the dealership to try them on an '04 LS). I do not listen to any heavy metal or rap, but do listen to some "hard rock" at times (but I'm very picky).

However, I must say that the "stereo imaging" and the high frequencies overall, sound better with the Levinson, especially when listening to classical music and such.

Craig B

I agree with you. Try the Levinson system in the LS 460. It's much better than the Levinson system in the LS 430...

Craig

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

It's been a long time since I've heard the Nakamichi system, but my recollection is that it sounded significantly better overall than the ML in the LS 430. I was disappointed by the ML system after I bought my 430 because I EXPECTED, based upon magazine articles and my blind ASSumptions that it would be an improvement over the Nakamichi, and therefore a flat-out awesome system. It isn't, IMO. Nice, but not awesome. The one in the new 460 is in fact awesome, based upon the 10 minutes or so that I've auditioned it.