KaiserSea1

Before the moderator closes my account, be sure this is my favorite car ever owned. I even like my pie plates. I love this car, but now owning her for a while I have my list of gripes. I would buy it again in a second, paying the price of a Corolla, for a riding work of art, but still...

1. No wild body kits, I want to kit this thing into an exotic, eight years and nothing drastic.
2. No easy performance modds, most Supras run 1000 HP, we have been largely forgotten
3. No kit to change the radio, Unknown risks changing the Navi, where are the aftermarket gurus. (we are not counting a certain SC God and his carputer, but no way to imitate him.)
4. Rear Visability with the top up.
5. Great no more run flats, now all I need is a thousand bucks for a spare tire

Anyone solve my problems, problems of your own.

PHXSC

Number 2 would be my biggest gripe

Yes

there are a few exotic kits available. they're expensive, but they're out there. you can change out your stereo. you just have to either relocate your stock stereo to the trunk to keep factory nav. or swap out your nav as well. you can add a backup cam fairly easily and cheaply if it's that big of deal. but if you think our rear visibility is poor, try an exotic sports car. i used to valet when i was in school. and you can't see **** out the back of a lambo or ferarri. you can get a spare tire for under $200. so the only legit gripe in my opinion is the lack of performance mods.

hipendicul

A few notes..

An exotic body kit doesn't make the car exotic.. Even if Veilside made a kit for the Sc, it still won't be at parked next to a Gallardo or F430. Its still a sub $20K used car..

The performance mods can't be a surprise. Since when did they make a lot of go fast parts for any Lexus let alone the one model designed for the baby boomers. Plus, unless you drive a honda or a turbo car, good luck getting any good power out of any mod. On a NA car, you're lucky to get 10% more with expensive bolt ons with a check engine light and failed smog.

But to add to the list, I think the biggest let down was the fact that Lexus took the SC too far trying to appeal to old people that the car got so much bad press. Truth known, with some nice wheels, new suspension and touch of attitude, the SC gets way more attention and can corner harder than my 300zx TT.

A sport model would've done the image of the SC good. Ditch the old style Cadilac Springs and dampers, give it some real wheels with out frisbees that fill out the fenders like a $60K car should and maybe some sport seats and brakes, and watch all the haters turn with envy.

But it is Lexus, and they would rather spend money on a $250K sports car, make an upscale prius and turn the IS into something ugly that still gets beat by the Germans (which is why it gets an F)..

P.s. This what the SC could've been..

P.p.s.. Oh and I hate the fact that my speakers are now blown.. Mark Levinson can kiss my..

CAMAracer

iTrader: (1)

Umm...need to do a wee bit more research on the body kit gripe. There are some seriously awesome kits out there...but they are all over in Japan and to get them, yeah, you'll be paying serious bank. We're talking +$5,000 kits that will make your SC one of a kind (in the states).

Performance-wise, you must be referring to the lack of name brand boxed kits. Headers, intake, exhaust, those are the basics most average joe would install on any car and these are readily available. For more punch, there are cams, lsd/gears, NOS, torque converter, even the supercharger from Tom's. But everything has it's price. There's decent suspension upgrades, sway bars, strut bars, thicker underbody braces...

I've done my fair share of research on our car and my only problem is that the price on almost any upgrade is 2-3x that of most cars out there. But like they say, you got to pay to play.

007

You can't make everyone happy... If after all your gripes, you're still riding "stock" don't wait on the moderator (who by the way wont) to close your account. Close it yourself... LMAO! Or.... Maybe just do a lil more research and be more open-minded.

1# bad idea. But i love the pic of the Ferrari California hipendicul posted. They dont look as good in person tho. I would rather have the 430 drop instead. Actually I will have the 430.
2# Nitrous would be easy and relatively cheap, but do you really want to do it
3# There are a lot of options to make the existing radio sound better or to add to it.... for example, a simple upgrade would be to add an ipod connection and use the ipod's built in EQ settings. It actually makes the radio sound noticeably better even with a $10 tape deck input adapter. Personally, a TV / Ipod mod with a subwoofer upgrade and separate amp to power the sub is the only way to go. Leaving the Mark Levi intact.
4# That window is small but I see just fine... Im 5'11 But if you tint that glass between the rear headrests you're screwed.
5# You need to search the forum.. a spare is waaay cheaper than that. I spent $60 for a doughnut spare in the trunk.

KaiserSea1

The Ferrari is nice, but YOU CANT BUY IT. I am not expecting to find it at the wal-mart, but ebay, please?
I have had Nitrous in two cars, never used it. They have had eight years to make a bolt on paxton, garett, or OEM kit, there are none. Not a Tom's mod, but a kit designed for this car.
Every car I have owned, you could get a radio kit anywhere. Eight years of production and Nada. Only custom shops will even touch the car. Put the stereo in the trunk really? is that reasonable to you?
IMO

Where How? I looked on ebay.

Harold57

Go after a Supra TT spare, you can get them cheap. Sign up on a Supra forum and ask for one. I got one for $40 or so and it was local, so I didn't pay any shipping either.

tromly

I love my SC just the way it came from the factory! To each his own !

Habious

As for #1 - Personally, I go for the "stock" look as much as possible, even with my mods. I have to drive my car daily and park in public parking lots. I think the car gets enough attention without a wild body-kit or high-end aftermarket wheels...but that's just me.

As for #2 - I totally agree here. There are bolt-on intake, headers, and exhaust kits but nothing bolt-on that gives you a serious HP increase. Tom's has a full bolt-on supercharger kit...but it's absolutely ridiculous in it's price/performance ratio ($17,000.00 for about 80 HP...seriously? Have they sold ONE of these?). Nothing in-between.

As for #3 - Um...I think there was a reference to me in there somewhere. I agree that the stereo is so integrated that it's virtually impossible to remove and replace it. However, between Vais and some custom work <clear's throat> you can add A LOT of features to the stock system. Without a CarPC, another member I know here has Sirius Satellite radio and integrated iPod support...just two interface boxes from Vais. Of course, these two boxes are for 06+ SC430's...which is why I went the route I did.

As for #4 - I helped another member here put in the NavTool and license-plate-mounted rear-view camera a few weekends ago. No aux video input, no crazy stuff, JUST the rear-view camera. It took us about 4 hours and probably cost him somewhere in the $500-600 range for the NavTool interface and the camera. I have the same setup and it's invaluable when backing up the SC430 with the top up. I would put this as #2 on my list of must-have mods for any SC430...#1 being the LuxLink module.

As for my own gripes? Well, considering the weather lately, I wouldn't mind an option for those tire spikes that pop out with the push of a button that James Bond has on his Aston Martin. Those would be nice on snowy days.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Some good points by OP and rebuttals. This is the essence of CL...opinions...some more passionate and valid than others. Some have tons of experience, some newbies. We are all one happy family. Now let's smile and have some Grey Goose together and enjoy the holidays!

I have a solution for the rear visibility! Drop the top! I drive this car 75% of the time with the top down and honestly never even have noticed the visibility issue.

I sort of agree on the perf mod and the body kit comments. Other than the rear, side and front skirts what are you looking for...widebody kit? Some of the best kits ranging from mild to very moderate are the kits posted by dandism, herrage, vietprince on the aero sticky. Aquanuke has one of my favs too. I would kill for any of the four above mentioned CL members kits with some sweet 20" chromes, lowered, and some interior mods and performance mods would make a show stopper! dandism and vietprinces were fairly affordable if you read their posts. The others...not sure. The Tom's is expensive as hell. I believe Carson had a group buy at one time and so did some other CL vendors. If those are still too high, eBay offers some nice choices...have you looked at these? Not bad. http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories

Now where I REALLY agree with the point on perf mods. When you could add a chip to anything supercharged for $500 and gain 100RWHP that's SICK! Or instake and exhaust to gain 50 as well on the same car! Like my RX7's, 300Z's, etc. I agree about the cost too. What's even more depressing to me is CL members have posted dyno results with headers, cat-backs and intake mods that yielded little or no results. I guess the ULTIMATE mod would be the SC570 or the TT Supra+Drivetrain+6spd but what kind of cost are we talking about here? So, I personally will do some light mods later down the road with intake, exhaust, throttle, plugs/wires and just be content that this car was not made for extreme mods. I've had those cars and loved them, but they also have some major disadvantages too---like my S2000 which I actually was sore when I got out of the car! or my rx7's that I replaced about every rotary engine on the five I owned. Or the 300Z that had to have the HICAS replaced or every Bose speaker blew plus the head unit! Ultimately if you could add the TT supra engine into this car that would be the best possible scenario IMO.

I am amazed at the resilliency of some CL members to make mods for these cars that 95% of us cannot do or can't even dream of doing. Like the carputer, dandism bodykit, mrblister, talwang, pearlpower, johhnycake that I have learned so much from...I just wish we could bottle their talents and retrofits and give to the masses!

Harold57

With regards to the limited visibility, the SC430 has way better visibility than any ragtop that I drove when I was looking for a convertible and I drove quite a few. The SC430 was the only hardtop convertible I drove, so I can't compare it to other hardtops, but compared to all the rag tops I drove, the SC430 was hands down better than all of them visibility-wise.

howdybob22

#2, Performance mod for me. ECM and shift point to be more easily reprogram as the OEM settings can be seen 'maybe' a little too laid back (Nothing too crazy, just a little more responsive feel would be nice). Someone from the IS-F forum claimed to be able to do such a thing but was charging 3-4k (a bit too much for my blood for a small mod - was hoping 500-600 range).

Yes

search for the blitz throttle control. it won't make your car any faster, but it makes the throttle more sensitive with variable settings. so it feels more responsive. it's actually less than you were looking to spend. so it may be exactly what you're looking for.

mrblister

+ 1 liquid sc . I installed the blitz throttle controller and it surprised the heck out of me. Its really true you think the car is faster because the throttle is so much more sensitive.

I recently put on the aluminum lexus pedals on advice from scdroptop . Still trying to figure out how to paint the lexus engraved pedals logo red instead of the stock color black. Its really funny sometimes the smallest mod you make is the most noticed. I was at the dealership recently and the mechanic sought me out to ask about the pedals made quite an impression.