Psssst - Hey mister - wanna buy a Lexus?

Comparable is in the eye of the beholder...

So, you're shocked that a 4000 lb car with 278 hp needs tires at

25,000 miles? And you believe it's your dealer's responsibility to tell you?

Worn tires are somewhat different than valve clearances - you don't need to be a mechanic to know when you need to replace them. And

25,000 miles out of a set of tires for that car isn't bad.

You're clearly very unhappy with that car - why not replace it with something more to your tastes?

No way. I'll steer people towards BMW and Mercedes, the true luxury cars.

The ES is a Camry with different sheet metals. Just what don't people understand. LS looks like a Camry from a distance. Must be good styling.

Just curious, why did you buy a Lexus?

I'm curious. What kind of cheap balding tires were on there that lasted only 25K miles? I thought no true luxury cars would use junk tires.

$175 oil change? Is that a synthetic oil change good for 15,000-20,000 miles, like BMW and MB? Of course you wouldn't pay a cent if it's a BMW -- maintenance is free during the first 4 years/50,000 miles, including brake pads and wiper blades.

See if a BMW or MB dealer will take that sorry POS LS 430 and give you sufficient residual value for it.

My condolences.

Just curious, what is your obsession with Lexus, and what makes you feel that you're smarter than all those pesky consumer surveys and expert reviews that see things completely different than you do?

What do you drive, john?

Yes, it's free! Not built into the price or anything - smart people would see right through that!

What do you drive, john?

The original tyres were Dunlop. I put Michelin tyres on it and the car runs quieter and handles better. Why would a car maker put inferior tyres on as original equipment?

I can see it all now...a bunch of Lexus executives sitting around the boardroom, saying, "Hey, let's use Dunlop tires -- that'll really piss off McBrue."

he's an absolute nutcase. And if you believe a word he says, you're no better off than him.

wonderful, then how about if he packs up and moves to his adoring fans over there?

Most people here and opted to just killfile him.

Thank you for your kind words Homer. The biggest problem with the MB turned out to be its reliability. So I decided to try the Lexus as I had minimal difficulties with the two ES class cars. Now ... hmmmm ... enginering for show instead of go ... high costs of operation and Oh Those El Cheapo Oil jobs every couple of weeks ...

As to my new "friend" 01dyna, well I must point out that I started this thread quoting some well known source regarding costs. And of course I had to add in just a little bit of personal experience - sort of like flavoring for the gravy. Then the question of tyres (or tires) rose up more directly, so I made factual comment on the tire performance question and raised a question as to why a luxury car manufactor would put tires on that I consider inferior in performance, life of tread, and noise generation. I have to tone down my colorfull posting style quite a bit in here due to the extremely defensive reactions such as that from 01dyna. Even so, I see no good reasons advanced for using Dunlop tires - well - in my truly outstanding and incomparable humility I suspect the explanation is that advanced by Sir John Smythe - the board sitting around deciding how to displease me.

So 01dyna - any comments about the tire questions or questions of cost of ownership? Colorfull argumentum ad hominem welcome, of course, and expected from you.

Give me a break McBrew-nutjob. Now you're pretending to be English? When are you going to move on and buy something that meets your ridiculous impressions of what a "True Luxury" car is (whatever the hell that means)? Move on -- move on -- move on -- move ...

I used Michelin on my two Benzs. My E320 came with Continental Tires. The Continental were okay. I changed to Michelin on the E320 when I needed new tires. The E500 came with Michelin. I upgraded to the Pilot after reviewing the notes on Tire Rack. The Mercedes service has been okay. Got burned once on a break job. The rep said I need pads on all four wheels and the whole system had to be shut down to do the job. The information on other boards indicates that the front goes twice before the rear. To shut the whole system down is no big deal I found that out from an independent it takes about two minutes.

This board is very touchy. I have never seen comments like this on a general discussion.

This is not a board.

I have never seen comments like this on a

New to Usenet, are you?

I am sorry to use the wrong phrase. It is a newsgroup. I use the Usenet a few years back. I think the year was about 1992 when I was using Prodigy as an ISP. Do you remember the old BBS when you wanted to download up dates? How long have you been using Usenet/Newsgroups?

Since 1987, as an admin, and ran BBSes before that.

Hey Sir John, that Great Renaming wasn't when you invented the internet, was it? Of course you had to change it to Arpanet so Al could re-invent it as the internet ...

When did the commercial applications start?

And for my dearly loved friend Glga - looked at the Maseratti, but it has too small a trunk. Good road passing speed though. And as roomy as the LS - well, allmost. Surprised you picked up on the error in spelling, but I guess you do have to be able to read.

No, ARPANET predated the Great Renaming by about 18 years. The Internet opened to commercial interests in 1988. On Usenet, commercial applications began when Canter and Siegel invented spam in 1994. Of course, by that time, the WWW had been around for three years or so, having gotten underway arguably in 1991, if memory serves.

Remember that the Internet is not the Web is not Usenet.