Doog's Mercedes-Benz E350: My Biggest Update Yet
- Thread starter Doog
- 338 comments
- 50,064 views
- 6,041
- Puget Sound
- Crash852
Cattle guards are used to prevent livestock from crossing through to an area that it's not supposed to go to. If cows or livestock step on the guards, their legs will fall through and into the hole, so they can't go any further. However, the grids are still close enough together that a car can drive on it. It's often used on roads along fence lines.
I hate your effectively summer weather in every season.
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Congrats on the job, what are you going to be doing?
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Since my last post here, many things have happened. But first, I should mention that I did revisit Vulture Mine Road about two months ago. It wasn't as long as I was expected, but that might've been because my average speed was high. It was a good drive, though. The new tires really helped out, too.
In the first weekend of January, my dad went somewhere to see his grandkids. While he was out, he got rear-ended by another driver in a new Accord.
Luckily, there was not much damage. The Accord only took a bite out from the left part of the bumper; no other body panels were affected.
The Lexus looked pretty sorry for itself during the month of January, although I did claybar it, which made it look marginally better. It took a while to set up an appointment with the bodyshop, and the Lexus went there at the beginning of this month. The parking sensors were hard to get, which delayed the progress. The car was ready on Thursday, but my parents didn't go and get it until Friday because I had the flu and wasn't suited to driving at the time. The bodyshop also fixed the passenger mirror that had a chunk of it missing after my dad backed into a work bench several years ago. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of sitting on the key while the car was there, so a new, inferior one was made. It looks similar to the old key, but it has no Lexus badge on it. It's the little things.
A week after the Lexus was rear-ended, my cousin backed into the Mini while my mom was visiting my aunt. This wasn't the first time she did this, but this time it did more damage. The Mini now had a nice scuff on the corner of its bumper and headlight. I never took a picture of the damage because there really wasn't much to see. The Mini went to the same shop that the Lexus went to in the middle of the month, and the insurance company issued my mom a '14 Ford Focus SE:
It wasn't a very good car, but it wasn't a very bad car. I wrote about it in a PM:
The bodyshop had some trouble color-matching the Mini's new bumper. They gave it back to my mom after about a week of trouble. My mom says the bumper does not match, but she's past the point of being to fussed with how the Mini looks. She'd get something new, but she doesn't want to spend the time to figure out what she wants.
Registration-renewal time came for my car, so I went back to the default Arizona plate. I was getting tired of the old purple plate. I think this one goes better with the car. Other than that, I don't have much to say about my car. I haven't been too interested in washing it much, just driving it. I'm just casually enjoying it, I guess.
In the first weekend of January, my dad went somewhere to see his grandkids. While he was out, he got rear-ended by another driver in a new Accord.
Luckily, there was not much damage. The Accord only took a bite out from the left part of the bumper; no other body panels were affected.
The Lexus looked pretty sorry for itself during the month of January, although I did claybar it, which made it look marginally better. It took a while to set up an appointment with the bodyshop, and the Lexus went there at the beginning of this month. The parking sensors were hard to get, which delayed the progress. The car was ready on Thursday, but my parents didn't go and get it until Friday because I had the flu and wasn't suited to driving at the time. The bodyshop also fixed the passenger mirror that had a chunk of it missing after my dad backed into a work bench several years ago. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of sitting on the key while the car was there, so a new, inferior one was made. It looks similar to the old key, but it has no Lexus badge on it. It's the little things.
A week after the Lexus was rear-ended, my cousin backed into the Mini while my mom was visiting my aunt. This wasn't the first time she did this, but this time it did more damage. The Mini now had a nice scuff on the corner of its bumper and headlight. I never took a picture of the damage because there really wasn't much to see. The Mini went to the same shop that the Lexus went to in the middle of the month, and the insurance company issued my mom a '14 Ford Focus SE:
It wasn't a very good car, but it wasn't a very bad car. I wrote about it in a PM:
yours truly
The bodyshop had some trouble color-matching the Mini's new bumper. They gave it back to my mom after about a week of trouble. My mom says the bumper does not match, but she's past the point of being to fussed with how the Mini looks. She'd get something new, but she doesn't want to spend the time to figure out what she wants.
Registration-renewal time came for my car, so I went back to the default Arizona plate. I was getting tired of the old purple plate. I think this one goes better with the car. Other than that, I don't have much to say about my car. I haven't been too interested in washing it much, just driving it. I'm just casually enjoying it, I guess.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
So @Ferraridude308 recommended that I try a road called the 89, which originates in a small town called Wickenburg (where Vulture Mine Road ends) and goes through a larger town called Prescott before ending somewhere on the way to the Grand Canyon. I'd known about the road before, but I'd forgotten about it for a while. Prescott is about two hours from Phoenix, so there was going to be some mileage involved. Conveniently, I had to get gas before starting the journey, so I was able to reset the trip computer and get an exact distance for the drive: ~235 miles total.
From my house, I took the 101 to the I-17, both of which are normal highways within the Phoenix metro area, but then I exited to take Route 74 (also called Carefree Highway) to the 60, which gets you to Wickenburg. To people who have never been to Phoenix, the 74 is a pain in the ass. It is the main route to Lake Pleasant, the most-accessible large lake within the city. This means that it brings a lot of large trucks towing massive boats and campers to the area, as well as tourists. Tourists are everywhere though, due to our desirable weather during this time of year. I'm sick of them. The 74 was basically half an hour of driving mostly straight through the desert behind big trucks towing stuff, waiting for the next overtaking zone to emerge. For whatever reason, all the overtaking zones on this road are on steep uphill sections for both directions, which strikes me as incredibly stupid. A Subaru XV Crosstrek made a point to leapfrog the line of cars that I was in until it got to the head of the convoy, where it then decided that maybe the speed limit was alright to travel at. I don't understand some drivers.
The 74 finally ended, and now I was on the 60. The 60 is a much more pleasant highway to spend time on, namely because it has two lanes for each direction of traffic, and it's vaguely curvy. Vaguely curvy highways are the best highways. This section only lasted for maybe 15 minutes before I was in Wickenburg, which meant the end for driving on the 60. I got onto the 93 through a large roundabout in the beginning of the town, and shortly after that I was at the fork in the road where Route 89 begins. As I got off the 93, I looked over to see the same Crosstrek from earlier still desperately trying to overtake everything in sight.
During this time (about an hour or 70 miles), the scenery had gradually changed from desert to normal western scenery, which meant that dirt and cacti had been traded for huge fields of pale yellow grass that looked nearly white, and plenty of cattle grazing on private farms. It was at this point that I started to notice that I was really in the country, where foreign cars were rare and some of the huge trucks towing trailers were driven by women, normally a rarity in Phoenix. The inaugural stretch of the 89 is basically a straight shot for about 15 or 20 minutes that leads to a small town called Congress.
After passing through Congress, the fun was finally about to begin after about 85 miles of driving. I followed two nearly-identical Toyota Tacomas towing trailers towards the mountains, where the roads would become twisty. Thankfully, they would also go from one lane to two. I wasted no time in overtaking the trucks once the chance appeared and carved up the mountain road at decent pace. As I climbed up the mountain, I started to notice that my 530i was starting to feel a bit more like a 525i. This loss of power was no placebo, as I later passed a sign noting that the altitude was some 6,000 feet.
The initial curvy, mountainous section of highway gave way to the town of Yarnell after only a couple miles. Yarnell itself was quite small, so it was only a few minutes before I was back in the country. I drove for about 20 more minutes before the scenery started to change from farmlands to forest. This indicated the beginning of the longest curvy stretch of the 89. If you're ever in the area, this is a road worth driving to. The first time I drove it, the fun was inhibited by a slow convoy of aging trucks who seemed to stand on the brakes constantly. However, as I approached a hairpin, I noticed a bright red NA Miata quickly leaving the corner coming the opposite way. Then, an NSX flew through a corner. Then a Cayman came hot on its heels, then an Elise. Several more sports cars came through the corner as I scrambled to turn around and follow them. As I waited to turn around, the last car in the convoy, a green Porsche 968 came through doing well over the speed limit.
Obviously I couldn't catch up to them, but my reasoning was that if there were any police on the road, one of them would get pulled over before me. The drive down the mountain (and the subsequent drive up it again) was the most aggressively I've ever driven my car. Unlike the drive up, I only came up on one car, and it quickly pulled over like a gentleman. I flew through switchbacks, stepping on the brakes and flying through long sweepers. I kept pushing the car faster and faster, but for someone of my low skill level, the car might as well have been unflappable. It handled remarkably neutrally through each corner, though I felt a bit of understeer on one occasion. It was after I managed to make the tires howl coming through a corner that I decided that it was probably time to cool off. I pulled over at one of the larger gravel areas on the side of the road to look at the scenery and take some pictures. After I shut the car off, the engine fan continued to run for about five minutes.
The road didn't last too long afterwards, which isn't to say it was a short road; even at good pace, it took a good while to get through it. I eventually came to Prescott, where some numbskull in an old CR-V decided it was appropriate to drive through town at 15 mph. The 89 had given way to the 69, a generic highway with intersections on it, going through a separate town called Prescott Valley. The only notable part of this stretch was that I found a Chevrolet Corsa, which I thought was neat since they were never sold in the states.
The 69 eventually takes you out of the Prescott area, and from there it's about an hour of hauling ass downhill back to Phoenix, and then back to my suburb. The drive home was highlighted by a Mercedes Sprinter who had a tremendous time of fighting the wind at 80mph (his speed, not the wind's). If you're ever in the area and have a couple hours to spare, the 89 was the best road I've driven to date, and is well worth the distance to drive on it.
From my house, I took the 101 to the I-17, both of which are normal highways within the Phoenix metro area, but then I exited to take Route 74 (also called Carefree Highway) to the 60, which gets you to Wickenburg. To people who have never been to Phoenix, the 74 is a pain in the ass. It is the main route to Lake Pleasant, the most-accessible large lake within the city. This means that it brings a lot of large trucks towing massive boats and campers to the area, as well as tourists. Tourists are everywhere though, due to our desirable weather during this time of year. I'm sick of them. The 74 was basically half an hour of driving mostly straight through the desert behind big trucks towing stuff, waiting for the next overtaking zone to emerge. For whatever reason, all the overtaking zones on this road are on steep uphill sections for both directions, which strikes me as incredibly stupid. A Subaru XV Crosstrek made a point to leapfrog the line of cars that I was in until it got to the head of the convoy, where it then decided that maybe the speed limit was alright to travel at. I don't understand some drivers.
The 74 finally ended, and now I was on the 60. The 60 is a much more pleasant highway to spend time on, namely because it has two lanes for each direction of traffic, and it's vaguely curvy. Vaguely curvy highways are the best highways. This section only lasted for maybe 15 minutes before I was in Wickenburg, which meant the end for driving on the 60. I got onto the 93 through a large roundabout in the beginning of the town, and shortly after that I was at the fork in the road where Route 89 begins. As I got off the 93, I looked over to see the same Crosstrek from earlier still desperately trying to overtake everything in sight.
During this time (about an hour or 70 miles), the scenery had gradually changed from desert to normal western scenery, which meant that dirt and cacti had been traded for huge fields of pale yellow grass that looked nearly white, and plenty of cattle grazing on private farms. It was at this point that I started to notice that I was really in the country, where foreign cars were rare and some of the huge trucks towing trailers were driven by women, normally a rarity in Phoenix. The inaugural stretch of the 89 is basically a straight shot for about 15 or 20 minutes that leads to a small town called Congress.
After passing through Congress, the fun was finally about to begin after about 85 miles of driving. I followed two nearly-identical Toyota Tacomas towing trailers towards the mountains, where the roads would become twisty. Thankfully, they would also go from one lane to two. I wasted no time in overtaking the trucks once the chance appeared and carved up the mountain road at decent pace. As I climbed up the mountain, I started to notice that my 530i was starting to feel a bit more like a 525i. This loss of power was no placebo, as I later passed a sign noting that the altitude was some 6,000 feet.
The initial curvy, mountainous section of highway gave way to the town of Yarnell after only a couple miles. Yarnell itself was quite small, so it was only a few minutes before I was back in the country. I drove for about 20 more minutes before the scenery started to change from farmlands to forest. This indicated the beginning of the longest curvy stretch of the 89. If you're ever in the area, this is a road worth driving to. The first time I drove it, the fun was inhibited by a slow convoy of aging trucks who seemed to stand on the brakes constantly. However, as I approached a hairpin, I noticed a bright red NA Miata quickly leaving the corner coming the opposite way. Then, an NSX flew through a corner. Then a Cayman came hot on its heels, then an Elise. Several more sports cars came through the corner as I scrambled to turn around and follow them. As I waited to turn around, the last car in the convoy, a green Porsche 968 came through doing well over the speed limit.
Obviously I couldn't catch up to them, but my reasoning was that if there were any police on the road, one of them would get pulled over before me. The drive down the mountain (and the subsequent drive up it again) was the most aggressively I've ever driven my car. Unlike the drive up, I only came up on one car, and it quickly pulled over like a gentleman. I flew through switchbacks, stepping on the brakes and flying through long sweepers. I kept pushing the car faster and faster, but for someone of my low skill level, the car might as well have been unflappable. It handled remarkably neutrally through each corner, though I felt a bit of understeer on one occasion. It was after I managed to make the tires howl coming through a corner that I decided that it was probably time to cool off. I pulled over at one of the larger gravel areas on the side of the road to look at the scenery and take some pictures. After I shut the car off, the engine fan continued to run for about five minutes.
The road didn't last too long afterwards, which isn't to say it was a short road; even at good pace, it took a good while to get through it. I eventually came to Prescott, where some numbskull in an old CR-V decided it was appropriate to drive through town at 15 mph. The 89 had given way to the 69, a generic highway with intersections on it, going through a separate town called Prescott Valley. The only notable part of this stretch was that I found a Chevrolet Corsa, which I thought was neat since they were never sold in the states.
The 69 eventually takes you out of the Prescott area, and from there it's about an hour of hauling ass downhill back to Phoenix, and then back to my suburb. The drive home was highlighted by a Mercedes Sprinter who had a tremendous time of fighting the wind at 80mph (his speed, not the wind's). If you're ever in the area and have a couple hours to spare, the 89 was the best road I've driven to date, and is well worth the distance to drive on it.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Haven't posted here in a little while! I've been putting in more hours at work, so I don't have quite as much free time. And now that the snowbirds have left, the Phoenix area is a little nicer to drive around in, so I've been putting the increasing amount of recreational miles on my car on the surface streets near here, rather than a road trip. I'm a big fan of highway driving, and being a young person with a German car, you can correctly assume that it is not being done at the speed limit. On the last road trip I took to Prescott - not the one in the post above, but a couple weeks after that - I was driving up near Wickenburg, doing about 10 over within the town. I passed a little ravine with some tall bushes in it to find a police Expedition hiding out. After I passed, the Expedition decided to join traffic. Thankfully it wasn't interested in me, but the mile or so that it followed me was a little unsettling. On the same journey, I was driving in some afternoon traffic in Phoenix when I saw a police motorcycle sitting in the gore, with an officer aiming a radar gun at traffic. My mom commutes on the same highway and had been telling me about all the people she'd seen pulled over around that time. Since I can't drive 55 - or 65 - I decided to buy a radar detector.
Don't worry, the cord is long enough to be routed under the steering wheel.
It's an Escort Passport 9500ix. I guess I lucked out, because it's only compatible with the cigarette lighter in my car - not the two cigarette lighters and one power port in the Lexus, not the lighter in the Highlander, and not the lighter in the Mini, even though you'd think it'd be the same as my car's. Kind of a shame though, since it would be nice to have in the Lexus. As luck would have it, the policing of Phoenix highways relaxed as soon as I received the radar detector in the mail, but at least I can drive at my desired speed with some solace now. The radar detector gives some false alarms from cameras in stores, but you can program it to ignore those signals. When it detects a speed camera, it'll tell you your speed and the distance from the camera. It detects red light cameras, too. K-Band is measured in bars, which is helpful for determining how close the 'threat' is to you.
Cruising around town is nice and all, but not going on road trips to hit up the fun roads can leave you feeling a little pent up at times. Whenever it rains here, the rain has a knack for only occurring when I'm asleep, at school, or at work. Amazingly, it managed to rain twice within the past 6 weeks or so during times that I could actually go drive in it. There's an area a couple miles from where I live, Scottsdale Airpark, where there's lots of businesses and office buildings. So at night and on the weekends, the streets are pretty much deserted. I used that to my advantage and decided to finally do some RWD stuff. The first few times I tried to coax the rear of the car out, I was only met with wheelspin. It's really a testament to the tires on the car - you gotta be an idiot to find their limits. Finally I was able to kick the rear out on one corner. It came out very gradually, and I sustained it for all of a second before the car straightened out. It was good fun! Just this past Friday it was raining, so I revisited the area after work and found a little culdesac. After some goofing around, I think I got the car to rotate about 150 degrees. Before theanti-fun safety brigade comes to chastise me: there was no one around.
About a month ago I decided to drive the Highlander of all things. Seeing as it's effectively my dad's daily driver, and that it's a Highlander, I don't drive it that much. The only interesting surrounding to mention about the Highlander currently are that it will hit ten years of ownership by my parents this year, and that five of those have been spent parked outside with no shade. The Highlander's paint has taken a beating, with some chippage on the roof and spoiler, and a loss of clear coat on one of the front fenders. But still, compared to some cars - especially Altimas, it seems - it's not awful.
Earlier this year, my dad proposed the idea of repainting the Highlander. He decided against it after finding out that his estimation of paint costs was a bit outdated, and by the reality that the Highlander would still sit outside. My parents appreciate the usefulness of Highlander, but would like to replace it with something more suited to hauling multiple bikes in a year or two.
The Lexus lives a fairly easy life - it doesn't accumulate many miles, it gets hand-washed about once a month, and it's always garaged. But still, without some good intervention, even a cared-for car can look a little aged over the years. The Lexus' paint was starting to get that look that older black cars get, where you can see all the scratches and swirls. Plus, the headlights started to oxidize a bit within the past year. As someone who appreciates a clean car but is far too lazy to do it for himself, I let the professionals do it. For about $200 and a couple hours of work, the Lexus' former luster had been restored.
Like a mirror.
Don't worry, the cord is long enough to be routed under the steering wheel.
It's an Escort Passport 9500ix. I guess I lucked out, because it's only compatible with the cigarette lighter in my car - not the two cigarette lighters and one power port in the Lexus, not the lighter in the Highlander, and not the lighter in the Mini, even though you'd think it'd be the same as my car's. Kind of a shame though, since it would be nice to have in the Lexus. As luck would have it, the policing of Phoenix highways relaxed as soon as I received the radar detector in the mail, but at least I can drive at my desired speed with some solace now. The radar detector gives some false alarms from cameras in stores, but you can program it to ignore those signals. When it detects a speed camera, it'll tell you your speed and the distance from the camera. It detects red light cameras, too. K-Band is measured in bars, which is helpful for determining how close the 'threat' is to you.
Cruising around town is nice and all, but not going on road trips to hit up the fun roads can leave you feeling a little pent up at times. Whenever it rains here, the rain has a knack for only occurring when I'm asleep, at school, or at work. Amazingly, it managed to rain twice within the past 6 weeks or so during times that I could actually go drive in it. There's an area a couple miles from where I live, Scottsdale Airpark, where there's lots of businesses and office buildings. So at night and on the weekends, the streets are pretty much deserted. I used that to my advantage and decided to finally do some RWD stuff. The first few times I tried to coax the rear of the car out, I was only met with wheelspin. It's really a testament to the tires on the car - you gotta be an idiot to find their limits. Finally I was able to kick the rear out on one corner. It came out very gradually, and I sustained it for all of a second before the car straightened out. It was good fun! Just this past Friday it was raining, so I revisited the area after work and found a little culdesac. After some goofing around, I think I got the car to rotate about 150 degrees. Before the
About a month ago I decided to drive the Highlander of all things. Seeing as it's effectively my dad's daily driver, and that it's a Highlander, I don't drive it that much. The only interesting surrounding to mention about the Highlander currently are that it will hit ten years of ownership by my parents this year, and that five of those have been spent parked outside with no shade. The Highlander's paint has taken a beating, with some chippage on the roof and spoiler, and a loss of clear coat on one of the front fenders. But still, compared to some cars - especially Altimas, it seems - it's not awful.
Earlier this year, my dad proposed the idea of repainting the Highlander. He decided against it after finding out that his estimation of paint costs was a bit outdated, and by the reality that the Highlander would still sit outside. My parents appreciate the usefulness of Highlander, but would like to replace it with something more suited to hauling multiple bikes in a year or two.
The Lexus lives a fairly easy life - it doesn't accumulate many miles, it gets hand-washed about once a month, and it's always garaged. But still, without some good intervention, even a cared-for car can look a little aged over the years. The Lexus' paint was starting to get that look that older black cars get, where you can see all the scratches and swirls. Plus, the headlights started to oxidize a bit within the past year. As someone who appreciates a clean car but is far too lazy to do it for himself, I let the professionals do it. For about $200 and a couple hours of work, the Lexus' former luster had been restored.
Like a mirror.
- 1,591
- Under the Hood
Haven't posted here in a little while! I've been putting in more hours at work, so I don't have quite as much free time. And now that the snowbirds have left, the Phoenix area is a little nicer to drive around in, so I've been putting the increasing amount of recreational miles on my car on the surface streets near here, rather than a road trip. I'm a big fan of highway driving, and being a young personwith a German car, you can correctly assume that it is not being done at the speed limit. On the last road trip I took to Prescott - not the one in the post above, but a couple weeks after that - I was driving up near Wickenburg, doing about 10 over within the town. I passed a little ravine with some tall bushes in it to find a police Expedition hiding out. After I passed, the Expedition decided to join traffic. Thankfully it wasn't interested in me, but the mile or so that it followed me was a little unsettling. On the same journey, I was driving in some afternoon traffic in Phoenix when I saw a police motorcycle sitting in the gore, with an officer aiming a radar gun at traffic. My mom commutes on the same highway and had been telling me about all the people she'd seen pulled over around that time. Since I can't drive 55 - or 65 - I decided to buy a radar detector.
Don't worry, the cord is long enough to be routed under the steering wheel.
It's an Escort Passport 9500ix. I guess I lucked out, because it's only compatible with the cigarette lighter in my car - not the two cigarette lighters and one power port in the Lexus, not the lighter in the Highlander, and not the lighter in the Mini, even though you'd think it'd be the same as my car's. Kind of a shame though, since it would be nice to have in the Lexus. As luck would have it, the policing of Phoenix highways relaxed as soon as I received the radar detector in the mail, but at least I can drive at my desired speed with some solace now. The radar detector gives some false alarms from cameras in stores, but you can program it to ignore those signals. When it detects a speed camera, it'll tell you your speed and the distance from the camera. It detects red light cameras, too. K-Band is measured in bars, which is helpful for determining how close the 'threat' is to you.
Good choice, I have that same detector. I love how it 'learns' false alarms and blocks them out over time, good gadget that's always looking over your shoulder. Have you thought about hard wiring it? That wire going across the instrument cluster would drive me mad
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Good choice, I have that same detector. I love how it 'learns' false alarms and blocks them out over time, good gadget that's always looking over your shoulder. Have you thought about hard wiring it? That wire going across the instrument cluster would drive me mad
The wire's long enough to go under the steering column, so it's not really noticeable now. I'd prefer to keep the unit easily removable so that I can hide it under the seat whenever I'm gonna go somewhere and be away from the car for some time.
- 519
- California
- townha99
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
It's a nice car of course - a great car, really - but you gotta do your homework so you don't get screwed like I think I did. Let me preface this by saying despite everything that's happened with this car, I do not regret getting it. Would I buy this specific one again if I were able to go back in time with the knowledge I have now? No. However, for what I wanted at the time, it excelled. When my mom went to look at this car, she trusted the seller and didn't get it mechanically inspected, which I can't completely blame her for since my parents had pretty much perfect luck with buying their cars used without inspections. But then again, my dad brought along a mechanic acquaintance of ours when looking at an E34 535i before then, so I still do have a bit of that "what the hell" feeling. Here's all the things that've gone wrong or are wrong with my car, which at the time and pretty much still has been the most expensive non-M5 E39 on Craigslist:
- The rotors have pretty much needed to be replaced since I've had the car, but it still stops well enough. I understand that this is a maintenance item, but it kind of disappoints me that this rather pricey aspect of maintenance had not been completed on such a pricey E39.
- The water pump and alternator managed to go out at the same time. This is the only time where I've had to call for a ride home when driving my car, however, the car did not break down. But still, it's generally not a good idea to keep driving when the revs are increasing and a bad smell is coming from under the hood.
- The car's had an oil leak ever since I got it. In the summer months, it smells a bit stinky after you've parked it, but stays out of the car if you keep the air conditioning on recirculate. I usually have to top the oil off once between oil changes.
- The coolant leaks a little bit and I have to top it off once or twice a year.
- The car was rear-ended when someone else owned it, and there's a little buckle in the metal lining the trunk.
- The rear passenger door was messed up somewhere along the line and repaired badly. The paint is rippled and would come off if I picked at it.
- The radiator and radiator hoses have had to be replaced, but I guess you can attribute that to the typical E39 cooling system issues.
- The torque converter crapped out! I wasn't able to drive the car for seven weeks during the process of buying a new (rebuilt) transmission, waiting for it to ship, having the wrong one shipped, then having it installed.
- Before and after the transmission was replaced, the car's had an intermittent issue where every so often on a cool morning, it'll shudder and be hesitant to change gears. The issue goes away completely and suddenly once the car's been driven a bit.
- The front passenger window regulator is on its way out, but again, this is more of a typical BMW issue than an issue with my specific car.
- The passenger seat has succumbed to the dreaded BMW seat twist, and the driver's seat has a hint of the issue too.
- The old transmission was somehow better than the current one. Before, I could accelerate at the pace I wanted. But with the current transmission, I have to accelerate a bit quicker than I'd prefer to avoid it upshifting and bogging down at around 30.
What can you take away from that? Oh my god, get a mechanical inspection and check the Carfax before you buy. I still believe that E39s can be fairly hardy and dependable cars well into the six-digit mileages if you get one that was looked-after. Owning this car has not changed my perception of BMWs or European luxury cars in general. However, I am still disappointed with the trouble this car's given me, and really wish my mom would've taken it to a mechanic. I like this car, but I don't love it. I think I would like it better if I had gotten a 'good' one.
Still interested? Alright, here's the stuff it does right:
- This is a nice-looking car when it's all cleaned-up, even though personally I'd wish for a bit more presence when walking up to the car. But still, this car is well-liked by my friends and coworkers and gets compliments from other teenagers. The most common question I'm asked is what year the car is, followed by a compliment on how it looks.
- This car feels best above 80mph. If you end up with a job that requires you to do a lot of urban highway driving, this is a great car for that. Though it's no powerhouse, it can keep up and overtake others with ease, and, while I'm not condoning this, it's really easy to drive aggressively and effectively. If you wanted to, you could ride people's asses and weave through traffic with confidence. The fastest I've done in this car is 130. If you're not an asshole, don't worry, you'll still have a good time. This car can cruise all day in the left lane at 85, though if you're driving out on a rural highway with a rougher surface, it can get a bit tiresome due to the stiff-ish suspension. It's still a fairly smooth ride, but it can't match that innate serenity you get from a big car with a long wheelbase. The seats are on the firm side but offer good support, though you'll still get a bit tired after 3 hours or so.
- The only downside to the above point is that you'll want to speed everywhere. So what's the positive in this bullet point? Well, the E39 kind of blends in, or at least I think it has, seeing as I've received no tickets.
- The steering is satisfying. It's direct without being a nuisance over the grooves in the road, and is nicely-weighted. Turning the wheel, whether you're simply going through a 90 degree right turn in town or navigating a curve up a mountain just feels good.
- The car handles well for what it is, a luxury sedan. Not only is it entertaining to drive in the mountains, but you can go through a curved highway interchange at well above the posted limit and can make a sudden emergency lane change or swerve with confidence.
- This car's engine, though I'd prefer more power, produces a very satisfying sound when you roll on the gas. When you floor it, it doesn't accelerate with that excitement that some cars can. It's more like you're just accelerating a bit quicker than normal. The weird benefit of this, combined with the 5-speed auto, is that it takes a bit longer to reach the top of each gear, so you can hear that nice climb to redline for longer than in a modern, faster car.
- Forget the asshole BMW driver stereotypes or 'typical BMW' remarks, they're just the small price you pay for having a car that's nice. When you drive this car, you do feel a little cooler than everyone else on the road. It's fashionable to drive a BMW.
- This is the kind of car that you find yourself driving just for the sake of driving.
- In the BMW community, the E39 is well-respected. If you get something like an E90, while most consider it a nice Bimmer, some will get snobby and say the E46 was the last good 'analogue' BMW. You're gonna be hard-pressed to find an enthusiast who sneers at an E39. It's a good feeling when you drive something that's well-liked. With my dad's LS430, you've got the morons who say "lol fancy toyota" or "lol boring pensioner whip". With my mom's Mini, you've got the idiots who say "lol minifag" or "ew bmw mini pos old mini is life". With the E39, the sentiments are pretty much always positive.
If you've got any other questions, just ask.
- 519
- California
- townha99
Wow that was thorough! Thank you though. If I were to get one, I would definitely get it checked out by a mechanic after hearing about yours. It seems like a fun car, and one I would enjoy. As far as reliability goes, a super-reliable, fun to drive car would be nice but its pretty rare to get something of the sorts. We've also sort of become accustomed to unreliability between our old Explorer, Sienna, and now to an extent, the GL. If I do end up getting a car, I want something that I enjoy and it seems like I would enjoy this. Thanks for the info.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
So I was looking forward to spending some time in San Diego this month, as we're having some construction done on our house this month and my dad didn't want to be around for it. However, whoever owns the condo we were gonna use canceled the reservation a week we were supposed to go. Whatever. My dad came to me and asked me what I'd be interested in doing instead, so I pitched the idea of driving to San Francisco. He was alright with the idea, so we put together a route and left this past Wednesday in the Lexus.
All loaded up.
Starting mileage.
The first stretch of the trip involved taking the I-10 from Phoenix to Los Angeles to our first destination in West Hollywood. This was about a five and a half hour drive over about 400 miles. The desert stretch from Arizona until the outskirts of Riverside County was just a steady cruise at 75-80mph through the desert in the afternoon. Since it was a weekday, traffic was pretty agreeable and there were no accidents on the road. As we got to a town called Banning, I began to realize how vast the urban sprawl surrounding Los Angeles really was. To get from Banning to West Hollywood is a drive of about 85 miles. Doing 85 miles in the Phoenix area basically gets you through the entire metro area with some open desert behind you. At 4pm, we were technically in rush hour traffic, however since we were heading inward towards the city, it wasn't an issue. The other direction of the I-10 was at a crawl for pretty much the whole time, though. L.A. is an interesting place to drive - people area always changing lanes and there's always cars joining and leaving the road at each exit, which keeps you pretty engaged. Everyone there seems to have adopted an assertive driving style where they stay close to the car ahead as to not let anyone in front of them, but are always looking to overtake and go faster whenever possible. You'd think this driving style would lead to a lot of speeding, but nobody really gets above 70mph due to the volume of traffic. The real fast highway driving is found on the outskirts of the city where you can regularly find yourself included in another car's sweeping pass of multiple lanes of traffic at 85mph. For this stretch of the trip, the Lexus averaged about 24mpg.
The next morning we got up and resumed our journey to San Francisco, which would be about another 400 miles on Highway 1 and the 101. We came through the tunnel that begins the the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica at around 9am on an overcast Thursday morning. I was surprised at how much Grand Theft Auto V's representation of the beginning of Pacific Coast Highway and the homes along the Santa Monica Beach resembled the real thing - the first mile out of the tunnel looks nearly the same in-game and in person. Traffic was surprisingly agreeable once again, which made it possible to maintain a rather high cruising speed through the long, steady curves of this stretch of road. The first stretch from Santa Monica to Malibu is the busiest, and your views of the ocean are a bit limited from all the homes along the beach. The funny thing about those beach houses was that there were so many exotic cars parked amongst everything else in front of them. At one point, I noticed a Maybach 62 crammed in between some smaller cars in front of one house. Once you get past Malibu, the development along the highway ceases, and it's just you and the ocean. This is the most appealing stretch of the drive, but it only lasts for about 20 minutes until you reach the Ventura Naval Base. The remaining drive through Oxnard until you reach the 101 is strikingly ugly and agricultural compared to the serene views of PCH.
Highway 1 meets the 101 in Oxnard, which, after going through Ventura, lines up along the ocean and is actually a very nice highway. Even as you get to Santa Barbara and the highway curves away from the coast for a bit, the landscaping along the road is much nicer than anything I've ever seen on a highway, and would make for quite a pleasant commute, so long as the highway's 2-3 lanes aren't congested. The 101 reunites with the coast as you leave Santa Barbara. This lasts for about half an hour before the road curves away from the ocean and into the mountains. As I was driving on the ocean-side stretch of the highway, a black Prius V was overtaking me slowly. I was doing about 70 and it was doing maybe 72. We both passed a CHP Explorer sitting in a little nook alongside the road. A couple seconds after we passed, the Explorer merged onto the highway and started advancing past traffic in the passing lane. Then, it flipped on its lights! I stared in the rear view and wondered who was about to get nailed - the Prius that was in fact going a little faster, or me in the Lexus, with my out of state plates. Thankfully for me, the Explorer came and fixed itself behind the Prius as it scrambled to get over to the shoulder. I never like to see people get pulled over for speeding - there's more important stuff to patrol for - but the Prius was only doing about 7 over as well. We stopped about half an hour later after the highway began its path through the mountains at a scenic rest stop, because my dad uses the bathroom more than anyone else I've ever met.
The stretch from... wherever that rest stop is considered to be to San Luis Obispo ended up being my favorite part of the drive. It consisted of lots of gentle curves and the occasional hill through the sparsely-populated Central California countryside. On either side of you were these ranges of vast, rolling hills. My dad was quick to mention that they look way better in the winter, but I still found the 'golden' hills to be a satisfying view. This portion of the drive is very easy and relaxing. You can set the cruise, overtake and be overtaken occasionally, and enjoy the scenery.
We reached San Luis Obispo to replenish the Lexus' gas tank once more (the average this time was about 25mpg) and got back on Highway 1 to do more coastal driving. The stretch of Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to the coast was very frustrating for me. There was too much traffic bunched up in both lanes, and nobody could get around it. It was one of those annoying moments where you get stuck going slower than you'd like to in a group of cars that you can't shake off. I was hoping that this was an anomaly, but the traffic conditions were just as irritating when I came back through San Luis Obispo on Saturday. As you get near the coast, Highway 1, now called the Cabrillo Highway, curves back inland a bit and takes you through some more rolling hills. Whatever traffic was grinding my gears earlier had faded away, and I was free to follow the car ahead at a distance and relax at the speed I wanted to go. It was a sunny day when I first began the drive, but about halfway in between the beginning of the road and the really mountainous section ahead was a great fog. Although I was close to the ocean, I could no longer see it. This frustrated my dad, but I thought it provided a neat ambiance to the drive.
After a while, the Cabrillo Highway starts to become very curvy as it carves up the mountainous terrain along the ocean. This would be a fun drive if you were in something performance-oriented, but the Lexus was obviously a bit out of its element. The curviness lasted for about two hours and 80 miles, so it was no small undertaking. The Lexus handled the corners well enough, but the constant braking and acceleration made my right thigh sore after a while. About halfway into this sector, an F350 towing a large camper joined the road in front of me. To my surprise, he set a respectable pace through the curves and only braked when he really had to. This ended up being a bit of a blessing because now I could take the road at a more relaxed pace without being the reason for the growing line of cars behind us. I'm not going slow, it's the guy with the camper!
An eternity passed, and we were finally past the most involving section of the Cabrillo Highway. Unfortunately for my right leg, the traffic in Monterrey was pretty thick, which required so much braking. Exasperated, I was finally able to return to the 101 and set the cruise control for a bit. I transitioned from the 101 to the 680 in San Jose, but soon after that the GPS on my dad's phone prompted me with an unnecessary set of directions. I was supposed to keep going on the 680, but the phone mentioned something about an exit, so I figured that I best not miss it. Oops! The GPS took us through a town called Milpitas and onto a very curvy road called Calaveras Road. This road ran in between a group of hills and a reservoir and had to be very twisty as to not get in the way of anything. The road was made for both directions of traffic in theory, but there were no lanes on the road. I had only gotten about a mile into the road when I came upon a group of about 15 cars ahead of me, navigating this precarious path as a part of their commute home from work. Everyone essentially drove like the road only had one lane, which worked out in most cases, but made for a hair-raising moment when I followed the teal Grand Prix in front of me through a tight corner to find a Touareg barreling towards us. Thankfully the road was just wide enough for the both of us, but it's not something I'd like to navigate every single day. Calaveras Road eventually met the 680, where every single car in front of me, as well as the 15 or so that'd accumulated behind me, turned onto. A white Camry SE several cars ahead had had just about enough of this and overtook the Xterra ahead of it... in a stop sign intersection... as the Xterra was turning. The Xterra laid on its horn and surely expended some profanities on the Camry as it peeled out around the Xterra and around a few more cars onto the onramp. I was on the 680 for only a short while longer before we reached our destination for the day, a suburban town called Alamo. The total mileage for this day was a little over 400, and the average fuel economy was a nice 26mpg.
The next morning, I wasted no time in getting ready and driving to the nearby town of Walnut Creek to meet up with @Pinkintron as we'd agreed on before I left on the trip. He took the LS430 for a spin around town before we backtracked to Alamo to return the Lexus to where I was staying so that my dad wouldn't be SOL for transport while I was busy. I think he liked the LS430 a lot. I got into Pinks' ES300 to begin our drive to San Francisco for the day, which involved taking the 680, the 24 and then the 80 to get into the city. The drive between the suburbs and Oakland is rather nice - the freeway winds through a small mountain range, and the natural landscaping is very nice. As we approached Oakland, traffic was a bit backed up, and California drivers were really at their finest today - every necessary lane change and merge was a battle of whoever could juggle the throttle and braking quick enough to either shove themselves into that space or block whoever had the nerve to do the same. The ES300 was surprisingly gusty at low speeds, which really gave us an advantage in unforgiving traffic. We took the first exit across the bay in San Francisco and promptly got lost for a bit, taking a convoluted route of the wrong streets to try and find the parking garage under Union Square. A bus honked, a pedestrian shouted "you can't turn there!" and the ES300's brakes pierced the ears of everyone.
We had a lot of fun in the city, but headed back to Walnut Creek in the afternoon to go check out a road that was one of Pinks' favorites. Marsh Creek Road is a rural road that connects Walnut Creek and Brentwood as an alternative to Highway 4, which has to loop around Mount Diablo and the suburbs surrounding it. Marsh Creek Road was pleasantly unoccupied for the most part, which allowed me to carefully explore the ES300's handling characteristics and get a feel for the car. The ES300 is a funny car - when you're driving it normally, it feels lighter on its feet like a midsize car, but as soon as you come to a corner, it starts to feel a little heavy. The brakes are pretty good compared to the LS430 and allow you to brake effectively a little sooner in advance. The feel is pretty progressive, and it's not hard at all to be smooth with your braking inputs. As I mentioned before, the car feels gutsier than I'd expected. The throttle response at low speeds is pretty good, and the transmission is pretty agreeable to acceleration inputs around town. The car feels happiest below 70mph, I'd say. Go above 70 and the power gets a little thinner, but I'd attribute it more to the transmission's later unwillingness to change gears at high speed. The car has a tendency to get bogged down on hills, but that's easily remedied by getting on the throttle as a sort of "hey, wake up!". The steering is on the lighter side and is pretty devoid of feel, but it's about as accurate as the LS430 and makes judging corners pretty easy. The car has this floaty ride quality on the highway, something I recall from the '00 ES300 my grandparents used to have. I like the car overall, and it suits what Pinkintron wants from a car. I'd consider buying one as a 'luxury beater' for myself if the price was right. These things last forever, and there's no shortage of 200,000+ mile examples to be had for around three grand.
Pinks' ES300 is a Coach Edition, which was a mostly interior-centric trim package offered for 2001. It's differentiated from regular ES300s exterior-wise by a new set of wheels, which are actually the same ones offered on the previous year's Platinum Edition, though they receive a gray tint for Coach Edition cars. On the inside, the stock Lexus leather is forgoed in favor new hides from Coach. An interesting observation is that this leather actually smells different than Lexus leather. If you've ever sat in an older Lexus, they all have a particular smell. This Coach leather makes the car smell exactly like an older Nissan or Infiniti. The leather is the centerpiece of the option package, but you also get Coach logos embroidered into the center armrest, as well as a wood-trimmed wheels and a set of Coach Edition floor mats.
The next day was basically a lot of driving. My dad and I headed to San Francisco under the premise that there would be a Cars & Coffee at Pier 32, but it was a no-go! Maybe because it was July 4th? We weren't anticipating that, so we got on the road a little earlier than expected, but that just gave us more time to deviate from the path whenever something interesting came up. We headed down the 101 to Palo Alto, where my dad wanted to check out Stanford University. We took the 101 down through San Jose and out to San Luis Obisbo, which was unfortunately a bit of an ugly drive in some parts. The stretch from Salinas to around King City or so is very agricultural and unpleasant to the eyes as you drive through it. There's mountains in the distance, but all the brown fields and no trees really ruins the view. Thankfully for me, those rolling hills returned after the farmlands and the drive became very pleasant once again. My dad and I visited San Luis Obispo for a little bit and drove around the town for about an hour. My dad has always wanted to live there, and I was interested in the town after seeing it so much in the DYSAGT thread.
The 101 came right along the Pacific Ocean as we left SLO and passed Pismo Beach, and it was really a great view the whole way. The highway went back inland for a while, and things started to get rural. This drive was essentially retracing our route on Thursday, but I took a lot of enjoyment from the Central Californian scenery. The traffic conditions were pretty relaxed, and the Lexus was doing a pretty good job of being a rolling isolation chamber. As we came back through Santa Barbara, I was about ready to take a nap. Thankfully the drowsiness faded away, and we reached our final destination of Agoura Hills, an upscale suburb on the outskirts of the L.A. metro area. I had mentioned to my dad during the drive that I felt like I could just drive all the way back to Phoenix, and since it was only about 5pm by the time we got to Agoura Hills, my dad was starting to think the same. After about 20 minutes of hemming and hawing, we put our suitcases back into the trunk and headed to Beverly Hills to at least see some nice cars before we set off. One interesting thing I noticed about Beverly Hills and West Hollywood was that on the Lexus' navigation system, there were some flags on the map, which denote previously-marked destinations. Basically, we were driving right around where the LS430 used to live, although its original place of residence was up in Studio City. We left at dusk but had to get some gas in El Monte, avoiding the high gas prices of Beverly Hills (they're already nearing $5/gallon). The Lexus did pretty well on this tank, eeking out 511 miles and 26mpg overall.
We didn't get quite enough gas to last until Arizona, so we had to stop once again a little ways past Palm Springs. If you've ever driven this way on the I-10, you'll know that it's a pretty steady downhill stretch as you head east. The Lexus managed to average 28.7mpg over about 150 miles at 75mph. That's probably the highest average fuel economy the car's ever gotten. The remaining drive to Phoenix was pretty uneventful, since there's not exactly a lot going on on the I-10 near midnight. There was one instance where I had moved over to overtake a semi, then stayed in the passing lane since there were two more cars about a mile ahead and no pairs of headlights behind me. I slowly approached the two cars, doing maybe 1mph more than they were. I got into a bit of a daze, then noticed that the cabin was starting to get a little brighter. I looked in the rearview to see a pair of BMW halos and one working headlight rapidly approaching me. I moved the hell over to see an E60 750Li with absolutely no exhaust whatsoever blast by me. It sounded like a muscle car.
We got home at around 12:45am, bringing the total mileage for the day to around 850. Sure, I was a little tired, and my legs were a little sore from being cooped up, but I have to commend how good the LS430 is at covering long distances without inducing driver fatigue. You can drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles and get out feeling calm and relaxed. Total mileage over four days: 1827.
Final mileage.
All loaded up.
Starting mileage.
The first stretch of the trip involved taking the I-10 from Phoenix to Los Angeles to our first destination in West Hollywood. This was about a five and a half hour drive over about 400 miles. The desert stretch from Arizona until the outskirts of Riverside County was just a steady cruise at 75-80mph through the desert in the afternoon. Since it was a weekday, traffic was pretty agreeable and there were no accidents on the road. As we got to a town called Banning, I began to realize how vast the urban sprawl surrounding Los Angeles really was. To get from Banning to West Hollywood is a drive of about 85 miles. Doing 85 miles in the Phoenix area basically gets you through the entire metro area with some open desert behind you. At 4pm, we were technically in rush hour traffic, however since we were heading inward towards the city, it wasn't an issue. The other direction of the I-10 was at a crawl for pretty much the whole time, though. L.A. is an interesting place to drive - people area always changing lanes and there's always cars joining and leaving the road at each exit, which keeps you pretty engaged. Everyone there seems to have adopted an assertive driving style where they stay close to the car ahead as to not let anyone in front of them, but are always looking to overtake and go faster whenever possible. You'd think this driving style would lead to a lot of speeding, but nobody really gets above 70mph due to the volume of traffic. The real fast highway driving is found on the outskirts of the city where you can regularly find yourself included in another car's sweeping pass of multiple lanes of traffic at 85mph. For this stretch of the trip, the Lexus averaged about 24mpg.
The next morning we got up and resumed our journey to San Francisco, which would be about another 400 miles on Highway 1 and the 101. We came through the tunnel that begins the the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica at around 9am on an overcast Thursday morning. I was surprised at how much Grand Theft Auto V's representation of the beginning of Pacific Coast Highway and the homes along the Santa Monica Beach resembled the real thing - the first mile out of the tunnel looks nearly the same in-game and in person. Traffic was surprisingly agreeable once again, which made it possible to maintain a rather high cruising speed through the long, steady curves of this stretch of road. The first stretch from Santa Monica to Malibu is the busiest, and your views of the ocean are a bit limited from all the homes along the beach. The funny thing about those beach houses was that there were so many exotic cars parked amongst everything else in front of them. At one point, I noticed a Maybach 62 crammed in between some smaller cars in front of one house. Once you get past Malibu, the development along the highway ceases, and it's just you and the ocean. This is the most appealing stretch of the drive, but it only lasts for about 20 minutes until you reach the Ventura Naval Base. The remaining drive through Oxnard until you reach the 101 is strikingly ugly and agricultural compared to the serene views of PCH.
Highway 1 meets the 101 in Oxnard, which, after going through Ventura, lines up along the ocean and is actually a very nice highway. Even as you get to Santa Barbara and the highway curves away from the coast for a bit, the landscaping along the road is much nicer than anything I've ever seen on a highway, and would make for quite a pleasant commute, so long as the highway's 2-3 lanes aren't congested. The 101 reunites with the coast as you leave Santa Barbara. This lasts for about half an hour before the road curves away from the ocean and into the mountains. As I was driving on the ocean-side stretch of the highway, a black Prius V was overtaking me slowly. I was doing about 70 and it was doing maybe 72. We both passed a CHP Explorer sitting in a little nook alongside the road. A couple seconds after we passed, the Explorer merged onto the highway and started advancing past traffic in the passing lane. Then, it flipped on its lights! I stared in the rear view and wondered who was about to get nailed - the Prius that was in fact going a little faster, or me in the Lexus, with my out of state plates. Thankfully for me, the Explorer came and fixed itself behind the Prius as it scrambled to get over to the shoulder. I never like to see people get pulled over for speeding - there's more important stuff to patrol for - but the Prius was only doing about 7 over as well. We stopped about half an hour later after the highway began its path through the mountains at a scenic rest stop, because my dad uses the bathroom more than anyone else I've ever met.
The stretch from... wherever that rest stop is considered to be to San Luis Obispo ended up being my favorite part of the drive. It consisted of lots of gentle curves and the occasional hill through the sparsely-populated Central California countryside. On either side of you were these ranges of vast, rolling hills. My dad was quick to mention that they look way better in the winter, but I still found the 'golden' hills to be a satisfying view. This portion of the drive is very easy and relaxing. You can set the cruise, overtake and be overtaken occasionally, and enjoy the scenery.
We reached San Luis Obispo to replenish the Lexus' gas tank once more (the average this time was about 25mpg) and got back on Highway 1 to do more coastal driving. The stretch of Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to the coast was very frustrating for me. There was too much traffic bunched up in both lanes, and nobody could get around it. It was one of those annoying moments where you get stuck going slower than you'd like to in a group of cars that you can't shake off. I was hoping that this was an anomaly, but the traffic conditions were just as irritating when I came back through San Luis Obispo on Saturday. As you get near the coast, Highway 1, now called the Cabrillo Highway, curves back inland a bit and takes you through some more rolling hills. Whatever traffic was grinding my gears earlier had faded away, and I was free to follow the car ahead at a distance and relax at the speed I wanted to go. It was a sunny day when I first began the drive, but about halfway in between the beginning of the road and the really mountainous section ahead was a great fog. Although I was close to the ocean, I could no longer see it. This frustrated my dad, but I thought it provided a neat ambiance to the drive.
After a while, the Cabrillo Highway starts to become very curvy as it carves up the mountainous terrain along the ocean. This would be a fun drive if you were in something performance-oriented, but the Lexus was obviously a bit out of its element. The curviness lasted for about two hours and 80 miles, so it was no small undertaking. The Lexus handled the corners well enough, but the constant braking and acceleration made my right thigh sore after a while. About halfway into this sector, an F350 towing a large camper joined the road in front of me. To my surprise, he set a respectable pace through the curves and only braked when he really had to. This ended up being a bit of a blessing because now I could take the road at a more relaxed pace without being the reason for the growing line of cars behind us. I'm not going slow, it's the guy with the camper!
An eternity passed, and we were finally past the most involving section of the Cabrillo Highway. Unfortunately for my right leg, the traffic in Monterrey was pretty thick, which required so much braking. Exasperated, I was finally able to return to the 101 and set the cruise control for a bit. I transitioned from the 101 to the 680 in San Jose, but soon after that the GPS on my dad's phone prompted me with an unnecessary set of directions. I was supposed to keep going on the 680, but the phone mentioned something about an exit, so I figured that I best not miss it. Oops! The GPS took us through a town called Milpitas and onto a very curvy road called Calaveras Road. This road ran in between a group of hills and a reservoir and had to be very twisty as to not get in the way of anything. The road was made for both directions of traffic in theory, but there were no lanes on the road. I had only gotten about a mile into the road when I came upon a group of about 15 cars ahead of me, navigating this precarious path as a part of their commute home from work. Everyone essentially drove like the road only had one lane, which worked out in most cases, but made for a hair-raising moment when I followed the teal Grand Prix in front of me through a tight corner to find a Touareg barreling towards us. Thankfully the road was just wide enough for the both of us, but it's not something I'd like to navigate every single day. Calaveras Road eventually met the 680, where every single car in front of me, as well as the 15 or so that'd accumulated behind me, turned onto. A white Camry SE several cars ahead had had just about enough of this and overtook the Xterra ahead of it... in a stop sign intersection... as the Xterra was turning. The Xterra laid on its horn and surely expended some profanities on the Camry as it peeled out around the Xterra and around a few more cars onto the onramp. I was on the 680 for only a short while longer before we reached our destination for the day, a suburban town called Alamo. The total mileage for this day was a little over 400, and the average fuel economy was a nice 26mpg.
The next morning, I wasted no time in getting ready and driving to the nearby town of Walnut Creek to meet up with @Pinkintron as we'd agreed on before I left on the trip. He took the LS430 for a spin around town before we backtracked to Alamo to return the Lexus to where I was staying so that my dad wouldn't be SOL for transport while I was busy. I think he liked the LS430 a lot. I got into Pinks' ES300 to begin our drive to San Francisco for the day, which involved taking the 680, the 24 and then the 80 to get into the city. The drive between the suburbs and Oakland is rather nice - the freeway winds through a small mountain range, and the natural landscaping is very nice. As we approached Oakland, traffic was a bit backed up, and California drivers were really at their finest today - every necessary lane change and merge was a battle of whoever could juggle the throttle and braking quick enough to either shove themselves into that space or block whoever had the nerve to do the same. The ES300 was surprisingly gusty at low speeds, which really gave us an advantage in unforgiving traffic. We took the first exit across the bay in San Francisco and promptly got lost for a bit, taking a convoluted route of the wrong streets to try and find the parking garage under Union Square. A bus honked, a pedestrian shouted "you can't turn there!" and the ES300's brakes pierced the ears of everyone.
We had a lot of fun in the city, but headed back to Walnut Creek in the afternoon to go check out a road that was one of Pinks' favorites. Marsh Creek Road is a rural road that connects Walnut Creek and Brentwood as an alternative to Highway 4, which has to loop around Mount Diablo and the suburbs surrounding it. Marsh Creek Road was pleasantly unoccupied for the most part, which allowed me to carefully explore the ES300's handling characteristics and get a feel for the car. The ES300 is a funny car - when you're driving it normally, it feels lighter on its feet like a midsize car, but as soon as you come to a corner, it starts to feel a little heavy. The brakes are pretty good compared to the LS430 and allow you to brake effectively a little sooner in advance. The feel is pretty progressive, and it's not hard at all to be smooth with your braking inputs. As I mentioned before, the car feels gutsier than I'd expected. The throttle response at low speeds is pretty good, and the transmission is pretty agreeable to acceleration inputs around town. The car feels happiest below 70mph, I'd say. Go above 70 and the power gets a little thinner, but I'd attribute it more to the transmission's later unwillingness to change gears at high speed. The car has a tendency to get bogged down on hills, but that's easily remedied by getting on the throttle as a sort of "hey, wake up!". The steering is on the lighter side and is pretty devoid of feel, but it's about as accurate as the LS430 and makes judging corners pretty easy. The car has this floaty ride quality on the highway, something I recall from the '00 ES300 my grandparents used to have. I like the car overall, and it suits what Pinkintron wants from a car. I'd consider buying one as a 'luxury beater' for myself if the price was right. These things last forever, and there's no shortage of 200,000+ mile examples to be had for around three grand.
Pinks' ES300 is a Coach Edition, which was a mostly interior-centric trim package offered for 2001. It's differentiated from regular ES300s exterior-wise by a new set of wheels, which are actually the same ones offered on the previous year's Platinum Edition, though they receive a gray tint for Coach Edition cars. On the inside, the stock Lexus leather is forgoed in favor new hides from Coach. An interesting observation is that this leather actually smells different than Lexus leather. If you've ever sat in an older Lexus, they all have a particular smell. This Coach leather makes the car smell exactly like an older Nissan or Infiniti. The leather is the centerpiece of the option package, but you also get Coach logos embroidered into the center armrest, as well as a wood-trimmed wheels and a set of Coach Edition floor mats.
The next day was basically a lot of driving. My dad and I headed to San Francisco under the premise that there would be a Cars & Coffee at Pier 32, but it was a no-go! Maybe because it was July 4th? We weren't anticipating that, so we got on the road a little earlier than expected, but that just gave us more time to deviate from the path whenever something interesting came up. We headed down the 101 to Palo Alto, where my dad wanted to check out Stanford University. We took the 101 down through San Jose and out to San Luis Obisbo, which was unfortunately a bit of an ugly drive in some parts. The stretch from Salinas to around King City or so is very agricultural and unpleasant to the eyes as you drive through it. There's mountains in the distance, but all the brown fields and no trees really ruins the view. Thankfully for me, those rolling hills returned after the farmlands and the drive became very pleasant once again. My dad and I visited San Luis Obispo for a little bit and drove around the town for about an hour. My dad has always wanted to live there, and I was interested in the town after seeing it so much in the DYSAGT thread.
The 101 came right along the Pacific Ocean as we left SLO and passed Pismo Beach, and it was really a great view the whole way. The highway went back inland for a while, and things started to get rural. This drive was essentially retracing our route on Thursday, but I took a lot of enjoyment from the Central Californian scenery. The traffic conditions were pretty relaxed, and the Lexus was doing a pretty good job of being a rolling isolation chamber. As we came back through Santa Barbara, I was about ready to take a nap. Thankfully the drowsiness faded away, and we reached our final destination of Agoura Hills, an upscale suburb on the outskirts of the L.A. metro area. I had mentioned to my dad during the drive that I felt like I could just drive all the way back to Phoenix, and since it was only about 5pm by the time we got to Agoura Hills, my dad was starting to think the same. After about 20 minutes of hemming and hawing, we put our suitcases back into the trunk and headed to Beverly Hills to at least see some nice cars before we set off. One interesting thing I noticed about Beverly Hills and West Hollywood was that on the Lexus' navigation system, there were some flags on the map, which denote previously-marked destinations. Basically, we were driving right around where the LS430 used to live, although its original place of residence was up in Studio City. We left at dusk but had to get some gas in El Monte, avoiding the high gas prices of Beverly Hills (they're already nearing $5/gallon). The Lexus did pretty well on this tank, eeking out 511 miles and 26mpg overall.
We didn't get quite enough gas to last until Arizona, so we had to stop once again a little ways past Palm Springs. If you've ever driven this way on the I-10, you'll know that it's a pretty steady downhill stretch as you head east. The Lexus managed to average 28.7mpg over about 150 miles at 75mph. That's probably the highest average fuel economy the car's ever gotten. The remaining drive to Phoenix was pretty uneventful, since there's not exactly a lot going on on the I-10 near midnight. There was one instance where I had moved over to overtake a semi, then stayed in the passing lane since there were two more cars about a mile ahead and no pairs of headlights behind me. I slowly approached the two cars, doing maybe 1mph more than they were. I got into a bit of a daze, then noticed that the cabin was starting to get a little brighter. I looked in the rearview to see a pair of BMW halos and one working headlight rapidly approaching me. I moved the hell over to see an E60 750Li with absolutely no exhaust whatsoever blast by me. It sounded like a muscle car.
We got home at around 12:45am, bringing the total mileage for the day to around 850. Sure, I was a little tired, and my legs were a little sore from being cooped up, but I have to commend how good the LS430 is at covering long distances without inducing driver fatigue. You can drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles and get out feeling calm and relaxed. Total mileage over four days: 1827.
Final mileage.
- 1,793
- Xanadu
Make him hold it in next time. Your drive time is more important than his comfort.
That's an understatement by a long shot, amigo.
I got a little sour having to get out of it. I didn't want to rack up even more miles and rob you of more gas, or else I would have drove it into the sunset and eventually throwing you out to keep it for myself.
Thanks for practically summing up my car for me and giving me all the details that I could never put into words myself.
Time to copy and paste this in my own car thread
Awesome pics as always bud. San Luis Obispo is probably the place I'll retire too early if I can 
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Haven't done much with my car specifically that's worth noting lately, other than putting miles on it at a slightly accelerated pace (did like 1,000 miles between July 30th and August 15th... pretty good for someone whose only necessary driving comes from schooling and working near his house). If you visit the Post a Pic of Your Real Car thread, you'll see that one of my friends got an '00 528i recently. When we first met, he was a big fan of my car and always said that if he were to get a BMW, he'd get one like mine. He's had his E39 for about a month now and loves it. We've been trying to coordinate a day including another work friend to take pics of both BMWs, but you know how teenagers are. Sometimes I feel like the only guy who's got some control over what goes on in his life. Maybe this week...
Funnily enough, I somewhat achieved what I was trying to coordinate in the first place, except with a different group of people. One of my friends from school has an older brother who bought a '13 Genesis Coupe 3.8 earlier this year. He always told me that his brother would let me drive it, but I never really expected that to come to fruition. Yesterday we were hanging out when his brother's friend came by in his '15 Corvette Z51. Neither of them had good cameras to take pics of their cars with, so we went to the next neighborhood and parked in a culdesac. I recommended a different venue about 10 miles away, but I guess other folks are more stringent about mileage than I am. I get a weird satisfaction from putting miles on a car, so maybe my perception's skewed. The Corvette sounded pretty nice with a stock exhaust and could really hustle out on the road, passing up me, the Genesis and an Acura and one big swoop of power. It also had a nicely-finished interior that still smelled new at 9,000 miles. The Genesis was an interesting car to drive in that it was quite fast for my standards and braked especially nicely. The steering felt lighter and didn't have as good of a feel as my car, but the power made up for it. The interior didn't feel as nice as it could be, but it was still comfortable to sit in and had some nice amenities. Pretty good value for a sports car overall.
This thread'll receive a more interesting update about my car in the near future, I promise.
Funnily enough, I somewhat achieved what I was trying to coordinate in the first place, except with a different group of people. One of my friends from school has an older brother who bought a '13 Genesis Coupe 3.8 earlier this year. He always told me that his brother would let me drive it, but I never really expected that to come to fruition. Yesterday we were hanging out when his brother's friend came by in his '15 Corvette Z51. Neither of them had good cameras to take pics of their cars with, so we went to the next neighborhood and parked in a culdesac. I recommended a different venue about 10 miles away, but I guess other folks are more stringent about mileage than I am. I get a weird satisfaction from putting miles on a car, so maybe my perception's skewed. The Corvette sounded pretty nice with a stock exhaust and could really hustle out on the road, passing up me, the Genesis and an Acura and one big swoop of power. It also had a nicely-finished interior that still smelled new at 9,000 miles. The Genesis was an interesting car to drive in that it was quite fast for my standards and braked especially nicely. The steering felt lighter and didn't have as good of a feel as my car, but the power made up for it. The interior didn't feel as nice as it could be, but it was still comfortable to sit in and had some nice amenities. Pretty good value for a sports car overall.
This thread'll receive a more interesting update about my car in the near future, I promise.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Over the summer I wanted to get a new car for a while, first an LS400 but then a Tahoe or Yukon when faced with the fact that Phoenix doesn't have a very large LS400 pool. I borrowed my aunt's Suburban a couple times to see what it was like to live with. I quite liked it, other than the fuel consumption. But nobody takes care of big GM SUVs, and almost every one for sale was in poor condition or overpriced. I gave that up and decided to turn my attention back on the BMW, since I had some money piling up from work. Back in August I saw a GS300 at the local car show and really liked the wheels it sat on. I asked the owner what they were, and he told me that they were Varrstoen ES1s. I did some research and decided that I'd like to buy new wheels and a set of coilovers for the BMW, starting with wheels because noticeably lowered cars on stock wheels are stupid. So I bought a staggered set of wheels, a set of 5mm spacers (to clear the brakes), and re-bought my Continental Xtreme Contact DWs; two 245/40s for the front and two 275/30s for the rear.
In the process of me ordering and waiting for everything, the BMW manifested a couple of maintenance needs. The first instance was when I got back into the car after visiting a local BMW shop. After shifting into drive, the 'park' light was illuminated in the gauge cluster. E39s have weird handbrakes, but mine certainly was not engaged. I was then met with a "CHECK BRAKE LININGS" message. That can't be good! I drove the car home, which didn't end catastrophically like I was imagining at first, but I did lose a good deal of pressure in the brake pedal. A day later, I retrieved the car from the usual garage I take it to, now outfitted with new brake pads, rotors and brake fluid. I was surprised to find that the pedal still had very little pressure, but @ildd explained to me that this was normal and to be expected, so I drove the car around town a whole bunch to break it in. The day before I took the car to the shop to finally be outfitted with the new goodies (it took almost two weeks for the wheel to come), the check engine light came on for the first time in quite a while. This morning, I collected the car with its new wheels from the first shop and drove it back to my usual place so that they could replace a thermostat.
The car was gone for most of the day, so the only driving I've done in it with the new wheels was taking it to the other shop, and then going to Dutch Bros after I washed it this evening. The ride quality is a little less isolated now - I guess you could say it's sporty - but I'm fine either way. The steering feels a little heavier than it used to, but I'm alright with that. Can't speak for handling differences with the wider rubber (might be offset by that extra weight though, lol), but I'll be finding that out this weekend.
So yeah, cool stuff! And just as cool: tomorrow I'll be driving to Salt Lake City to hang out with @Davis and @Zyla over the weekend.
In the process of me ordering and waiting for everything, the BMW manifested a couple of maintenance needs. The first instance was when I got back into the car after visiting a local BMW shop. After shifting into drive, the 'park' light was illuminated in the gauge cluster. E39s have weird handbrakes, but mine certainly was not engaged. I was then met with a "CHECK BRAKE LININGS" message. That can't be good! I drove the car home, which didn't end catastrophically like I was imagining at first, but I did lose a good deal of pressure in the brake pedal. A day later, I retrieved the car from the usual garage I take it to, now outfitted with new brake pads, rotors and brake fluid. I was surprised to find that the pedal still had very little pressure, but @ildd explained to me that this was normal and to be expected, so I drove the car around town a whole bunch to break it in. The day before I took the car to the shop to finally be outfitted with the new goodies (it took almost two weeks for the wheel to come), the check engine light came on for the first time in quite a while. This morning, I collected the car with its new wheels from the first shop and drove it back to my usual place so that they could replace a thermostat.
The car was gone for most of the day, so the only driving I've done in it with the new wheels was taking it to the other shop, and then going to Dutch Bros after I washed it this evening. The ride quality is a little less isolated now - I guess you could say it's sporty - but I'm fine either way. The steering feels a little heavier than it used to, but I'm alright with that. Can't speak for handling differences with the wider rubber (might be offset by that extra weight though, lol), but I'll be finding that out this weekend.
So yeah, cool stuff! And just as cool: tomorrow I'll be driving to Salt Lake City to hang out with @Davis and @Zyla over the weekend.
