Interesting... the East Coast (as in New Jersey) release date is 10/18/06, San Diego, CA's release date is 10/20/06, and, according to Servco Lexus, "We don't know when this car will become available, probably at the end of the month." wtf?

These shots were taken today. I don't know if any of these are the long wheelbase versions (L460L).

 

i can't wait

 

makes me feel like i need to work harder to own one

 

gimme one!

 

It's a nice car, but I'm not old enough to own one yet.

 

haha looks like they copied Bangles BMW rear end. Too bad.

 

They are on display at Servco Toyota with out the taping etc... Saw them out front when I was at Jack in the Box.

 

^ yups. full featured car. i really like it. i just gotta round up a few more dollars and i'm set. *riiiiiight, lol*

 

can you test drive them? (though i know they wouldn't let me), i gotta check out the MEAN parking feature!

 

It's unlikely this car will have the automatic parking system and the nav unit on which it's based available here in Hawaii. Unless the specs have changed, cars shipped to North America ("Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.") that have the working nav system will also have the automatic parallel parking option - which is bundled with the rear view camera and supposedly based on GPS.

Ever wonder why you can buy a $400 garmin portable GPS at Costco Iwilei but can spend $70K for an LS430 (from California) and have a non-working nav? Well, I found out from an industry insider that the reason why nav systems don't work here in Hawaii is because the auto manufacturers for the most part refuse to pay for the $50k licensing fee that Navteq charges them for the Hawaii mapping. The only 2 exceptions to this are Mercedes and BMW. Their oem navs work straight out of the box.

If TMS-USA had jurisdiction over Hawaii sales, they likely would have sprung for the Hawaii license given the marketshare the brand has here. But since Servco bought that exclusivity franchise directly from Toyota Motor Co. years ago, it's really up to them and it's unlikley they ever will. Too bad, cuz I've test driven an '06 fully loaded IS350 in San Diego with the nav and it works really good.

So, that said, it's probably unlikely the advanced park feature will be available here. But who knows, maybe it will.