New Car, Lexus RX400h style.

[christian900se]

This is my dad's new car. He decided to get rid of the Pontiac, which he finally admitted to being really just a cheap car.

This car came up by chance, we were casually looking around at dealerships like BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and VW. What we did was dress in very casual clothes and see if any of the salesmen would actually pay us any attention. Believe it or not, only Lexus did. This car was in the show room, a brand new 2008. They were trying to sell it before the 2010 RXs come in, so we traded in the Pontiac (which lexus took, no questions asked) and paid for the RX.

Anyways, on to the detailing aspect. The car is black (enough said). It had been sitting in the lot for at least a year. This means there were water etchings all over, swirling, random scratches, and little to no paint protection (waxes or sealants).
So I had to fix it

Process:
Poorboys Wheel sealant: 2 layers
Porter Cable 7424
CCS white pad
A blend of Pinnacle XMT #3 and a dot of Menzerna po87mc
303 protectant on plastics
Pinnacle Signature Series 2 wax (my beauty wax of choice, amazing stuff)
Rain-X on the windows.

Here are a whole lotta reflections:










Yep, This is the hood:





And my two favorites:




Now I have to worry about keeping it this way

[oldmodman]

The finish looks great. Will you be taking care of it for him? And how finnicky is he?

I do have an actual vehicle question. Since this is a hybrid vehicle do you know what type of batteries it has? My reason for asking is possible early battery failure due to the car being parked in storage for so long. If the battery pack was installed at the factory, and not at the dealer just before sale it could already be 90% toward the end of it's lifespan. If the batteries are NiMH and they have been sitting all this time they are probably already shot. A NiMH must be cycled after getting their initial charge or they fail in storage. Even Li-Ion starts to deteriorate from the moment they are manufactured. If you father is only going to keep the car from 3 to 5 years he should be fine. Since that is within the warranty period the dealer would have no choice but to replace the battery pack.

[christian900se]

There is a 100,000 mile warranty on all hybrid components, and the battery packs on these are the same as prius systems. I have never heard of a problem with them, and have been on lexus forums for a while.

[oldmodman]

Good.
With a warranty that long he has no problem. I love those RX400s, they are incredibly comfortable.

[christian900se]

to be honest, I have not yet been in it or driven it outside of the driveway haha. Its sad really, but Ive been at college so Im only home every so often.

[OGauge4Me]

You are a good son. And the car looks great. Nice Job.

[gto19]

what product did you use to take out the water spot etchings.btw nice ride .ive got a 08 ls460 and love it

[christian900se]

Well, I polished it ... That will surely take out the etchings, however I tried XMT 360 on a white pad before and it took out a number of them in one pass. You can probably get them out by hand too if you have any polish or all in one type product.

[richy]

Dude..I don't think you took enough pictures!! hahahahaha. Seriously, very wet looking shine to that black. Congrats!