Washington, DCIn a testament to the thoroughness of the testing engineers at Consumer Reports Magazine, Toyota announced that it was issuing a worldwide recall of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV pending the implementation of a software fix to its electronic stabilization control (ESC).
It was just last week that Consumer Reports issued a rare "Don't Buy" designation for the high-end SUV, which was redesigned and re-engineered for 2010. Consumer Reports testing engineers found that the electronic stabilizer control system (EEC) failed to keep the vehicle stabilized in certain driving conditions. No other vehicles they tested behaved in exactly the same fashion as the 2010 Lexus GX 460.
Electronic stabilization systems are increasingly used by manufacturers to augment the safety factor of vehicles. The ESC is a sophisticated system that automatically adjusts braking and acceleration to counteract potential skids and other losses of control.
Toyota identified 9,400 vehicles in the recall. The 2010 Toyota 4Runner, a cousin to the 2010 Lexus GX 460, is not affected. Also unaffected are older models of the Lexus GX 460.
A software update is expected to fix the problem, and dealers hope to have the update in hand by the end of April.
David Champion, one of the test engineers involved in the evaluation of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 for Consumer Reports Magazine, told the Los Angeles Times that the ESC worked correctly during other real-world stability tests, but failed in activating the brakes quickly enough to control a slide.
"When we tested the vehicle you could see the light on the stability control flashing. It had identified the condition but was just slow activating the brakes to control the slide. A software update should work," Champion said. "It was just this one condition that it was not picking up enough."
Without the fix, however, the glitch was serious enough to cause a rollover in certain driving conditions. Toyota conducted its own tests after the release of the Consumer Reports designation and agreed that the problem was serious.
On Monday Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine levied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over what the agency deemed an "inexplicable" decision to delay by four months the recall of more than two million vehicles over sticking accelerator pedals.
In contrast, Toyota's response to the Lexus GX 460 issue was swift and decisive. The Lexus SUV is a luxury line, retailing in the neighborhood of $50,000.
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