SaniDel

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...ack-report.htm

"Emergency Handling: On the track, the GL was commendable for such a large, tall vehicle. It had sufficient grip, balanced behavior and a well-tuned stability control that kept it on course, making it secure and forgiving. It reached a so-so speed in our avoidance maneuver, but confidence was compromised due to its tendency to understeer straight ahead regardless of steering input."

Regards,

SaniDel

akfd

I don't have subscription with CR so I can't read the full article. I was referring to the G Class, not the GL.

akfd

Oh yeah one more thing: this recall applies to the Land Cruiser Prado (left hand drive with KDSS only) as well. If there are any members here from Europe or the Middle East Toyota will be sending a recall letter to you soon.

antonio98

They probably didn't test the G Class.

I'd love to see video of a body-on-frame SUV taking that curve at 60mph with no brakes.

I guess we will see the video once they have the GX with the software update.

encore888

+1 that video should be interesting, should they release it (they ought to, but if not, Lexus can produce a vid).

NoNameDFW

That made me lol....

LeslieRC

From today's New York Times:

Lexus to Recall GX 460 S.U.V.
By NICK BUNKLEY
DETROIT — Toyota on Monday added another model to its long list of recalls, hours after agreeing to pay the largest fine ever imposed by the government against an automaker.

Toyota said it would recall the Lexus GX 460 to fix a problem with its stability control system that was first disclosed last week by Consumer Reports magazine. The recall covers 9,400 vehicles, a fraction of the number Toyota has recalled for defective accelerator pedals, but it adds another black mark to a reputation that has lost considerable luster in recent months.

Consumer Reports said the GX, a luxury sport utility vehicle that is new for the 2010 model year, failed to prevent its rear end from sliding sideways during sharp turns. Toyota has temporarily stopped building and selling the vehicle in response.

“Toyota’s objective is to provide a high level of safety and quality, while meeting or surpassing governmental regulations,” Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’s chief quality officer for North America, said in a statement.

In the statement, Mr. St. Angelo referred to the vehicle stability control: “Our engineers have conducted tests to confirm the V.S.C. performance issue raised by Consumer Reports, and we are confident this V.S.C. software update addresses the concern.”

Toyota said that Lexus dealers would receive a software update for the GX by the end of the month and that each repair would take about one hour. The company is offering loaner vehicles to owners who are concerned about driving their vehicle before the repair is made.

The recall is Toyota’s second since Friday, when it revealed a problem with the spare tire carrier cable on 600,000 Sienna minivans. Corrosion could cause the cable to break and the tire to fall onto the road, the company said.

Toyota has recalled more than nine million vehicles since November.

Earlier on Monday, Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine, the largest government penalty ever against an automaker, for concealing information related to its sticking pedal recall.

“Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly,” the transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, said.

This penalty involves the “sticky pedal” and “slow to return pedal” defects that led to Toyota’s recall of about 2.3 million vehicles in the United States in late January.

The carmaker did not admit wrongdoing, and the fine levied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not release Toyota from civil or criminal actions. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the carmaker, by crash victims and relatives of people killed in crashes, seeking billions of dollars. Toyota’s actions are also under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Toyota, in a statement, said it disagreed with the penalty, but decided not to fight it “in order to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation, as well as to allow us to move forward fully focused on the steps to strengthen our quality assurance operations.”

Steve Berman, a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in more than 100 lawsuits against Toyota, said the fine could play a significant role as the cases go to trial. The cases, including one filed by Mr. Berman’s firm seeking refunds for Toyota buyers in 12 states, have been consolidated to federal court in California, where a hearing is scheduled for May 13.

“If people were buying these cars and driving them after Toyota knew there was a problem, that is going to be very powerful evidence,” Mr. Berman said. The fine is the maximum amount allowed by law.

If not for that cap, Toyota could have been ordered to pay $13.8 billion instead — $6,000 for each of the 2.3 million vehicles — the agency’s chief counsel told the company in a letter this month.

The letter also said the agency was considering a second $16.4 million fine against Toyota, based on evidence suggesting the pedals might have had two separate defects. An investigation into the company’s November recall of 5.4 million vehicles, to fix pedals that are susceptible to getting trapped under the floor mat, also could result in additional fines.

The regulators, which received more than 70,000 pages of documents from Toyota, said company officials either knew or should have known the pedals were problematic for at least several months.

ybing

A future classic? LOL damn, I put 3,000 miles on my car already

kelv2888

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws9ppTchWY

this is our gx 460 little brother the 4runner drifting. looks like fun!

encore888

More background...because KDSS is standard on the GX 460, not optional as before, the issue with delayed VSC response in high-speed right turns (only when no pedal input is applied), affects all models sold to date:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/5419452-post214.html

C&D has a telling reaction, similar to Edmunds:

http://blog.caranddriver.com/2010-le...control-issue/

encore888

Thx to MisterTwo in Car Chat, here is the video link to a demonstration of the GX 460 new VSC programming in action:

Video: http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/news/10/...0420_01_en.asx

They show 3 turns, first at 90km/h, second at 95km/h, both with original VSC programming; third at 95km/h with new VSC programming. There is a difference in how the tail does not slide out.

antonio98

Thanks for the updates!

Balooo2

The past 24 hours has proven what a great company Toyota/Lexus truly is.
The comparision video says it all,FIXED!!!

Thanks for the video and the update.

alsilverbullet

Awesome! Glad to hear this is fixed!

SaniDel

EYES ON THE ROAD
APRIL 21, 2010
Why Toyota Rolled Over for Its SUVs
By JOSEPH B. WHITE

Toyota Motor Corp.'s latest recall has put the issue of sport-utility vehicle rollovers back on the front burner.

A video released earlier this month by Consumer Reports showed a 2010 Lexus GX 460 skidding sideways during a handling test. In an unusual move, the magazine then declared that the Toyota-built SUV wasn't safe to buy. Toyota immediately halted sales of the vehicle and, on Monday, recalled all 9,400 GX 460s to reprogram their stability-control systems so that they kick in more quickly to prevent dangerous sideways skids.

Despite this latest setback for Toyota's image, SUVs have actually been getting much safer in recent years, thanks to more-advanced technology, improved designs and tougher testing. A decade ago, Toyota's relatively low-cost Lexus fix probably wouldn't have been available. It is today because consumer demand, government pressure and attitudes among auto makers toward safety technology have all changed—and consumers are better off.

The Lexus GX is an old-school sport-utility vehicle, built on a truck frame. This architecture affords a commanding view of the road, high ground clearance and the capability to haul a 6,500-pound boat or utility trailer. The tradeoff is that such vehicles can be more prone to flipping over in certain maneuvers than a conventional sedan.

But the Lexus GX and similar SUVs, such as the Ford Explorer and Hummer H3, are members of a dying breed. Auto makers have been applying a significant amount of money and technology to reducing SUV rollover risks, and in the process evolving most of what are sold as SUVs into vehicles that are more like big cars than pickup trucks.

On top of that fundamental change, auto makers have equipped SUVs with electronic stability control, and increasingly, airbags that deploy along the side windows to reduce the chances that occupants will be thrown from a tumbling vehicle.

The mainstreaming of this technology has coincided with a decline in SUV rollover fatalities—but not a dramatic one. Deaths linked to SUV rollover accidents peaked in 2004 at 2,929, according to government figures. In 2008, deaths in SUV rollover accidents declined to 2,414. In both years, SUV rollover deaths amounted to about 9% of all occupants killed in vehicle accidents.

Concern about SUV rollovers has ebbed and flowed in the auto industry for 30 years.

In the early 1980s, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research arm of the insurance industry, called out the Jeep CJ-5 for having a high propensity to roll over. Later in the 1980s, controversy swirled around the Suzuki Samurai, a rival to the Jeep that Consumer Reports branded unsafe after a rollover test. Suzuki Motor Corp. countered that Consumer Reports' tests were biased, and sued. The litigation was settled long after the Samurai had been phased out.

Until about 10 years ago, auto makers tended to downplay the rollover risks associated with truck-frame SUVs. That changed starting in 2000, when a highly publicized surge of rollover accidents ultimately linked to defective Firestone tires devastated Ford Motor Co.'s once hugely profitable Explorer brand and led Congress to enact sweeping new auto-safety rules that included tougher federal standards aimed at reducing rollover accidents.

The tests administered by different groups can differ, sometimes markedly. The NHTSA's SUV stability test includes a so-called "fish hook" maneuver—patterned after a test used by Toyota, according to government documents. The vehicle, controlled by a robotic steering system, heads down a straightaway at 50 miles per hour. The steering machine then turns the wheel left and then right, and holds the right turn for half a second before straightening out. The maneuver is repeated with more severe steering angles.

This test will cause the wheels to lift off the ground if the vehicle is top-heavy or has a poorly designed suspension system. The NHTSA considers the vehicle to have "tipped up" in an unsafe manner if instruments detect that the inside wheels (the right hand side in a vehicle turning right) have lifted two inches or more off the ground.

Government agencies, automotive magazines and auto makers elsewhere in the world evaluate vehicle stability using tests designed to simulate the panicky steering that can get motorists into trouble. An automotive magazine in Sweden flipped over a Mercedes-Benz A-class in 1997 with a fast lane-change test dubbed the "moose test," so named because it simulated the maneuvers required to evade a moose (or elk) in the road. A chastened Mercedes redesigned the car and installed stability control, and the revamped A-Class passed.

Consumer Reports caught the problem with the Lexus GX using a different test. The magazines puts vehicles through what it calls a track handling test, essentially running the vehicle at progressively higher speeds around a serpentine course, says David Champion, head of its vehicle-testing operation.

As part of the test, Consumer Reports' drivers put a vehicle into a long, sweeping decreasing radius turn—similar to a freeway cloverleaf in which the corner keeps getting tighter. The driver goes into the turn at speed—about 60 mph in the case of the Lexus—and then lifts off the accelerator, says Mr. Champion. He says a fish-hook test might not have triggered the skid that caused the editors to issue their "don't buy" warning.

The problem with both the NHTSA and Consumer Reports tests is that about 95% of rollover accidents happen under circumstances that they don't cover. Such accidents occur when a vehicle hits a curb or ditch or some other obstacle and "trips" over the obstruction. Even vehicles with a low center of gravity can and do roll when tripped up. In 2008, 69% of all rollover accidents involved cars.

The key to avoiding a rollover is to avoid a sideways slide—and that's why properly functioning electronic stability control is critical.

Consumers interested in assessing a vehicle's rollover risk can check out www.safercar.gov for the government's rollover ratings. Those are derived from a combination of measurements to determine the vehicle's center of gravity and the results of live-action rollover tests.

—Email: joseph.white@wsj.com