GregoryNP

GM saved a few pennies by using an inferior part in the ignition switch fiasco . Lexus seems to have saved a few pennies with the control arm bushings. Wonder of there have been accidents from the failure and a potential class action someday.

Devh

They didn't save anything. All manufactures are always on the lookout to save money to make their cars competitive. Toyota does this also however they design a cheaply made part to be reliable, and adopt their cars as the parts bin variety. Going after a manufacture for using a poorly designed cheaply made part is usually not intentional but negligent because it didn't work. If it worked despite being poorly designed and cheap nobody would even care. When a part goes wrong then they start playing the blame game and it becomes political.

In regard to bushings they are a wearable item that fail on all cars eventually and some last longer then others. The redesign of the control arm bushings was probably a minor tweak to address higher then normal premature failures but it doesn't mean that all of the early cars will suffer, just a small percentage.
If you go on other auto forums you will always find some issue with premature failure of the control arms. My BMW 5 series was notorious for it and so is my Honda which I had replaced last year.
Small potatoes but unfortunately unjustly expensive if you get it done by the dealership.
98% of the time a bushing failure will give you plenty of warning, months before it even remotely becomes a safety issue and if you drive with broken bushings then its on you for being negligent with other peoples safety.
Same thing with the brakes as it either works or lets you know something is really wrong with it, not like in the movies.

roadfrog

DevH nailed it. I have 80k miles on my car and the bushings are A-1. I've had them checked a couple of times by two different shops/dealerships.

Like DevH, my Acura (Honda), had to have it's bushings replaced at 70k miles and needs some more bushing work done at the current mileage of 110k miles. My wife's BMW needed them at 60k miles.

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

I doubt all the bushings would fail unexpectedly and completely, causing loss of steering control. So I don't think there will be any ultimate recall. It is a ride quality/customer satisfaction issue, though.

Devh

The only reason people complain about it so much and has everyone worried is mainly because it's freakishly expensive.
The industry on the whole is suffering with all kinds of rubber related issues because people think it's a great idea to save the environment without actually understanding the repercussions. It's because of feel good policies that has the manufactures hands tied not because they are trying to be being cheap.