The VSC system in Lexus is much worse than you've described. I had three occasions when the VSC in my GS430 kicked in, and each time it almost got me into a severe accident. Once it just cut off throttle when I was trying to make a left onto a busy street out of a driveway, and twice it started kicking the rear of the car around while I was taking a left at higher rate of speed, causing me to almost lose control. And the bad thing, is the system does not completely shut down when u press the VSC off button, because on the latest occasion I had it shut off, and it still kicked in. This system is plain dangerous, and its one of the major reasons why I'm putting my GS for sale this weekend.

 

You sure about that? Can you describe what happened? I had a 99 GS400 that I'm quite sure the VSC was completely off when I turned it off - runs on the 1/4-mile track and plenty of donuts proved that. Granted, it won't turn off ABS, and your throttle is still electronically controlled no matter what - so maybe it's an issue with your throttle control itself?

 

I posted a thread about it

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=203833

See posts #1 and #32. I think whats happening is when you shut VSC off, only traction control shuts off, but the system will still apply brakes or whatever its doing.

 

I concur. Same here!

 

It's a bit duplicitous to rail a car for its reliability and then praise Mercedes in the next sentence. If you hadn't noticed, MB is the single least reliable brand in the market today. Worse than Jaguar. Worse than Land Rover. And miles beneath either BMW or Audi.

News of the subpar manual-trannied M5 is disappointing, to be sure, but it's unfair to paint an entire brand because of a disappointing limited edition of a limited edition. I'm a member of one of the most active boards on the e46 3-series (which includes the M3) with almost 90k members, and I can't find a single post in the last 2.5 years regarding a blown engine. And these are guys who (like most car forums) ***** about their cars constantly. There are quite a few engines that are blown--as in forced induction--and running just fine, but none that are actually dead. My own 3er has been quite reliable, needing only a pair of (free) window regulators (which were faulty on pretty much every german car manufactured between 1999 and 2001), a Final Stage Resistor ($61) and a set of (free) brakes over its 7 years and 70k miles. My parents Avalon, while typical Toyota quality, has had more broken things than that.

 

Thanks for attempting to dispell a common myth.. I wonder where some truly get their info from regarding BMW reliability?? Not turning this into a debate so don't worry.. Every quarter in the BMW Magazine, they highlight owners of older BMW's with high mileage. In the latest issue which i just recieved in the mail yesterday, There is a gentleman Mr. Bartol who has a 1995 BMW 740I with 500,000 miles on the clock. His prior car was a 535 which had 225,000 which he traded in for this 740. Mr. Bartol had this to say about his 740 BMW thus far

These are great cars... Enjoy them and drive them, and do not buy into the falsehoods