Lexus halts sale and production of GX 460 SUV due to safety risk
Consumer Reports assessed the GX 460 as a serious safety risk and gave it the “coveted” DO NOT BUY rating, writes Autospans.com.
CR says the problem is that the GX’s traction control doesn’t kick in fast enough when the car enters a hard turn and the driver doesn’t apply the brakes. Since the traction control doesn’t kick in, the GX kick’s its tail out (aka drifting) and enters a slide, which in itself is not a rollover risk, but if the car would hit a bump or a pothole while sliding, then it is at a risk of a rollover.
Lexus (a division of Toyota) decided to stop sales of the model, as well as production until it investigates the problem. All current owners have been urged to bring their car to a dealer and receive a loaner car.
There are more than a few problems with CR reasoning behind that.
Q: Who enters a turn at high speed in a tall SUV without hitting the brakes before or during the turn?
A: No one
Q: Who would let a tall SUV slide instead of counter-steering and correcting the problem almost immediately?
A: No one
Q: Lets say those two things do happen, what are the chances of there being a pothole or a bump in the middle of the highway that you were supposedly going very fast on and decided to turn rapidly?
A: None
According to Lexus, there have been ZERO accident reported due to this, and Lexus have received ZERO complaints from customers about this being a problem. Which in turn makes this more or less a non-problem.
Something Lexus should address? Maybe. A sever safety risk? Definitely not.
The Toyota Witch Hunt Saga continues…
Comments