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Filed under: Etc., Safety, Lexus, Toyota, Luxury
Lexus Safety Experience - Click above for high-res image gallery
You're an auto enthusiast. You know what all the acronyms on the buttons around your dash stand for. You understand that braking power can beat engine power 99% of the time. That feeling you get from activating the anti-lock braking system? It's not "scary" and you know you should keep your foot down. The problem is that the average driver or new-car shopper is not an enthusiast. Lexus knows this and it has created an event to help educate its salesmen around the country, who in turn can better explain the safety systems available on the cars in the showroom.
The
Lexus Safety Experience is a half-day event that highlights the safety tech fitted to most Lexus vehicles (some 2010 models and all 2011s). In short, it decodes the aforementioned acronym alphabet soup and then demonstrates exactly what each one does. What does VSC stand for? What is TRAC and VDIM? Is EBD something I should get tested for?
Answers: Vehicle Stability Control. Traction Control Activity Area and Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management. No, it means Electronic Brake-Force Distribution.
The terms might be foreign concepts to many of its customers, but Lexus is trying to change that. Not by telling its sales force what everything means - by showing them.
Photos by Drew Phillips/Copyright 2010 (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.Continue reading Lexus Safety Experience: Enthusiast knowledge made common
Lexus Safety Experience: Enthusiast knowledge made common originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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October 9th, 2010
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Filed under: SUV, Safety, Lexus, Luxury
According to
Consumer Reports, it's officially safe to wade back into
Lexus GX waters. The luxury SUV has been removed from the infamous "Do Not Buy" list after
Toyota solved the handling issues that landed the high-riding people mover in time-out. The Japanese automaker has corrected a software issue that allowed the vehicle to
lose control during emergency braking maneuvers. All new models will be sold with the fix, and current owners have been asked to bring in their vehicles so that the repair can be made free of charge.
About a month ago,
Consumer Reports found that during testing, the stability control on the new GX failed to reign in wild slides, thereby creating a potential recipe for a roll-over. The magazine's testing resulted in an internal investigation at Toyota that eventually produced the software fix. To date, no one has been injured due to the glitch.
While the Lexus GX is officially back in the game, it may take some time before buyers stop associating the truck with the Consumer Reports black list.
[Source:
Automotive News]
Continue reading Lexus GX officially off Consumer Reports "Don't Buy" list
Lexus GX officially off Consumer Reports "Don't Buy" list originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 07 May 2010 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 7th, 2010
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Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Videos, Lexus, Toyota
Toyota announced a
voluntary recall on Monday for some 9,400
Lexus GX 460 SUVs for wheel slippage that could occur during high speed turns. The company acted quickly in stopping sales of the GX after Consumer Reports gave the SUV a
Do Not Buy rating following its own tests that showed the big SUV had trouble maintaining composure during high speed maneuvers. Toyota's press release at the time stated the recall involves reprogramming software in the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system. We weren't sure how long it would take Toyota to develop a software patch, but apparently it didn't take long at all.
The main culprit appears to be the fact that the fuel tank is located on the left side of the vehicle. A full tank of gas plus the weight of a driver in left-hand-drive vehicle could result in some hairy handling when taking right turns at high speed. That is, at least, before Toyota's software fix for the VSC system.
Follow the jump to see the effect a little reprogramming has on how a vehicle behaves. In the video, two Lexus SUVs take a right turn at 59 miles per hour. One puts on an impromptu drifting session and the other makes it through just fine. We'll let you guess which one had its VSC reprogrammed.
[Source:
The Lexus Enthusiast]
Continue reading Video: Lexus GX recall remedy in action
Video: Lexus GX recall remedy in action originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 21st, 2010
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Filed under: SUV, Recalls, Lexus, Luxury
The moment
Lexus GX owners have been waiting for since
Consumer Reports first blacklisted the SUV last week has finally arrived - Toyota has recalled the vehicle. According to
The Detroit News, the Japanese manufacturer will announce the move later this afternoon, and the recall is expected to cover around 5,000 vehicles currently on the road. As expected,
Lexus dealers will install new traction control software to correct potentially dangerous handling characteristics.
Last week,
Consumer Reports branded the Lexus GX with its infamous "Do Not Buy" rating after the vehicle
failed a standard test. During hard downhill braking, the traction control would allow the vehicle's rear-end to step out much farther than normal. On a public road, CR says, that could lead to a rollover.
The GX recall joins a flurry of others that have cropped up over the past few months. From stuck accelerators to rusting frames and corroding spare tire carrier cables, Toyota has had to deal with one problem after another. At least this time the company acted swiftly enough to comply with department of transportation regulations. The carmaker recently
agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine for failing to recall 2.3 million vehicles in a timely enough fashion.
*UPDATED: Official Toyota press release added after the jump. 9,400 Lexus GX 460 units recalled.
[Source:
The Detroit News]
Continue reading DetNews: Toyota recalling Lexus GX to address rollover concern [*UPDATED*]
DetNews: Toyota recalling Lexus GX to address rollover concern [*UPDATED*] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 19th, 2010
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Filed under: SUV, Recalls, Safety, Lexus, Toyota
Toyota engineers in Japan have apparently replicated the lift-throttle oversteer problem recently found by
Consumer Reports on the new 2010
Lexus GX460 and are working on a fix. Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong has confirmed the existence of the handling problem to
The New York Times.
According to the NYT, as soon as CR discovered the problem, they contacted Toyota and worked with the automaker to make sure it understood the organization's test conditions. The engineers in Japan are currently trying to understand the root cause and come up with a robust solution.
For now, Toyota has stopped selling the GX globally until a corrective action is identified, and owners in the field can get loaner vehicles from their dealers until their SUVs are repaired. The solution could end up being either hardware changes or software updates to the stability control, or a combination thereof. For more on
the testing and what might be causing the oversteer problem, check out our in-depth analysis.
[Source:
The New York Times]
Report: Toyota confirms Lexus GX handling issue, hoping to isolate issue soon originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 17th, 2010
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Filed under: SUV, Recalls, Safety, Lexus, Toyota, Luxury
2010 Lexus GX460 - Click above for high-res image gallery
Further proof that
Toyota is taking
Consumer Reports' recent test and subsequent Do Not Buy rating of its
Lexus GX 460 sport utility vehicle seriously is a report from
AutoWeek that the Japanese giant is testing all of the stability control systems used on every single one of its SUV models.
Toyota took the decisive action of
issuing a stop sale on its new
Lexus GX 460 here in the United States (also in the Middle East and Russia) after CR found that it was possible to coax the big 'ute into a massive sideways slide when the throttle is lifted mid-corner, seemingly defeating the standard stability control in the process. Under certain situations, the tall, heavy vehicle could potentially roll over.
According to Toyota, none of the 5,400 or so owners here in the States have reported any issues with their GX 460's handling characteristics, but that doesn't mean the issue isn't serious.
Click here to read our own explanation as to what might be prompting the errant handling woes and expect to hear plenty more on these SUV handling issues in the coming weeks and months.
[Source:
AutoWeek]
Toyota reportedly testing all of its SUV's stability control systems originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 15th, 2010
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