It’s been a bad couple of months for Toyota. First there were the massive recalls with certain models to fix gas pedals that were malfunctioning. Now we learn that a well-regarded consumer magazine is telling readers not to buy one of the company’s high-end SUVs – the first time in nearly ten years Consumer Reports has issued such a warning.
Here’s what Consumer Reports had to say: “Consumer Reports has judged the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV a Don’t Buy: Safety Risk because of a problem we experienced during our standard emergency-handling tests. When pushed to its limits on our track’s handling course, the rear of the GX we bought slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic stability control system was able to regain control.”
Read the full review here.
To confirm what it found in the first test drive, CR tried a second vehicle. Same thing.
Check out the CR video below and watch the rea-end of the car go sideways. Toyota is looking into the report.
April 13, 2010
So, vehicles with a the center of gravity high above the ground are unsafe? What else is new? Car engineers should have learned that in high school, if not before. All the marketing-speak in the world about stability control won’t change Newton’s laws.