More Misery For Toyota; Lexus Gx460 Sales Put On Hold

The heat on Toyota's Gas-Pedal recall has yet to settle

, and we have a new situation arising out of a 'Do Not Buy' recommendation given by the 'Consumer Reports' magazine. This time, the affected product from Toyota is the luxury SUV SX460.

As soon as the 'Consumer Report' gave its recommendation, Toyota took proactive action and asked the dealers not to sell the SX460 model until Toyota's engineers have had a look at the affected model to try and uncover the issue.

The magazine's head of automotive testing, Mr. David Champion, said that the Lexus SX 460 carries a rollover risk and poses safety risk to the occupants. He said that the SUV could lose traction on the rear end if the driver drove it at high speed and took off his foot off the accelerator while turning the SUV.

The recent fiasco involving Toyota cars and the subsequent recall that has affected 8 million vehicles has already caused a major embarrassment to Toyota. Mr. Akio Toyoda had to appear in front of the US Congress and he subsequently apologized to the US Congress and the Toyota brand users.

The latest 'don't buy' recommendation comes from a magazine that enjoys a high level of following for its independent and honest opinions and reviews. The rollover warning has been taken seriously by Toyota and while it is not leaving nothing to chance this time, it has also offered a 'loaner car' to GX 460 owners in the event of any safety concerns.

While GX460 is not the highest-selling SUV for Lexus, it is comparatively a newer model and has been on sale for past 3 months. It has sold little over 5000 units in the US. And by being proactive in this case, Toyota seems to be taking steps to arrest any imminent chances of the fiasco assuming alarming proportions as has happened in the past with the Prius recall.

Lexus's Vice-President. Mr. Mark Templin, sought to allay any apprehensions as he said "For more than 20 years, Lexus has made customer safety and satisfaction our highest priorities. We are taking the situation with the GX 460 very seriously and are determined to identify and correct the issue Consumer Reports identified"

It remains to be seen as to how this will impact the already bruised brand equity of Toyota. There is no doubt that the Company has taken steps in the seemingly right direction. However, its progress has been thwarted on more than occasion in the past and the latest Lexus issue may snowball into a safety issue in other Lexus variants as well.

You may do well to remember that this particular brand of Lexus is a newer one. And the recommendation from the 'Consumers Report' is something that is pretty uncommon, with the last such recommendation happening in the year 2001. On top of this, the specific recommendation comes after a test-drive did not go well.

As a result, pertinent questions will be raised on the safety of other Lexus models. You may be seeing more tests on other Lexus models in the near future, or should we say, in the coming few days.

For now, the automotive engineering team at Toyota is looking for answers to the latest issue with Lexus. We hope they are able to figure out the issue sooner.

by: Mark Smith

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