Not Again! Toyota Confronts Yet Another Safety Problem

Just when Toyota’s record-level incentive program had begun getting many buyers to forget about its massive safety recalls during the first quarter, there's fresh concern about a safety problem in a Lexus model—a danger so grave that it prompted Consumer Reports magazine to issue a rare warning against buying the vehicle at all.

On Tuesday, Toyota stopped worldwide sales of its 2010 Lexus GX 460 sport-utility vehicle, the brand’s largest SUV, after the consumer watchdog warned that the 460 had demonstrated a dangerous handling tendency in tests, one that could lead to rollovers and possibly cause “serious injury or death.”

Consumer Reports went so far as to advise against buying the 460, a stern caution that the organization hadn’t issued on any other vehicle it tested since the 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Limited. Apparently, the electronic stability control in the Lexus failed to prevent a degree of fish-tailing by the vehicle when test drivers took their foot off the accelerator as they proceeded through a turn that was unusually sharp.

The car-maker's response since the news broke also says a great deal about the need for swift action, and about another brand's value—that of Consumer Reports.

As Lexus VP and GM Mark Templin commented, "We are taking the situation with the GX 460 very seriously and are determined to identify and correct the issue Consumer Reports identified."

The company noted that it hadn’t had any reports of accidents or even of the condition flagged by Consumer Reports, and the federal government agreed.

Toyota's engineers had asked Consumer Reports if they could perform their own tests of the 460 on the test track, but were rejected in keeping with CR's "longstanding policy" of not allowing outside companies to use its test facilities.

Toyota now plans to test all its SUV models at a test facility in Japan, partly relying on Google satellite photos of the CR track. In the meantime the auto-maker, understandably anxious to reassure customers, will provide free loaner cars to any GX 460 owners who are now scared to drive them.

Still, the news was yet another black mark against Toyota after a series of similar setbacks have left many consumers bewildered, its dealers frustrated, and the company’s leaders sniping at one another and trying to regain Toyota’s long-running momentum.

About the only positive way for Toyota to look at this latest development is that it might be getting all of its bad safety news out of the way at once. But even the vaunted safety reputation of the Toyota brand can only sustain so much damage, even in the short term, as the company fights to restore faith with consumers.