Lexus GX 460, more US Toyota problems

[Rob]

It seems that Toyota has more problems. What amazes me is that if a car has poor ESP then it is deemed so unsafe that people should not buy it! I have heard of far worse ESP problems, a family friend had a Renault Laguna a few years back which on 2 occasions locked the rear wheels on a motorway, Renault said there was nothing they could do

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here is a link to the magazine: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/lexus/

 

[Andrew Prince]

It seems to be Toyota-bashing time. Everyone knows most French cars are temperamental so no surprise when they give trouble. The Japanese auto industry has built its reputation on reliability, so when there are problems of any sort, the press love to jump all over them.
Remember too that Toyota has overtaken all the (crappy) Yank manufacturers as the biggest seller of cars in the US - the Americans are mightily embarrassed by this and are very keen to shoot down the uppity Japs for daring to take over their market. The fact that the Toy safety issues in the US are much more minor than many of the defects in American cars is unimportant - politics have got in the way

 

[Rob]

It certainly seems to look like that, the media needs to sell news and Toyota bashing sells now

I do wonder if this affects the 150 here, Tony have you tried doing this?

 

[Andy Harvey]

Yep the power off oversteer is no worse than many american cars who have had power on and power off oversteer for years followed by rapid changing to understeer once engine weight gets the better of the situation - I have driven many American cars, owned them and I love them but you learn to deal with the handling traits of them. Can't see why anyone would ever drive an LC in the way they do in the test. Anyone who did that would go straight to the head of the Darwin list in my opinion and would do the world a favour by dying quickly before they did any more harm (sorry starting to sound like Jezza there for a minute )

 

[Crispin]

I was reading about it this morning and surely there is no one who expects a tall, heavy, sloppy suspensioned vehicle to handle the moose test like a Lotus? With the best traction control in the world, you will not overcome stability. American cars have long been known to go straight on bendy roads.
I had an Explorer which was recalled for it's tip over feature.

It's been said though, hysterical press with nothing better to do. BBC, SKY, CNN - they all the same. Next week it'll be something else

 

[Gary Stockton]

Anything that the Labour party can get in the press to divert attention is going to be big I think

 

[Andy Harvey]

Oooh you cynic Gary still I agree with what you say, should be worth a few points on the opinion polls.

 

[TonyP]

I wonder how much background pressure/work the big US manufactures are doing on this. It's so in their interests to discredit Toyota.

 

[Tommo&Claire]

It seems to be Toyota-bashing time. Everyone knows most French cars are temperamental so no surprise when they give trouble. The Japanese auto industry has built its reputation on reliability, so when there are problems of any sort, the press love to jump all over them.
Remember too that Toyota has overtaken all the (crappy) Yank manufacturers as the biggest seller of cars in the US - the Americans are mightily embarrassed by this and are very keen to shoot down the uppity Japs for daring to take over their market. The fact that the Toy safety issues in the US are much more minor than many of the defects in American cars is unimportant - politics have got in the way

Couldn't have put it better, how does a powerful government deal with it's threats? It discredit's them....

 

[Gary Stockton]

Hmm - Tommo, you been paying attention in Staff Officer's training again?

 

[Ken]

Yes, was in the US a couple of weeks ago and the radio "auto advertising" is in yer face Toyota bashing, eg: "I've always bought Toyota but I need to be sure that my next car will keep me and my family safe - that's why we're choosing a GM......(whatever brand it was)". Plenty more along those lines.
I guess you can't blame them but a bit disconcerting when you hear it hour after hour on commercial radio.
PS: Why are US cars so crap and the build quality so poor. I shut the door on a hired (new) Ford 4x4 and it sounds like they've left a bag of nuts and bolts behind the door lining. (Perhaps they have ?)

 

[Andy Harvey]

Yeah it's such a shame that US quality went to the dogs. Unfortunately Trim and electrics have always let them down (amazing when the US custom car scene is so good at that part). Yank cars and small trucks from the 50s, 60s and 70s were always built well in the important bits - engines you could kill with an atom bomb, chassis steel so thick that even if it rotted to hell and back you could still weld it back together and transmissions and running gear that were as strong as the engines. Unfortunately while the vehicle would always get you where you wanted to go, you were never sure if the window winders would still be on the car at the end, whether the lights / radio / A/C would still work but in the end no matter what the weather they would always start. It's when it all started getting to complicated for them that it all fell apart and they had to spend all their time blaming everyone else rather than themselves for the ills of the US motor industry. Detroit killed Detroit, not Tokyo or Europe.

 

[Crispin]

These are the same guy who send people into space?

 

[Andy Harvey]

Can't remember which of the Astronauts who called to our attention that there they were sitting on top of a metal tube full of high explosive that was built by the lowest bidder kind of worrying though and amazing it ever happened and yet at the same time they had in the same country the highly explosive Ford Pinto.