Consumer Reports lifts don’t buy rating from Lexus GX (w/ video)

2010 Lexus GX before and after fix

Consumer Reports announced today that it is lifting its “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” from the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV after Toyota completed its recall work that corrected the problem it displayed in one of the publication’s emergency handling tests.

Consumer Reports originally issued its “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” rating on April 13 after it experienced a problem in a test that is used to evaluate what is called “lift-off”oversteer.

“In this test, as the vehicle is driven through a turn, the driver quickly lifts his foot off the accelerator pedal to see how the vehicle reacts,” CR said. “When we did this with our GX 460, its rear end slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways. Although the GX 460 has electronic stability control, which is designed to prevent a vehicle from sliding, the system wasn’t intervening quickly enough to stop the slide.”

The failure of the electronic stability control to come on in time is considered a safety risk because in a real-world situation this could cause a rear tire to strike a curb or slide off of the pavement or cause the vehicle to roll over.

Toyota recalled about 10,000 of the Lexus GX units and suspended sales of the model in the United States in April after the magazine told readers not to buy them. On April 29, Toyota announced that it has started selling its Lexus GX after coming up with an update for its vehicle stability control system, which fixes the issue pointed out by Consumer Reports.

You can check out a video of Consumer Reports’ explanation after the jump.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Consumer Reports