Toyota bashing in US of A continues again with greater intensity. This time, the victim is the Lexus GX 460 SUV, a left hand drive only model that is predominantly sold in North American markets, sharing many components with the Toyota 4-Runner SUV. According the Consumer Reports, the GX's electronic stability control or VSC in Toyota speak, would react too slow to restore the vehicle's composure when the throttle is suddenly lifted in a high speed corner, resulting in what is called a "lift-off oversteer." The news received great coverage across America, with many of portraying the GX as a very dangerous SUV that could easily flip over.
Toyota have lost many friends, especially with recent revelations that the company knowingly covered up defects in its cars since 2006. It's something you would expect the old GM to do, but not Toyota, the company who lectured the world on solving problems, putting customer first and understanding their needs etc etc. But certainly this is getting way overboard. Lift-off oversteer? They gotta be kidding! If we are concerned about lift-off oversteer why don't CR discourage sales of all rear-engined rear wheel drive or short wheelbase mid-engine cars? Maybe we should stop people from driving Porsche 911s, Lotus sports cars, quirky hatchbacks like the old Renault Clio V6 and the assortment of hyper-fast Ferraris that will bite your arm off if you don't give it due respect, on grounds as ridiculous as lift-off oversteer!
If you head into a corner too fast and realize that the turn is tighter than expected or took a wrong inside line that didn't allow to see further into the turn to notice an obstacle, and you crash - well that's because you're a complete idiot! It has little to do with Toyota's VSC for reacting too slow. Sure the VSC software can be improved, but the responsibility is on the driver to exercise proper judgement when driving a behemoth SUV, not Toyota playing the role of a nanny. Imagine if the European Union safety and transport authorities would inspect all cars for "dangerous lift-off oversteer" - anything from a humble Renault Megane R26.R to Koenigsegg, to TVRs to Caterhams etc etc would be banned! Thankfully, people in the rest of the world tend to exercise better judgement and take more responsibility for their own actions.
Every vehicle have different levels of dynamic capabilities dialed in by its chassis engineers, thus the different levels of intervention points for its ESC. Though you would expect a Lexus to be setup with a very "conservative" personality than say...a BMW X5. Thus it would be perplexing to learn that the Lexus VSC kicks in so late. It's something that most rational individual would shrug off as a quirky aspect, or maybe Toyota engineers do not think it is necessary because this is not how Lexus drivers drive. Either way it's not something as dramatic as what the media portrays it.
If you take tackle corners the way CR did in an SUV, then you are a complete loony whose driving license ought to be suspended in the first place.
Toyota have since suspended sales of all GX 460 in the US. The American media, in their bias state took this as a "chink" in the armour. It needs to be stressed that no accidents / complaints from owners were lodged regarding an "unstable GX 460."
Time to look into history (again). Back in the 1990s, the W168 Mercedes A-class was just launched. Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld, put it through an elk test. The A-class almost rolled over. Daimler's first reaction was to deny the problem. Constrast this with Toyota's immediate reaction to suspend sales of all Lexus GX 460 and promised to look into the matter. But luckily, Daimler very quickly realized that the world is no longer the same as before, when word spread quickly and the same test was replicated by many other magazines across Europe with the same result, some of them actually flipping over. Even mainstream press covered the news widely. Daimler delayed no further and issued a global recall for all A-class to have them fitted with ESC as standard and had their chassis retuned with stiffer suspensions.
Toyota made a huge mistake in the past by covering up defects, but new boss Akio Toyoda has since moved the company on. The Lexus GX 460 is only as dangerous as any other SUV driven by a loony driver. VSC interventions as more than sufficient for most Lexus drivers, as clearly shown by the lack of evidence or complaints to link the problem with any accidents involving the GX.
There is a worry that this could set a precedent - that all future cars will be to set as idiot-proof as possible. Hairy chested cars and lairy handling cars will soon be a thing of the past. Already because of product liability concerns, ESC on many cars cannot be switched off. Maybe all future cars will have their ESC programmed to cut power at the slightest hint of a wheel slide. Already you cannot left-foot brake when at the wheel of some modern higher end cars, because the ESC / TC will just cut power, not allowing you to string up a sequence of corners smoothly. And because some Americans refuse to check their tire pressures regularly, and can't tell that the steering is heavier / acceleration is more sluggish / tire noise is higher / vehicle is slightly tilted one side because of an under-inflated Firestone tire in their Ford Explorer, a new law mandating tire pressure monitors for new cars in America had to be drawn up to avoid manufacturers being sued.
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