this is not a very complex test to duplicate, lauren. i m assuming that toyota lexus has already done this test. you would like to think so. consumer reports is an extremely reliable source. many consumers rely on them. i know david and i know they re reliable and what they do and how they test. however, the average consumer would run into that situation on an onramp or offramp depending upon which one they re on. when is the last time they were trained on how to handle that. is drivers and people that test drive cars, we know what to do when the cars get out of hand. the average consumer has no clue. that s when the trouble starts to occur. if this happens to a consumer, they don t need another nightmare even know it s a beautiful luxury car. lauren, it shouldn t happen, though, right? the electronic stability control system should take care of this. and has taken care of this in past models of this vehicle. so what s the problem for toy a toyota, lexus, and what s the fix? well
recommendation. what do you make of toyota s response that it is mystified by the report? i talked to toyota a little earlier. they were alerted of this problem last week. they sent engineers to consumer reports immediately. there were there on friday. however, it was raining so they couldn t replicate the test there. they re trying to do it and trying to see what the actual problem is. they say their tests are extremely similar, the ones toyota uses, just different speeds and angles. they didn t experience this problem before the car went on sale. is this a possibility we could see a recall with this vehicle as a result of this test by consumer reports? oh, most definitely. if toyota finds a problem, then they could replicate it, it s probably a software issue. it s all about the stability control system, which is all software related. they could do a recall. you could take your car in and get the software fixed pretty quickly if they do issue a recall. does nhtsa get involv
about 5,000 cars have been sold. consumer reports says do not buy this car. they found significant and severe rollover risk during turns. they do all of these controlled testings, four different drivers found the same problem. they got another vehicle, found the same problem on this one. they say it is not isolated. it is a problem with the electronic stability control system. it manages the brakes and the steering together. so if you re going up an off ramp and there is some sort of an obstacle, you turn quickly, there could be a real rollover risk for people with this car. if you have this car, they say be very careful on any on ramps or off ramps because they re very concerned about the stability of the vehicle in those circumstances. take it to your toyota dealer and demand a fix. if you don t own this car and thinking about it, consumer reports in a very rare warning saying do not buy this car.
toyota spokesman not commenting on this report. again this is brand new. what do you do if you take it to the dealer and say, listen, we have no guidance, no warnings from toyota that there s any problem with this. consumer reports is saying you have to demand and take it in that they demand they address this. this is the electronic stability control system. we don t know what the fix could be. but these are the nonprofit consumer reports highly respected doing their own testing on this vehicle. they say they have found a very serious problem. again, that is the 2010 lexus gx 460. this is the newest model. they did not have the concerns with the 2009? no. the car had been has been redone and redesigned in the past year. they do not have these concerns for prior models. so very good point. christine, thanks so much. we ll be talking about this throughout the morning. at 6:30, we re breaking it down with the managing editor for consumer reports cars and
operating systems or softwares that pop-up once the products are on the market and then are fixed. i suspect that that s what this is. this is a stability control system is a computer system. and there may be some glitch in the software that they can very easily update. i mean anybody who has one of these things can get it fixed. but they re very, very complex products now, much more complex than they were in the past. what about that, jon? is that simply this electronic stability unit and it could be updated with new software, new programming to overcome this problem? that s one of the benefits of esc. it allows you to play with the computers and software. in the past, the last time we had a vehicle like this, it was a mechanical fix. it was inherent in the vehicle s design. nowadays, can you go in there and toyota can evaluate the system and tweak it a little bit. so why did you go about testing this? how did you discover this? did you have complaints? did this occur in the rea