VIDEO: Consumer Reports Re-Tests, Blesses Lexus GX 460

Alright, "blessing" is too strong a term. "Lifting the curse" is probably a better way to put it. After all, a month of being labelled a "Don't Buy" by Consumer Reports is the nearest thing to a kiss of death the automobile industry knows.  But it's all better now, right?

Lexus Resumes GX 460 Sales

After 15 days off the market, you can buy a Lexus GX 460 again.

Toyota suspended sales of the SUV after Consumer Reports branded it a "safety risk" for an electronic stability program that intervened too late in emergency maneuvers. Toyota replicated the problem, and came up with a software fix

Story from Reuters via Automotive News (free registration required).

Report: Lexus GX 460 Recall Imminent

Here's how stacked the deck is against Toyota. When it does respond, and respond quickly, the Feds leak it so they can say it first.

A "NHTSA official...who declined to be identified" says Toyota is about to issue a recall for the Lexus GX 460 after replicating the same stability issues that caused Consumer Reports to brand it a "safety risk" last week.

Full story from Automotive News.

UPDATE: Toyota, having no choice, has made it official. Details here.

CHP Helps Runaway Toyota Prius Driver Stop Car on San Diego Area Freeway

More details can be read here. Note the correction in the article that the California Highway Patrol now says their patrol car was not used as a brake...but that it was tapped by the Prius only as it rolled to a stop, after the driver was able to shut the car down.

San Diego County is where an off-duty CHP officer and three members of his family were killed last summer in one of the first highly-publicized incidents linked to claims of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

The driver in this case says he took his Prius with a recall notice to his local dealer, where he was told his car wasn't part of the gas pedal recall and repair.

Toyota Recalls Prius, Lexus HS250 h Hybrids

It's official. Toyota is recalling a total of 148,500 hybrid vehicles in the U.S...133,000 2010 Toyota Prius models and 14,500 of the new Lexus HS250h...to update software in the cars' anti-lock brake systems.

Given the prickly retaliatory mood at least one Toyota dealer group is in about "excessive" reporting of Toyota's current issues, we'll let Toyota itself fill in the details of the recall with its official press release. Read it all...there's also a recall of 7,300 4-cylinder Camrys for an unrelated brake problem mentioned in the final paragraph.