More Bad News For Toyota

[iwmakemh]

I want to defend Toyota, but I'm speechless right now lol FML

[Ferrer]

Apparently the car was indeed wrong.

Report: Toyota confirms Lexus GX handling issue, hoping to isolate issue soon — Autoblog

[LeonOfTheDead]

Apparently, all SUVs are wrong. As far as I'm concerned, that was a nice drift (and I'm not into drifting), and the car seems also pretty controlled. Had some worse moments in the Stilo I have to admit, felt much closer to roll over.

CR should test a bike.

[Matra et Alpine]

Rading the orignal reports my worst fears are confirmed ....

. It's possible this was done to try to make the handling more responsive and then rely on the ESC to keep things under control. As long as the ESC is doing its job, there's nothing wrong with this, but if the electronics don't do the job, drivers will have a real problem.

So , if they are right in that conjecture, then todays engineers are designing BAD HANDLING CARS and then fixing it with electronics. WOudl be better to have a SLOWER cornering stable car .... but the needs of the wannabees is always gonna win over the engineers at the marketing table

"As long as the ESC is doing it's job" is just 100% WRONG attitude

[IBrake4Rainbows]

It's a scary thought that engineers may be designing intentionally unstable cars with the knowledge the ESP will kick in during emergency manouvres. Don't planes have that? And when plane electronics fail, don't they crash also?

I get the importance of ESP etc - it's needed to keep morons from harming themselves, but creating cars that assist in that process isn't a good idea either.

Although, it could be said that any SUV with this high a centre of gravity would be in a similar position - The off camber cornering lift was something I foolishly carried out in My father's old Jeep Cherokee once - a car with no safety equipment to speak of. the high centre of gravity coupled with the shifting mass caused the tail to swing violently, and I spun.

So essentially the ESP has added a layer of complexity to a problem that was already there, while offering no real solution.

[Matra et Alpine]

I'd like to hear what speed it happened at.
The article indicated they do one lap "normal" and then another lap at limit.
Seems silly if they are chasing higher speeds by that second lap rather than reasonable expectation of what a driver SHOULD do.
Avoiding personal responsibility of the driver imho

[IBrake4Rainbows]

I don't know what speed they were doing, but I was doing more than I should have been - 50-60kp/h on a roundabout...

They did say they increased the speed to above their normal testing regime, I thought - that'd be what, 40mp/h?

[Ferrer]

Why would you want to make the handling of an SUV more responsive in the first place?

[Matra et Alpine]

The article talked about a 50mph imit, but thatr was BEFORE the part on the "pushing it to extreme" comments. So at least 50 and possibly higher ? What the F*** do they expect from an SUV. For me comes back to selling the wrong tool to idiots. Nobody demands a recall if some idiot points a gun at his foot and pulls the trigger ... do they

[Ferrer]

And not only that, but doesn't most recalls and suings and stop selling and all this sort of things seem to happen only in the US?

[Matra et Alpine]

"Most liekly to be sued by shyster lawyers ripping off stupid customers"

[Commodore GS/E]

Just scrap all SUVs... everybody knows they make no sense at all.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Rading the orignal reports my worst fears are confirmed ....

So , if they are right in that conjecture, then todays engineers are designing BAD HANDLING CARS and then fixing it with electronics. WOudl be better to have a SLOWER cornering stable car .... but the needs of the wannabees is always gonna win over the engineers at the marketing table

"As long as the ESC is doing it's job" is just 100% WRONG attitude

That's not the original report, words come from Autoblog, and they are just assuming.

I can't see decent engineers/automakers just relying on ESp...oh wait, MB A Classe, anyone?!

Seriously, even if Toyota admitted something is wrong with that SUV, I think this is just because of their recent PR issues so they need to look like they are hyper-safe now. The whole story is pointless, and the speed carried by the SUV when "it almost rolled over" was much higher than 50, despite the fact that it wasn't rolling over at all and that if the problem is that it could have hit...something...then the problem is still valid for whatever kind of car.

Jesus, even F1 cars managed to roll over on 10 cm of sand. Yes, sand is deformable, but an F1 barely weight 600 kg and has a CG height of, don't know, 30 cm?!

Tomorrow I'm going to take the bus, and ask the driver to hit the sidewalk while cornering at 60 km/h. Sue him.