Lexus had previously suspended sales of the GX 460 SUV after Consumer Reports rated the vehicle as unsafe. During routine tests, Consumer Reports discovered that if a driver took a sharp turn and abruptly lifted his foot off of the accelerator, the rear of the vehicle would skid sideways dangerously. This presented a rollover risk as the rear would skid to a degree that would likely cause the back tire to leave the pavement or hit a curb.

Lexus has offered free loaner cars to its GX 460 customers until a solution could be found.

Effective April 19, Toyota is officially recalling the Lexus GX 460 worldwide and the Land Cruiser Prado, which is not available in the US. The recall affects 21,000 Prados worldwide and 13,000 GX 460s. About 9,400 of the GX 460s were sold in the US, the rest were sold in the Middle East and Russia.

Dealers will update the software on the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system, which should correct the problem. All dealers are expected to have the software update available by the end of April and Toyota will begin sending letters to customers in early May. The software update is expected to take roughly one hour.

Toyota is set today to sign an agreement with the US government to pay a record $16.375 million fine. The NHTSA fined Toyota for failing to notify it of a sticking accelerator defect within five days of becoming aware of the problem.

It is the maximum fine allowed by law for a single violation.

Paying the fine will not release Toyota from any criminal or civil liability caused by the defect and does not preclude additional fines related to other recall issues.

Toyota failed to report the defect for at least 4 months after becoming aware of the problem, according to documents obtained by the government.

Once Toyota signs the paperwork, it will have 30 days to pay the fine.

Toyota will launch a voluntary Safety Recall involving approximately 600,000 first- and second-generation Sienna 2WD minivans sold in the United States to address potential corrosion in the spare tire carrier cable.

This condition may appear on certain 1998 through 2010 model year Siennas that have been operated in cold climate areas with high road salt use. Continued prolonged exposure to road salts may cause excessive corrosion of the carrier cable in some of these vehicles. In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tire could become separated from the vehicle, a road hazard for following vehicles that increases the likelihood of a crash.

Toyota is currently working to develop a remedy for this condition. Until a remedy is developed, customers will receive an interim notice instructing them to bring their vehicle to a dealership for a preliminary inspection.

Once the remedy has been developed, customers will receive a second notice regarding steps to correct the problem.

In addition to the District of Columbia, vehicles originally sold or currently registered in the following cold climate states with high road salt usage are covered by this recall: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Owners of vehicles in other states will receive a separate Special Service Campaign notification that includes details on how to obtain an inspection if they desire. Toyota will perform the same inspection and repair for those vehicles at no charge. The inspection will take approximately 30 minutes depending on the dealer’s work schedule.

Toyota is offering a free inspection of all affected vehicles regardless of whether or not they are from states affected by the recall.

Toyota has asked dealers to suspend sales of the Lexus GX 460 SUV after Consumer Reports issued a safety warning regarding it.

After tests done by Consumer Reports indicated a potential rollover problem with the SUV, it designated the vehicle with as, “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk.” The special designation hasn’t been used since 2001 when Consumer Reports gave it to the Mitsubishi Montero Limited.

In response, Toyota has suspended sales of the 2010 GX 460 and is offering a loaner car to any of the 5,000 people who have already purchased one, “until a remedy is available.”

Toyota maintains that the GX 460 meets or exceeds all government safety regulations.

Consumer Reports found the defect in a test for “lift-off oversteer.” In the test, the driver enters a sharp turn and lifts his foot off of the accelerator. Tests showed that the GX 460′s rearend, “slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic stability control system was able to regain control.”

The test simulates a driving condition such as when a driver takes an exit and suddenly encounters an obstacle, for example. Natural impulse is to suddenly take one’s foot off of the accelerator.

With the rear of the vehicle skidding out so dramatically, it is likely that the rear tire will strike a curb or leave the pavement, inviting the rollover risk.

The Toyota 4Runner shares the same platform as the GX 460, but it passed similar tests done by Consumer Reports.

In response to continued issues of unintended acceleration, Toyota has created a process for “quick evaluation of unintended acceleration reports.” The program, called the “SMART Business Process” (“Swift Market Analysis Response Team”) is intended to speed up the process by which Toyota deals with each report of unintended acceleration.

In each case, Toyota hopes to respond to customers within 24 hours to set up a “comprehensive on-site vehicle analysis.”

Toyota hopes to diffuse complaints caused by its poor handling of recent massive recalls- both from a legal standpoint as well as from a customer-satisfaction standpoint. It also hopes that the program will restore some faith in its quality.

It may be too little, too late once again for Toyota as it continues to trail behind its problems and customer concerns. Given the severity of this issue (from either a safety or even just a PR perspective), a 24-hour response time is something Toyota should have been doing some time ago. Advertising it may just seem disingenuous.

On January 16, 2010, as Toyota executives debated how to handle the question of sticking gas pedals. As the executives debated the situation, then Irv Miller urged his colleagues to make the information public.

“We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over. We need to come clean.” Miller added, “We better just hope that they can get NHTSA to work with us in coming with a workable solution that does not put us out of business.”

As other executives argued that the problem should be kept quiet until a solution could be found, Miller expressed his concerns that the accelerator problem was a safety issue and that Toyota needed to act quickly in announcing that.

Miller was group vice president for environment and public affairs at the time. His February 1 retirement was announced on December 16. His e-mails are a part of the 70,000 pages of documents that the government has received from Toyota as part of its investigation of the automaker’s handling of its recall issues.

Toyota issued a statement saying that it, “does not comment on internal company communications and cannot comment on Mr. Miller’s email.”