Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing has issued a safety recall affecting certain examples of the 2018 through 2021 Lexus LS 500 and 2018 through 2020 Lexus LS 500 Hybrid. As per documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an estimated 509 luxury sedans equipped with the Executive Package may require front passenger seat adjustments.
Subject vehicles feature 10-way power front passenger seats unique to the aforementioned package. The front passenger seat can move forward to create room for the rear occupant footrest activation. The front passenger seat is equipped with an occupant classification system that – as implied – helps the supplemental restraint system determine the front passenger airbag's deployment strategy depending on the weight of the occupant.
Toyota claims that potential interference between the stopper and seat frame in the area of the OCS sensor may lead to incorrect detection of the passenger load, therefore increasing the risk of injury to the front passenger. This condition also goes against sections 5, 15, and 20 of US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208. Toyota Boshoku Corporation is the supplier that manufactured the suspect front passenger seats.
Lexus dealers nationwide have already been instructed to inspect the seat for any interference between the stopper and frame. If found, the occupant classification system sensor will be recalibrated after the service technician adjusts the stopper. Owner notifications will be mailed in the period between June 2, 2014 and June 16, 2014.
Affected 500s were manufactured at the Tahara plant in Japan from August 1, 2017 to April 9, 2021. As for the hybrids, make that February 21, 2017 through June 1, 2020. Tahara is the home of the LS since the original rolled out in 1989 for the 1990 model year. At the moment of reporting, Tahara also produces the big Land Cruiser, the smaller Land Cruiser Prado, and the all-new 4Runner.
Photo: Lexus
The most foolproof way of determining whether your 500 or 500 Hybrid is included in this recall or not is the 17-character vehicle identification number. Simply run it on the NHTSA's website or on the Lexus brand's US website. Alternatively, owners can get in touch with the nearest dealer.
In the first quarter of the year, LS deliveries totaled 247 units in the United States of America, up from 234 examples of the breed in the first quarter of 2023. Over the entire calendar year, LS racked up 2,234 sales in 2023 in this part of the world. A bit of a disappointment compared to the BMW 7 Series (10,811 deliveries) and Mercedes-Benz S-Class (12,430 deliveries), which should come as no surprise due to the lack of an eight-cylinder mill.
It's hard to understand why Toyota decided on a free-breathing V8 for the LC 500 and a twin-turbo V6 for the LS 500. Although the sixer is more frugal and develops pretty good numbers for its displacement, six-cylinder engines don't have the same prestige as eight-cylinder lumps, especially when it comes to the full-size luxury segment.
For model year 2024, the LS starts at $80,685 sans destination charge with rear-wheel drive and the 416-pony sixer. The rear-drive 740i and the all-wheel-drive S 500 4MATIC, by comparison, retail at $96,400 and $117,300 from the outset.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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