Embattled car maker Toyota has suspended worldwide sales of its Lexus GX 460 sport utility vehicle due to a rollover risk at high-speed, and said it will conduct safety tests on all its SUVs.
The move followed Toyota's suspension of GX sales in the US and Canada on Wednesday after US magazine Consumer Reports gave the SUV a rare 'Don't Buy: Safety Risk' rating.
'The company has decided to suspend the SUV's sales worldwide, which means also in Russia and Middle East after North America,' a Toyota spokeswoman said, referring to the other markets where the vehicle is sold.
In the latest blow to the car giant's reputation, the report claimed that when pushed to its limits, the rear of the GX 'slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic stability control system was able to regain control'.
Having now suspended GX sales worldwide, Toyota said it will work on identifying potential safety risks in the model which has sold 6,000 units, as well as its other SUVs.
'We are in the middle of analysing what the problem is. Once it becomes clear, the company will decide whether to recall and repair the cars,' the spokeswoman said.
Concerned GX 460 owners will be offered a loan car in the interim.
The car maker will also 'start testing all the other SUV models, including the Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser Prado and Rav4,' the spokesman said, adding that Toyota will continue to sell those models.
The latest development is a setback to the car maker's efforts to regain consumer confidence after it recalled millions of cars worldwide since late 2009, mostly over a series of problems linked to 'unintended acceleration'.
Toyota, which overtook General Motors in 2008 as the top-selling car maker, has been bedevilled by a series of safety issues that have raised questions about whether it sacrificed its legendary quality to become world number one.
The recalls have caused an outcry in the US, with Toyota executives hauled over the coals in the US Congress and the company's previously stellar reputation for safety left in tatters.
Out of more than eight million vehicles recalled worldwide, more than six million have been in the US, mainly for sudden acceleration problems but also for brake-system issues on some hybrid vehicles.
The company has been hit with at least 97 lawsuits seeking damages for injury or death linked to sudden acceleration and 138 class action lawsuits from customers suing to recoup losses in the resale value of Toyota vehicles. The company faces a record $16.4m fine in the US for its failure to notify authorities quickly about vehicle safety problems.
Toyota recently announced it would reshape its global operations as part of efforts to 'regain consumer confidence' by boosting transparency and speeding up the decision-making process for recalls.
