Lexus Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over ES350 Airbags

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams
Business Wire reports that the law firm of Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has hit Lexus and corporate parent Toyota with a class action lawsuit relating to the ES350's airbag sensors. According to Lexusdefect.com, "many owners have found that these sensors are intermittingly turning off thereby creating a situation where… the air bag would not deploy." The lawyers also maintain that "company spokespersons have stated that there is a problem, but they do not know how to fix it." Without citing any statistical evidence to support the allegation, they "believe that there is strong evidence this problem effects every single ES 350" and warn "if you have not experienced this defect, that does not mean it is not present." They aren't asking much– just for Lexus to recall and re-purchase the cars at their full cost, give full refunds to lessors and "compensatory damages for all costs and loss of value."
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  • Johnson Johnson on Aug 01, 2007

    I haven't heard a soul complain about this problem. In fact, before today I had never heard about this period. If this was true, then in my internet travels of sites far and wide I would have heard ES owners complaining about this, and likely an NHTSA investigation underway already. I concur that this is just another frivolous lawsuit.

  • Nonce Nonce on Aug 01, 2007
    So, has anybody actually been injured by a non-functioning airbag sensors? I thought not. From discussions I've had with people in the car-safety industry, I can guarantee that this has indeed happened. Sensors are an incredibly complicated piece of software operated in extremely fierce and unpredictable environment. It's practically impossible to make them work correctly all the time. The airbag industry is absolutely rife with lawsuits. Even when an airbag works exactly as intended, lawyers still get involved, because airbags do cause minor injuries while blocking big ones, making an opening for the lawyers.
  • 210delray 210delray on Aug 01, 2007

    But we're talking about a weight sensor in the passenger seat that determines whether the front passenger airbag is disabled (will not deploy) or is enabled (can deploy). This can't be as complicated as the "regular" sensors that must decide in a split second whether or not to deploy the applicable airbags.

  • RobertSD RobertSD on Aug 04, 2007

    It's just a pointless lawsuit like most of them. You find someone disgruntled, and you file a lawsuit. I would have expected a lawsuit on the Camry's crappy transmission before anything that I've heard ZERO about (and by the way, it is a crappy tuning for the tranny, but not lawsuit or even recall worthy). I'm sure though, that if someone sued GM over this, everyone on this board would be commenting on GM's crappy quality and unsafe vehicles....

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