Toyota Issues Recall for 242,000 Prius and Lexus HS 250h Hybrids Over Brake Glitch

Japan's Toyota group said on Wednesday that it will conduct a worldwide voluntary safety recall of around 242,000 Toyota Prius and Lexus HS 250h hybrid vehicles made between March and October 2009 (2010MY), including approximately 87,000 cars in the United States. Read more »

Toyota Prius and Lexus HS 250h Class-Action Lawsuit Dismissed by California Court

If there’s one thing Toyota has in abundance in the U.S., apart from sales and models, it is lawsuits. This time, though, the Japanese automaker scored a victory as U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in California denied a class-action lawsuit by owners of Prius and Lexus models.

More specifically, the judge denied four car owners’ request to represent other owners of 2010 Prius and Lexus HS 250h models in California over a 2010 recall for a software upgrade that fixed an issue with the cars’ ABS system.

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Lexus Ushers in a Facelift for the JDM 2013 HS 250h

While Lexus quietly axed the slow-selling HS 250h from its North American lineup in early 2012, only two and-a-half years after launch, it continues to offer the executive compact sedan in its home market of Japan.

In fact, Lexus has released a revised version of the hybrid model that brings its styling more in line with the rest of the cars in its range.

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Voluntary Recall of 778,000 Toyota RAV4 SUVs and Lexus HS 250h Sedans

The Toyota group is initiating a voluntary recall of 760,000 Toyota RAV4 SUVs from the 2006 to early 2011 model years and 18,000 Lexus HS 250h hybrid sedan from the 2010 model year to repair a suspension problem that could lead to a crash.

The Japanese carmaker said that its engineers determined that if the nuts on the rear suspension are not tightened properly after a rear wheel alignment service, the suspension arms might rust and possibly even separate.

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Who Knew? Lexus Ceased Production of HS 250h in January 2012!

Just because the Toyota Group is the king of hybrids does not mean that all of its products are a runaway success. Take Lexus' HS 250h dedicated hybrid sedan, which was introduced in North America in August of 2009, for example.

In 2010, Lexus sold a mediocre 10,663 units of the HS 250h, which at the time was priced from $34,200. The following year was worse, much, much worse with sales plummeting 73 percent to a pitiful 2,864 units or less than 240 cars per month.

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