2021 LEXUS ES350 — Problems, Recalls & Safety Data

While driving my 2021 Lexus ES 350 on a Interstate Highway 495 known as the Long Island Expressway my vehicle went over a small pot hole in the road way and the tires side wall was punctured resulting in a flat tire. I replaced the tire having only 4,555 miles on this new vehicle. Following this incident I once again drove over obstruction more than 4 inches and had both the drivers side tire and the drivers side rear tire side walls punctured with the additional damage of the drivers side front rim so badly damaged it had to be replaced. My specific safety issue is these low profile tires are less than 4 inches from the rim AND CAN NOT ACCEPT THE STRESS OF A "NOMINAL POT HOLE TO PREVENT PUNCTURING OF THE SIDE WALL OF THE TIRE AND ARE UNSAFE UNDER "NORMAL ROAD HAZARDS THAT OTHER TIRES DO NOT EXPERIENCE THAT ARE NOT LOW PROFILE TIRES. Tire is Bridgestone Turanza EL440. Called Lexus. They disallow any other tire or rim except the low profile to result in voiding of warranty. What can I do to remedy this safety issue at my own expense ?

The contact owns a 2021 Lexus ES350. The contact stated while accelerating from a stop, the brakes inadvertently was activated. The automatic braking system engaged and the vehicle had to be shifted to park, turned off, and restarted to operate correctly. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic for diagnostic testing or repairs. The contact stated that several months later the failure recurred. The contact stated that while turning out of a parking lot the automatic braking system engaged and the vehicle had to be turned off and restarted to operate correctly. The dealer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that if the failure did not occur on the way to the dealer there was nothing that they could do. The vehicle was taken to the dealer after the 5th failure and the dealer was unable to determine a cause for the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and sent a field technician to the dealer who was also unable to determine the cause of the failure. A case was opened with the manufacturer. The approximate failure mileage was 8,000. Consumer called several times to speak to a case manager but not able to reach a field tech for over a month.

My car had 3 tire/wheel issues in less than 4 months. Left me stranded on the side of the road. Was told this is a common issue. Basically Lexus knows they have a problem but do not have plans to fix other than offer insurance. It is costly repair. The bigger issue is the safety one. I believe that sometime this will cause a severe accident. I felt so strongly I sold the car back to Lexus. We were surprised at the total lack of concern shown to us. We had 2 episodes in MI and 1 in FL. I was told that an office manger had 3 blow outs this year. Also another customer that had just had her car a week had a blow out. I will never purchase a car with Low profile tires of this kind. If your tires won't hold up you cannot feel safe.

My car had 3 tire/wheel issues in less than 4 months. Left me stranded on the side of the road. Was told this is a common issue. Basically Lexus knows they have a problem but do not have plans to fix other than offer insurance. It is costly repair. The bigger issue is the safety one. I believe that sometime this will cause a severe accident. I felt so strongly I sold the car back to Lexus. We were surprised at the total lack of concern shown to us. We had 2 episodes in MI and 1 in FL. I was told that an office manger had 3 blow outs this year. Also another customer that had just had her car a week had a blow out. I will never purchase a car with Low profile tires of this kind. If your tires won't hold up you cannot feel safe.

My opened vehicle doors can not be seen in the path of other vehicle drivers when standing outside the opened vehicle door blocking the light on the vehicle doors. To solve this problem I added a Fluorescent Yellow/Green Retro-Reflective Tape to the lower interior door edge of each vehicle door that is automatically illuminated by another vehicle drivers headlights at night to allow another vehicle a visual warning and the added time to allow accident avoidance to occur. I also contacted the New York City Dept. of Transportation that also includes the police department and learned that with the fleet of 31,000 vehicles they have they have a continuous upwards of 1,000 opened vehicle door collisions a year. I believe NHTSA is NOT REPORTING SPECIFICALLY INCIDENTS OF OPENED VEHICLE DOOR COLLISIONS because the specific type of incident is not included in the motor vehicle accident accident reports provided back to NHTSA. I request NHTSA include the following in accident reports OPENED VEHICLE DOOR to be included into my Petition for Rulemaking since non-reporting of opened vehicle door collisions is "grossly under or not reported'. It is my low estimate that in the United States upwards of 500.000 opened vehicle door collisions occur yearly and NHTSA has "just cause" to include these incidents in its reporting systems.