Toyota to resume Grand Highlander, Lexus TX sales

The Toyota Grand Highlander and its luxury twin counterpart, the Lexus TX, are slated to go back on sale at dealerships after a stop-sale order was issued for the vehicles.

Context: Dealers were ordered by Toyota to stop selling the new three-row SUVs in June due to concerns that the driver’s and passenger’s side curtain airbags might fail to deploy if the window was down. 

• The initial stop-sale was prompted by a failed NHTSA audit leading to a recall affecting 158,000 vehicles, including about 4,000 in dealer inventories.

The result: Production of the Toyota Grand Highlander and Lexus TX at the Toyota Indiana plant was idled. 

The good news? Toyota has finally issued a fix for dealers to complete, which includes modifying the anchoring systems of the airbags. 

• Toyota plans to resume production of the SUVs by the end of October. 

What they’re saying: "Obviously, the Grand Highlander is a stone-cold home run, but we need to be able to sell them," Mark Montenero, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council, told Automotive News. "Right now, we have a vehicle line that we can't sell that's one of the hottest in the industry. But they'll fix it, and they'll do it right. That's what Toyota does."

Big picture: With a starting MSRP of $43,320 and $55,050 (respectively), the three-row Toyota Grand Highlander and Lexus TX SUVs are seen as key additions to the Toyota and Lexus vehicle portfolios, amid the marketability of larger SUV options.

• During the first half of 2024, Toyota averaged about 9,200 Grand Highlander sales a month, and sales for the Lexus TX averaged about 3,500 each month.

Go deeper (4 min. read): Car recalls are out of control... why?

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