More Toyota Woes

Image from LATimes

Another Toyota recall? Well, at least they didn't stonewall this time. Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.

[Excerpt]

Toyota suspends sales of Lexus GX 460

Toyota asked dealers to temporarily suspend sales of the new 2010 Lexus GX 460 after Consumer Reports issued a safety warning on the SUV.

"We are taking the situation with the GX 460 very seriously and are determined to identify and correct the issue Consumer Reports identified," said Mark Templin, Lexus Group vice president and general manager, in a prepared statement. . .

Read more at: CNN

Car Porn? Toyota Suing Porn Star "Lexus"

Photo from source, PageOneQ (with edits!)

This is only the second or third "beefcake" shot in the 1,200+ post history of this blog. And I'm posting it because I find this sort of hilarious.

Apparently, Toyota has it's bumpers in a knot over the fact that a gay porn star is using the name "Lexus," which is the same name as their luxury brand. So they're suing. If you remember back to the Lexus division's creation, Toyota had to fight off at least two different lawsuits for essentially the same thing: copyright infringement.

One suit was from the Mead paper company, which carried a paper stock called "Lexis." The other suit was from the search engine, "LexisNexis." Both cases were dropped because nobody thought anyone would confuse a ream of paper or a web service with a car. Duh. Does Toyota think that someone would confuse a gay porn star with an RX 330?

[Excerpt]

Toyota Threatens Legal Action Over Gay Porn Star Named 'Lexus'

What does Toyota have to do with gay porn? A lot, apparently. The U.S. branch of the Japanese automaker recently sent a communiqué to Daniel Grangier, president and CEO of Switzerland-based EBOYS Studios, regarding one of his stars, who goes by the screen name 'Lexus'. . .

Read more at: PageOneQ