Even though a Lexus ES 350 was involved in a widely publicized accident before the recalls, Lexus sales are up about 5 percent so far in 2010 compared with last year. That is close to the average for other luxury brands.
By contrast, sales of models with the Toyota nameplate fell 15 percent.
Analysts said that sales of Lexus have held up partly because the brand is not included in the most serious recall for sticking accelerator pedals.
Lexus must therefore not have as many problems, right?
Yet on a per-vehicle basis, Lexus is responsible for more reports of unintended acceleration than the rest of Toyota, federal records show. And more than half of the roughly 300 such complaints to regulators since 2000 about Lexus ES and IS series models – the only two models subject to recall – involve vehicles from years that have not been recalled.
