If you'll recall, after the Lexus GX 460 failed Consumer Reports' emergency handling tests -- its electronic stability control failed to kick in with enough gusto, causing the back end to kick out and potentially posing a rollover problem -- the magazine issued a "don't buy" designation on the vehicle. Toyota responded by immediately pulling the vehicle, and promised a quick fix. And, according to Consumer Reports, it's done just that via a software upgrade.

On a retest, and after taking their vehicle to the dealer for said software upgrade, Consumer Reports testers found the problem was indeed fixed: no more skidding out, thanks to solid response from the ESC. Subsequently, Consumer Reports lifted its "don't buy" designation for the vehicle.

We can argue all we want about the relative merits of ESC -- whether it really increases safety or is simply a nanny program that creates bad, reckless drivers -- but it is interesting to see the side-by-side test results when the ESC isn't working properly and when it is. Check out that video after the jump. 

General Motors is making good on its word to convert half of its global manufacturing plants into landfill-free operations by the end of 2010. To date, 43 percent of GM facilities, or 62 sites, have stopped sending production waste to landfills.

Instead, 97 percent of the plants’ waste material is recycled and reused. Three percent of the waste is converted to energy, replacing fossil fuels.

 

Well, lots of Buick news this week. Or more than we're used to, at least.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Buick has announced that it expects to move double its current volume over the next few years, thanks in large part to new models like its redesigned Regal midsize sedan and the bold new LaCrosse.

I particularly enjoyed this comment from Exhaust Notes reader xquzit98, from the article on China's influence on car design (most notably on Buick and other GM models):

"Im 30 and never thought [I'd] say it, but I'd buy a Buick! Move over Grandpa, I'm drivin!"

 

Man, has anything gone from necessary to essentially obsolete as fast as the urban telephone booth? One day, you have to wait in line to get a booth in a phone bank on Sixth Avenue; the next thing you know, everyone has a mobile phone glued to their ear and the average phone booth is neglected and disused and, eventually, stops working altogether.

And yet that infrastructure remains, while the infrastructure for emerging technologies -- such as charging stations for electric vehicles -- languishes. Telekom Austria (which, as the name suggests, is a telecommunications company based in, yes, Austria) is in the middle of rolling out what essentially transitions the emerging technology into the fading one by placing EV charging stations in their telephone booths. 

What's it like to drive the most potent road-going Ferrari ever, the 599 GTO? Only a few will ever know. But today, we're getting video of one of the most powerful cars in history from Maranello.

In this footage, legendary test driver Dario Benuzzi takes us for a spin in the 599 GTO. This new rocket from the Prancing Horse makes 670 hp and 457 lb-ft of torque. Watch it all on display in this video.

 

There’s a pesky rumor going around that General Motors is considering introducing a new compact utility vehicle to the Buick lineup in an attempt to lure younger buyers onto dealer lots. The company has already made it clear that it will sell a new small car based on the same platform as the Chevrolet Cruze, but so far it hasn’t mentioned word one on whether or not a people-mover is in the cards as well.

A new report from MLive.com credits an unnamed source as saying that the company’s Orion Township, Mich., assembly plant is gearing up to produce the new small Buick, and that it will be based on the upcoming Chevrolet Aveo successor. On the surface, that makes plenty of sense, especially considering that GM is currently shipping all of the hardware it will need to produce the Aveo to the Orion plant. At the same time, we’re left with a few questions as to why General Motors would be interested in pursuing a new CUV or crossover with the Buick brand, especially after announcing that Chevrolet would not be selling the Orlando here in the United States as initially announced. 

Congress is looking to pass a bill that aims to improve auto safety -- who would be opposed to that?

As it turns out, Nissan, Honda, Subaru and a good number of Republican lawmakers.

The foreign manufacturers are opposed to increased fines for cars with safety defects -- specifically any increase to the $16.4 million penalty cap currently in place -- and want more time before brake-override systems and vehicle black boxes are mandatory. 

A few weeks back, we revealed spy shots of the next-gen Porsche 911 GT2.

But now the Web is awash in reports from a Porsche dealer meeting in Germany where the company revealed the even-hotter GT2 RS.

Reportedly pushing 620 hp from its turbocharged boxer-six engine, the track- and street-legal GT2 RS is said to be 200 pounds lighter than the GT2. The combination of extra power and shaved weight means the GT2 RS reportedly will run from 0 to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds and has set a record time of 7 minutes, 22 seconds at the Nürburgring. These numbers may not be entirely accurate, but we expect they are fairly close to the mark.