The decision to stop selling the SUV is the latest blow to Toyota’s tarnished safety reputation after the recall of millions of cars and trucks over gas pedals that are too slow to retract or that can become stuck under floor mats. The GX 460 is not covered by the pedal recalls.

Toyota said about 6,000 have been sold since the vehicle went on sale in late December.

Consumer Reports is closely read by many car buyers before choosing a new car or truck. In January, it pulled its “recommended” rating on eight vehicles recalled by the automaker due to faulty gas pedals.

The magazine said the Lexus problem occurred during tests on its track. In a standard test, the driver approached a turn unusually fast, then released the accelerator pedal to simulate the response of an alarmed driver. This caused the rear of the vehicle to slide outward.

In normal cases, the electronic stability control should quickly correct the loss of control and keep the SUV on its intended path. But with the GX 460, the stability control took too long to adjust, which could cause a rollover accident if one of the sliding wheels were to strike the curb or another obstacle, said Gabriel Shenhar, Consumer Reports’ senior auto test engineer who was one of four testers who experienced the problem.

The magazine said it is not aware of any reports of the GX 460 rolling over. It tested two separate vehicles, both of which experienced the problem, but neither rolled over.

The warning label on the model will remain until Toyota addresses the handling issue with the seven-seat SUV.

Templin said in a statement he was “confident that the GX meets our high safety standards” and said Toyota’s engineering teams were testing the GX using Consumer Reports’ specific parameters. Lexus will provide a loaner car for any customer who bought a 2010 GX 460 and is concerned about driving the vehicle, Templin said.

Customers who have questions or concerns about the GX 460 can call Lexus at (800) 255-3987.

The “Don’t Buy” label is unlikely to hurt Toyota’s broader sales since the GX 460 accounts for a fraction of its total, said Erich Merkle, president of the consulting company Autoconomy.com in Grand Rapids, Mich. However, it comes at an unfortunate time as the automaker tries to move beyond the recalls.

“I think it will have a bigger impact from a negative-PR perspective than from an actual sales perspective,” Merkle said.

The GX 460, which starts at about $52,000, is built on the same platform as the Toyota 4Runner. However, Consumer Reports said the problem did not occur during similar tests on the 4Runner. According to Toyota’s Web site, both vehicles are about six feet tall but the GX 460 is about 3 inches taller.

Consumer Reports said the last vehicle to receive such a safety warning was the 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Limited, a large SUV. In that case, testers said the wheels lifted off the road during standard avoidance-maneuver tests, which also posed a rollover risk.

At the time, Mitsubishi disputed the magazine’s findings and did not make any modifications to the vehicle, Mitsubishi spokesman Dan Irvin said. The designation appeared to have little effect on the Montero’s sales, which increased overall during the second half of 2001.

The Montero remained on sale in the U.S. until 2007 and continues to be sold overseas as the Mitsubishi Pajero.

Toyota shares traded in the U.S. fell 52 cents to $79.03.

——

AP Auto Writer Dan Strumpf reported from New York.

“In a real world situation, by that time, the car can hit the curb or the side of the road and that’s the situation where, in a vehicle like that, it could cause it to roll over,” said Gabriel Shenhar, senior auto test engineer at Consumer Reports, who was one of four testers to experience the problem.

Consumer Reports said the last vehicle to receive such a warning was the 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Limited. It said among the 95 SUVs in its current ratings, no other slid as far as the GX 460.

In a statement Toyota said it is concerned with Consumer Reports’ findings, adding that its engineers will try to duplicate the magazine’s tests to determine its next steps.

“Please keep in mind that the 2010 GX 460 meets or exceeds all federal government testing requirements,” the automaker said. “We take the Consumer Reports’ test results seriously.”

Starting at about $52,000, the GX 460 is a small-volume vehicle for Lexus, Toyota Motor Corp.’s luxury brand. It went on sale in November and only about 5,000 have been sold since then. But the warning represents yet another blow for Toyota’s tarnished reputation for safety following recalls of millions of vehicles for faulty gas pedals. The GX 460 is not covered by the pedal recalls.

Consumer Reports said the problem occurred during a handling test on its test track. During the test, the driver approaches a turn unusually fast, then releases the accelerator pedal to simulate a typical driver’s response. This causes the rear of the vehicle to slide.

In normal cases, the vehicle’s electronic stability control should quickly correct the loss of control. But Shenhar said in the case of the GX 460, the stability control took too long to adjust, causing a risk of rolling over.

However, Consumer Reports said it is not aware of any reports of the vehicle rolling over. The magazine said it tested two separate vehicles, both of which experienced the problem, but neither rolled over.

“NHTSA has been viewed by the motor vehicle industry for years as a lapdog, not a watchdog,” Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter, said in prepared testimony.

Congress is considering new auto industry reforms following Toyota’s recalls to fix problems with accelerator pedals and brakes. NHTSA has tied 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by the accelerator problems, and the agency has received new complaints from owners who had their cars fixed and said their vehicles suddenly accelerated afterward.

A panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was to hear from David Strickland, NHTSA’s administrator; David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group which represents 11 vehicle manufacturers; Ami Gadhia, policy counsel with Consumers Union; and Claybrook, the former head of watchdog group Public Citizen.

The Transportation Department has defended its work in policing the auto industry, noting that it dispatched safety officials to Japan late last year to urge the company to take safety concerns seriously. Toyota president Akio Toyoda recently met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and told him the company would “advance safety to the next level.”

The agency has been investigating potential electronic problems in Toyota cars and trucks. Toyota has said it has found no evidence of problems with its vehicles’ electronic throttle controls but is also studying the issue.

Automakers point to declines in highway fatalities and the use of safety technology such as anti-rollover electronic stability control as signs of safety improvements on the road. “This is not an industrywide crisis,” McCurdy said in an interview.

Crisis or not, Congress is considering several reforms that could bring the biggest auto safety changes since the TREAD Act, which was approved in 2000 to help the government spot safety defects more quickly following the massive Firestone tire recall.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who leads a Senate committee with oversight of the industry, has expressed interest in “strong legislative action,” including requiring a brake override system on all vehicles. Toyota is bringing the system to new vehicles and many of the cars and trucks under recall to provide an additional safety precaution.

LaHood told lawmakers his agency may recommend every new vehicle sold in the United States be equipped with the brake overrides, something that would require a relatively inexpensive software upgrade.

Other potential reforms include raising penalties on automakers who fail to recall defective vehicles in a timely manner, requiring car executives to certify the information they provide to NHTSA and mandating car makers provide hardware that dealers need to read electronic data recorders. The “black box” information could help investigators make their own judgments about what has been going wrong.

NHTSA could also receive more funding. Many lawmakers question whether the agency has enough skilled engineers who can understand the complicated electronics of modern cars and trucks.

President Barack Obama has recommended 66 new jobs for NHTSA in his 2011 budget.

To win back sales, Toyota said it will offer zero-percent financing on most models this month plus two years of free maintenance to returning customers. General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC matched the financing deals.

Toyota’s U.S. sales fell 9 percent last month, besting some analysts’ predictions that its sales would fall by double digits. Meanwhile Ford, GM, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai and BMW all reported double-digit growth compared with February 2009, at the depth of the recession. The gains might have been even higher without the blizzards that paralyzed the East Coast.

Ford’s sales shot up 43 percent and the automaker outsold GM for the first time since August 1998, when GM was in the midst of a strike. Ford’s gains were led by cars, which rose 54 percent, with sales of the midsize Fusion, a Toyota Camry rival, more the doubling. Those results included Volvo, which Ford is preparing to sell.

Other winners included Kia Motors Corp. and Subaru. Even struggling Chrysler saw a slight increase in sales.

February was the first full month since Toyota suspended sales of eight popular models on Jan. 26. Toyota Vice President Bob Carter said Tuesday that almost all of those vehicle have been repaired and are now on sale. Toyota also has announced temporary production cuts at two U.S. plants.

Carter estimated the sales suspension cost the automaker 18,000 sales in February. Media coverage of the safety lapses also has taken a toll. Toyota officials and federal regulators appeared before House lawmakers last week and were testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday.

Carter said Toyota saw very few of its customers defecting to other brands in February, but it did see a drop in new buyers. Meanwhile other automakers said they were seeing increased business because of Toyota’s pain.

“We feel we’re getting our fair share of the Toyota business,” said Susan Docherty, who was head of sales and marketing at GM until Tuesday afternoon, when she was moved into solely a marketing role. GM’s sales rose nearly 12 percent.

Honda Motor Co. said sales of the Accord sedan, which competes directly with the Camry, rose 41 percent. Honda’s sales climbed 13 percent overall. Hyundai Motor Co. said its sales rose 11 percent, partly because of a 58 percent increase in sales of the Sonata, another Camry competitor.

Most carmakers offered deals to Toyota customers in February. According to the automotive Web site Edmunds.com, incentive spending rose 11 percent from January to $2,588 per vehicle. Toyota’s incentive spending rose 26 percent, to $1,833 per vehicle. That was the fourth-highest monthly incentive total for Toyota since Edmunds began tracking data in 2002. While a boon for consumers, incentives eat into automakers’ profits and companies have been trying to cut back on them.

Toyota must be worried because it has generally avoided big incentives in the past, said Paul Ballew, vice president of analytics at Nationwide Mutual Insurance and a former GM economist.

“They’re jumping into the deep end of the incentive pool,” he said.

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll published Tuesday, 31 percent of Americans think it is unsafe to be in a Toyota or Lexus and 55 percent say Toyota didn’t respond promptly to safety problems. The poll questioned 2,021 people and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

Even though Toyota’s sales dropped, the company did better than many analysts predicted, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and analysis at TrueCar.com, an auto pricing site. He suspects incentives aren’t the only reason, because they weren’t high enough to attract customers worried about safety.

“This tells me that Toyota’s brand strength and loyalty was far stronger than most of us thought,” he said.

Automakers were expecting to see gains over February 2009, which was one of the weakest months in a very depressed year. Still, winter storms at the beginning and end of the month hurt sales. GM said its sales dropped 22 percent in the Northeast region.

“It’s hard to get enthusiastic about going out and looking for a new car when you have to shovel out,” said Raymond Ciccolo, president of Village Auto Group, which owns seven franchises in the Boston area.

GM sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said sales probably would have been 5 percent higher had it not been for snowstorms. That means the gradual economic recovery is continuing despite setbacks in home sales, new home construction and unemployment, he said.

GM’s sales of its Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands climbed 32 percent. GM plans to keep those four brands and is phasing out Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer. It has sold Saab.

Much of GM’s sales increase was due to demand for large new wagons such as the Chevrolet Equinox, which jumped 133 percent.

Chrysler, meanwhile, said its February sales rose half a percent, its first year-over-year monthly increase since December of 2007. Chrysler’s minivan sales rose, as did sales of its sedans.

Sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers also were strong. Fleet sales began ratcheting up in January and continued the trend last month, as companies began buying again after cutbacks last year.

Fleet sales generally mean lower profits to automakers than retail sales to individuals, but Toprak said a few months of high fleet sales are needed to make up for last year’s slump. Ford said 40 percent of its sales were to fleets, while GM sold 32 percent of its vehicles to fleets. Thirteen percent of Toyota’s sales were to fleets.

South Korea’s Kia saw U.S. sales rise 9 percent on brisk demand for its Sorento and Soul, a boxy vehicle aimed at city dwellers. Nissan Motor Co. said sales surged 29 percent as Versa subcompact sales doubled. Subaru reported a 38 percent jump.

Automakers are hoping it all adds up to the end of a long winter for the industry. Ford says it plans to increase North American production by 32 percent in the second quarter to 595,000 vehicles. GM didn’t reveal its production plans.

“The industry is very much on track for a continued slow but modest recovery,” Toyota’s Carter said.

——

AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report. Strumpf reported from New York.