I'm lost...
I understood that we were discussing the issue of the slight, SLIGHT, surge forward one feels in some of the Toyota/Lexus FWD or front torque biased AWD vehicles upon a FULL lift-throttle coastdown event. It was your position, or so I thought, that this slight surge represented a serious safety issue and I said I thought not.
I'm clearly of a misunderstanding somehow, where did I go wrong?
Sorry about the misunderstanding, and let me backtrack a bit.
Whenever I let go of the gas pedal from a cruising speed above 75 kmh, my RX normally slows down but as it downshifts to 1st gear, it surges or pushes forward before it further slows down. This is what I will call its downshift cycle.
Now, even if you apply your brakes in the middle of this cycle, the vehicle will carry on to finish the cycle but of course the driver will be caught off guard to the forward movement of the vehicle and hence, will again re-apply the brakes.
The safety issue is not the RX ability to stop but rather the strain on the driver to stop the vehicle at varying road conditions.
Downshifts in auto tranny are there to slowdown vehicle motion, as in engine braking.
Yes, my RX does that too but it surges before it finally settles down.
The techies at my local dealership are aware of this problem on earlier RXs and are now learning and hearing about it on the 07s. Apparently, there is already a computer patch to fix this problem but they are still awaiting word if the same patch will apply to the 07s.
Now, if only I can schedule my emergency braking after it surges, everything will be dandy.
Cheers!