Lexus, the luxury vehicle division of Toyota is facing a lawsuit filed by the law firm of Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. The law firm claims that Lexus has failed to fix problems with the front passenger airbag system in almost thousands of 2007 Lexus ES350 sold.

According to Attorney Scott P. Schlesinger, he filed the case in Broward County Circuit Court last week representing Arnold Rosen of Boca Raton and other Lexus ES350 owners. The suit cited that the sensor placed under the front passenger seat of all ES350s are not working properly in some situation and fails to trigger the correct right front airbag during collision. The suit further states that Lexus has refused to repair the defects saying that "they do not have a solution for the defect".

Atty. Schlesinger said, "By equipping their vehicles with the defective airbag occupant classification sensor systems, defendants have breached their expressed and implied warranties in violation of Florida law. The defendants continue to sell and lease the defective vehicles despite their awareness of the defect and the dangers posed by that defect."

The suit further claims that there are "tens of thousand vehicles manufactured by the defendant are leased and sold throughout Florida and are presently equipped with dangerous and defective airbag systems. All of the defective vehicles are equipped with a weight sensor system beneath the front passenger seat. The purpose of the sensor is to gauge the weight of the person in that seat."

The main issue of the lawsuit is the defective ES350's airbag system particularly the airbag classification sensor.

The suits further state, "All of the defective vehicles are equipped with a weight sensor system beneath the front passenger seat. The purpose of the sensor is to gauge the weight of the person in that seat."

The sensor is supposed to detect the presence of a passenger unfortunately it fails in this regard which leads to the suit claiming that the ES350's sensors are in fact defective.

The suit also claims that aside from Arnold Rosen there are other ES350 owners across the country that are complaining about the airbag system and some have already filed complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Some of these complaints are to be used in the suit. So far no complaints are made for any Lexus parts or even Lexus aftermarket parts.

The suit wants for Lexus to recall and repurchase the ES350s at their full cost. Some owners are also asking for full refunds and want the cars refitted with proper functioning airbag systems. Still others were asking for compensatory damages for all cost and value lost.