Toyota looks into Corolla woes, considers recall
Toyota is looking into possible power steering problems with the hot-selling Corolla subcompact while its president said Wednesday he won't be attending the U.S. Congressional hearing on the automaker's safety lapses.
"I trust that our officials in the U.S. will amply answer the questions," Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda told reporters. "We are sending the best people to the hearing, and I hope to back up the efforts from headquarters."
He said Yoshi Inaba, who heads Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. unit, was more familiar with the U.S. situation and was the best man to deal with the hearing. Toyoda said he was still making plans to go to the U.S., but dates weren't set.
But in an alarming disclosure of a possible widening of Toyota's recall crisis, the Toyota executive in charge of quality controls, Shinichi Sasaki, said Toyota was taking seriously the complaints about problems in power-steering in the Corolla, the world's best-selling car.
He said the company is investigating what might be wrong. There have been fewer than 100 complaints, he said.
Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles globally during the past four months because of problems with sticking gas pedals, floor mats trapping accelerators and faulty brake programming.
The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing on Feb. 24 on Toyota's gas pedal problems. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled one the next day.
Inaba, Toyota Motor North America chief executive, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and NHTSA Administrator David Strickland are expected to testify at both meetings.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has scheduled a March 2 hearing.
Sasaki said drivers may perceive a strange feeling as though they were losing control over the steering, but it was unclear whether the problem was with the shifts in braking systems or a problem with the tires.
Speaking at Toyota's Tokyo office, he said the company was considering a recall, and was ready to come up with any needed fixes as soon as possible. The number of possibly affected vehicles is unclear, he said.
Toyoda reiterated his promise to put customers first in beefing up quality controls at the world's No. 1 automaker.
He promised a brake-override system in all future models worldwide that will add a safety measure against acceleration problems that are behind the recent massive recalls.
The system is a mechanism that overrides the accelerator if the gas and brake pedals are pressed at the same time.
"We are not covering up anything, and we are not running away from anything," Toyoda said.
Japan worried that Toyota woes could hurt US ties
As pressure intensifies for Toyota's chief to testify before Congress about the automaker's safety lapses, Japanese political leaders and experts worry that the problem — if handled poorly — could damage ties between the two nations.
Relations between Washington and Tokyo are already strained by a dispute between the two governments over the relocation of a key U.S. Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.
Political tension rose a notch Thursday when a Republican in the House of Representatives said he would support issuing a subpoena to compel Toyota President Akio Toyoda to appear before congressional committees later this month to examine the company's string of safety problems.
Toyota said Toyoda is expected to visit the U.S. in early March, but the company declined to confirm Japanese media reports that he would attend the Washington hearings. Toyota's North American head, Yoshimi Inaba, will appear before the committees, the company said.
Even before the world's biggest automaker announced its latest recall Tuesday of nearly 440,000 Prius and other hybrids, bringing its global total to 8.5 million vehicles for faulty gas pedals and brakes, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada expressed concern about that the problem could become a political headache.
Futher underscoring Toyota's woes, the automaker said Friday it is recalling about 8,000 Tacoma pickup trucks from the 2010 model year to fix a problem with the front propeller shaft that could cause the vehicle to lose control.
"I'm worried," Okada said last Friday. "It's not just the problem of one company but a diplomatic issue," noting that the fiasco comes at a particularly difficult time for the automobile industry, including General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy filing.
Japan has also been criticized for its tax incentive program for "green" cars that Washington said unfairly excluded American vehicles. The program has since been expanded to include more U.S. cars.
So far, there's no sign that Toyota's recall has become a contentious issue between the Obama administration and the Tokyo government.
But it could become prickly if the hearings in Washington go badly — if, for example, Toyota executives come across as aloof or U.S. politicians come down in a way perceived in Japan as excessively harsh.
"This is Toyota's problem, but if it's mishandled, it could spread to other areas," said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of international relations at Aoyama University in Tokyo.
To demonstrate responsibility, Toyoda himself needs to appear before the congressional committees, experts say. He also plays a key role as the representative of Japan Inc.'s flagship company.
"The final authority needs to be there and explain the situation and say what the company is doing to resolve the problems," said Yamamoto.
Economy and trade minister Masayuki Naoshima urged Toyoda to at least make a public appearance in the United States — Toyota's biggest market.
"The head of the company needs to give an explanation properly (in the U.S.)," he said.
The recall problems have erupted at a time when Tokyo's ties with Washington have soured under the new government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which swept into power last year after decades of rule by the staunchly pro-U.S. conservatives.
Hatoyama has put on hold a plan to relocate Futenma Marine airfield to a northern part of Okinawa island because of local opposition and environmental concerns, thereby delaying a broader plan to reorganize the 47,000 American troops based in the country under a security pact.
But Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation, predicts that leaders in both governments will remain levelheaded, not wanting to see a revival of the trade wars of the 1980s and '90s.
"Both sides recognize the importance of the security relationship and don't want to upset that," he said.
The governors of four U.S. states that are home to Toyota manufacturing plants defended the company Wednesday in a letter to the leaders of the two House committees and asked that Toyota get "a responsible and fair response from the federal government." It was signed by the governors of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi.
The governors said the federal government had an "obvious conflict of interest because of its huge financial stake in some of Toyota's competitors" — a likely reference to the U.S. government's 60.8 percent stake in GM following its bankruptcy reorganization.
Japanese — while surprised by Toyota's quality problems — have voiced similar suspicions and wonder if the timing of Toyota's woes have anything to do with it overtaking GM as the world's biggest automaker in 2008. Some see a new wave of Japan-bashing that periodically cropped up in the '80s during Japan's rapid expansion into the U.S. market.
Comments by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood telling drivers of recalled Toyota cars to leave them parked — which he later retracted — also fed into this.
The confluence of events "does present a very good opportunity for conspiracy theories," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
To be sure, Japan's political leaders also have been critical of Toyota's handling of the safety problems.
And this week, Toyota appears to be taking steps to win back consumer trust.
On Friday, the automaker said it plans to voluntarily disclose problems beyond what the automaker is legally required to reveal. Details of the plan for more openness would be announced in the future.
"We're trying to be proactive," said spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi. "Some consumers are worried, so even if the information doesn't rise to the level of a recall, we are taking this step to restore the company's credibility."
Even the company's decision this week to recall the Prius — its showcase "green" car — signals that it is serious about fixing its image, analysts said. In the past, the problem — a glitch in the antilock brake that can be easily remedied by reprogramming the computerized braking system — may have been dealt with through a service campaign that notifies owners to get a fix done at their convenience.
Toyota also declined to accept a Japanese government energy efficiency award given to its Prius, saying the honor is not appropriate for a car hit by massive recalls.
In Washington, pressure is building for Toyoda to make an appearance in front of the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 24 and the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Feb. 25.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said Thursday that Toyoda should meet with lawmakers and said that if necessary Congress should compel Toyoda's testimony.
"If we are not receiving the cooperation and transparency this committee and the American people are demanding from Toyota, I would fully support the issuance of a subpoena," Issa said.
The Nikkei, Japan's leading financial paper, urged Toyota to resolve the matter quickly, warning of what it perceived as rising protectionism in the U.S. ahead of midterm elections.
Transport Minister Seiji Maehara echoed that concern in comments after he met with U.S. Ambassador John Roos on Wednesday to discuss the issue — which both men said shouldn't affect their countries' ties.
"A problem like this shouldn't hurt our bilateral relationship or damage our free and fair market activity," said Maehara. "It's not in our national interest."
Toyota plans to recall 300,000 Priuses
Toyota plans to recall about 300,000 Prius hybrids worldwide over a brake problem and is likely to notify both the U.S. and Japanese governments Tuesday, news reports said, as a top executive will testify before U.S. lawmakers about defects that have tarnished its reputation for quality and safety.
The recall of the gas-electric Prius will cover the latest version of the cars that went on sale from May last year, Kyodo News agency reported late Monday.
Kyodo, which did not identify its sources for the information, said the automaker planned to notify authorities in Japan on Tuesday and probably also in the U.S. on the same day. The recall will cover about 270,000 of the hybrids sold in the two countries — 170,000 in Japan and 100,000 in the U.S., Kyodo said.
Japan's Nikkei business daily carried a similar report about Toyota's recall plans on its Web site, saying the automaker would notify authorities in Japan on Tuesday and was also likely to do so in the U.S. at about the same time.
Toyota Motor Corp. spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said no decision on a Prius recall has been made. Kenji Sugai, an official in Japan's Transport Ministry section in charge of recalls, said it had not been informed of any such plan by Toyota.
The automaker is still weighing its options on how to handle the Prius repairs in the U.S., but it intends to begin fixing them soon, according to a person briefed on the matter who asked not to be identified because the remedy hasn't been made public.
Toyota has said among its options are a service campaign in which owners would be notified to bring their cars in for repairs, or a full-fledged safety recall. Toyota is communicating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on how to handle the fix.
A service campaign wouldn't have the stigma of a safety recall, but regulators may press for the recall.
The reports follow others in Japanese media recently that the world's largest automaker has decided to announce a recall early this week as a way of regaining damaged consumer trust. Toyota has already recalled more than 7 million other cars for repairs in the U.S. and other countries over a sticky accelerator and floor mats that can get caught in the gas pedal.
The company has consistently only said it will soon announce plans to deal with the braking problem in the Prius.
At least 100 drivers of Prius cars in the U.S. have complained to Washington that their antilock brakes seemed to fail momentarily while driving on bumpy roads. The Japanese government has also received dozens of complaints. The U.S. says the problem is suspected in four crashes that caused two minor injuries.
Toyota says a software glitch is behind the problem. The company says it has already fixed vehicles that went on sale since last month. It has also said that the brakes will work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal.
The Prius is the world's top-selling gas-electric hybrid and its fuel efficiency has drawn intense interest amid concerns about global warming and dependence on fossil fuels.
Toyota has sold a little more than 300,000 of the vehicles in about 60 countries since May, according to the company — and any recall was likely to eventually affect most of those cars.
Kyodo also reported that recalls and other measures in other countries will follow those in Japan and the U.S.
Toyota sales expert Yoshimi Inaba will appear before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland. The name of the hearing: "Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?"
Inaba was hand-picked from semiretirement by Toyota President Akio Toyoda last year to head the North American operations and help steer Toyota through the company's biggest earnings slump in its 72-year history as global auto sales dived.
General Motors Co. said Monday it will start shipping parts to dealers this week to fix about 99,000 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibes equipped with the same sticky gas pedal systems as Toyota's. The Vibe is essentially the same car as a Toyota Matrix, built by a joint venture between the two automakers. The Vibe also is covered by the floor mat recall, and GM is urging customers to take out removable mats and put them in the trunk until a fix is ready.
Toyota to announce action soon for Prius hybrids
Toyota said Sunday that it will soon announce a plan for dealing with braking problems in its Prius hybrid amid reports that the world's largest automaker plans to issue a recall for the latest model of the vehicle in Japan.
Toyota Motor Corp. has already had to recall more than 7 million other cars in the U.S., Europe and China over a sticky accelerator and floor mats that can get caught in the gas pedal. Those problems and criticism of Toyota's response to them have sullied the stellar reputation for quality long enjoyed by the world's biggest automaker.
Separately, the company has told dealers in the United States it is preparing to repair the brakes on thousands of Prius vehicles there, according to an e-mail sent by a company executive. It was unclear whether Toyota planned a formal U.S. recall.
"We will make an announcement soon on the action we plan to take," spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said, commenting on media reports that the company has decided to issue a Japan recall. Takeuchi did not confirm the reports.
Toyota decided Saturday on a recall in Japan covering its latest Prius model and has notified domestic dealers, Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri, reported without naming sources. It said Toyota would announce the move early this week after consulting with the Japanese government. Japan's Kyodo News agency and TV Asahi carried similar reports. Kyodo said Toyota had started notifying dealers and that at least 170,000 vehicles in Japan would be subject to the recall.
Phone calls to the section at Japan's transport ministry dealing with recalls went unanswered Sunday. None of about 10 Toyota dealers in Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka contacted about the reports said they had received any notification, though some said they expected to have news this week.
Prius drivers in Japan and the U.S. have complained of a short delay before the brakes kick in — a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The lag occurs as the car is switching between brakes for the gas engine and the electric motor — a process that is key to the hybrid's increased mileage.
The brake problem affects about 270,000 Priuses that were sold in the U.S. and Japan starting last May. The company blames a software glitch and says it has already fixed vehicles that went on sale since last month.
Bob Carter, a Toyota group vice president, sent an e-mail message Friday night to U.S. dealers saying the automaker is working on a Prius repair plan and will disclose more details early this week. At least 100 drivers of Prius cars in the U.S. have complained to the government that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.
Public awareness of the problem "has prompted considerable customer concern, speculation, and media attention due to the significance of the Prius image," Carter said in the e-mail. "We want to assure our dealers that we are moving rapidly to provide a solution for your existing customers."
Besides a full-fledged safety recall, the company could simply ask owners to bring in their vehicles for repairs, since the brakes are not failing completely. The lag occurs as the car switches between brakes for the gas engine and the electric motor — a process that is key to the hybrid's increased mileage.
The Yomiuri newspaper, however, said that Toyota decided on the more serious step of a recall for the Prius to give priority to restoring consumer trust.
Toyota has acknowledged receiving dozens of complaints about the Prius in Japan.
There is high-level government concern in Japan about Toyota's quality problems. Cabinet ministers have expressed alarm and urged the company to move more quickly to ease consumer worries.
Media criticism of Toyota has intensified since a news conference on Friday by Toyota President Akio Toyoda in which he offered an apology for the defects, but few details about what the automaker would do about the Prius.
The reports said the new Prius model was released in May, and more than 300,000 have been sold in about 60 countries and territories.
Japanese media criticize Toyota chief for response
Japanese media sharply criticized Toyota's president Saturday for what they called a delayed and unconvincing explanation for the massive car recall that has sullied the world's biggest automaker, a Japanese corporate icon.
Akio Toyoda, the founder's grandson appointed to lead Toyota Motor Corp. last June, emerged late Friday to apologize and address criticism that the company mishandled a crisis over sticking gas pedals. But he stopped short of ordering a recall for Toyota's iconic Prius hybrid over separate braking problems.
Toyoda's appearance before reporters at a company office in the central Japanese city of Nagoya made front pages of the country's leading newspapers — but won no praise.
"Words are not enough," the top Nikkei business daily commented in an editorial. "The company's crisis management ability is being subjected to severe scrutiny."
"Utterly too late," the nationwide Asahi newspaper said of Toyota's delayed reaction since the crisis arose Jan. 21 with a global recall of millions of vehicles. "The entire world is watching how Toyota can humbly learn from its series of recent failures and make safe cars."
At his first news conference since the recall of 4.5 million cars, Toyoda promised to beef up quality control and said he would head a special committee to review quality checks, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to develop a fix.
Toyota's failure to stem its widening safety crisis has stunned American consumers and experts who had come to expect only streamlined efficiency from a company at the pinnacle of the global auto industry.
"Toyota needs to be more assertive in terms of providing consumers comfort that the immediate problem is being addressed ... and that it can deal with these crises," said Sherman Abe, a business professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
It took prodding from the U.S. government for Toyota to recall the vehicles, about half of them in North America, for gas pedals that can stick and cause sudden acceleration.
Asked if he should have acted more quickly, Toyoda replied in hesitant English: "I will do my best."
The company name is spelled and pronounced differently from the founding family name because Toyota was considered to have a luckier number of brush strokes when written in Japanese.
Toyoda is the second successive Toyota president to apologize for car defects. The first, Katsuaki Watanabe, shocked a news conference in 2006, bowing low to the group before promising to improve quality.
Toyoda bowed as he greeted reporters, but not in apology. He told the hastily called news conference that the company had not decided what to do about problems in the braking system of the Prius gas-electric hybrid. The high-mileage, low-pollution car is a leader in its field and a symbol of Toyota technology.
Toyoda and Shinichi Sasaki, who oversees quality control, offered no new explanations for the braking problem.
Prius drivers, mostly in the U.S. but some in Japan, have complained of a short delay before the brakes kick in — a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The lag occurs as the car is switching between brakes for the gas engine and the electric motor — a process that is key to the hybrid's increased mileage.
Japan's transport ministry has received nearly 80 complaints, including reports of five accidents involving no injuries, from Prius drivers in the past four days regarding possible brake problems, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported Saturday, without citing sources. The ministry, which had received 14 complaints by the end of January, will urge Toyota to investigate the accidents, the newspaper said.
Officials at the ministry and with Toyota could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Toyota has acknowledged receiving dozens of complaints about the Prius in Japan.
Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said Friday that the company continues to weigh options on how to handle repairs of the problem, and it is communicating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S.
Among options are a campaign to notify Toyota owners to bring their cars in for repairs, or a full-fledged safety recall. Michels said he could not say when Toyota would make a decision.
The automaker said it fixed the programming glitch in Prius models that went on sale since last month, but it has done nothing on 270,000 Prius cars sold last year in Japan and the U.S.
The lack of action has raised questions about whether there is a bigger problem, but Sasaki denied any cover-up.
There is high-level government concern in Japan about Toyota's quality fiasco. Cabinet ministers have expressed alarm and urged the company to move more quickly.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama earlier this month ordered Industry and Trade Minister Masayuki Naoshima to convey the message. Consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima also called Toyota's reaction "too slow." Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, who oversees auto regulation, has urged Toyota to consider a recall for the Prius brake problem.
No sense of crisis was apparent in Japan outside of media and government circles, however. The Toyota story was published on Saturday's front pages, but most national newspapers gave more prominence to news such as the government's planned dispatch of troops to Haiti, an ongoing political funds scandal, the government's budget deficit and global warming.
Toyota chief to speak on quality woes
Toyota President Akio Toyoda will publicly confront the automaker's safety problems for the first time Friday as it considers adding the Prius hybrid to the 4.5 million vehicles already being recalled.
Criticism has been growing that Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, has largely been invisible amid the automaker's worst crisis since it was founded.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Toyoda and Shinichi Sasaki, the executive overseeing quality, will speak to reporters at the automaker's Nagoya office Friday evening. Toyoda will speak about quality control, it said. Other details were not immediately available.
The only media comment so far from Toyoda was a brief, impromptu interview last week with Japanese broadcaster NHK on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Toyoda, 53, said he was sorry for the worries he had caused customers and insisted that Toyota cars were safe.
Toyota said this week it is considering a recall in the U.S. and Japan for its Prius gas-electric hybrid, which has been plagued with braking problems.
Nearly 200 complaints have been reported in the U.S. and Japan over such problems. Toyota said on Thursday it was a flaw in the computerized antilock brake system.
The problems with the Prius, Toyota's flagship model and symbol of its technological prowess and green car ambitions, follow a global recall announced Jan. 21 for 4.5 million vehicles with gas pedals that stick and can cause sudden acceleration.
A less-than-perfect Prius, the vehicle of choice for Hollywood movie stars like Leonardo Dicaprio, threatens to be an even more serious blow for Toyota's image than the gas pedal recall.
The brake problem has been fixed with a software programming change for Prius vehicles sold in Japan and overseas since late January but not for vehicles sold before then, according to Toyota.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would assess the scope of the problem in the Prius and the safety risk to about 37,000 cars that could be affected. Toyota, however, has said it sold 103,000 of the new Prius in the U.S. since May last year.
The quality failures are drawing intense media scrutiny in the U.S. where Toyota is more used to winning plaudits for consumer satisfaction. But the coverage in Japan has been calmer.
The biggest story splashed across front pages of major dailies and on TV news Friday was the retirement of a well-known sumo wrestler, forced to step down for drunken behavior. Toyota news was relegated far below that.
U.S. officials have blessed Toyota's solution to the gas pedal problem, a small piece of steel designed to eliminate excess friction in the pedal mechanism, but have criticized Toyota for being too slow in responding to customer complaints.
Still, concern is bubbling among the Japanese who take pride in Toyota as an icon of the country's advanced manufacturing and see the fuel-efficient Prius as a symbol of the company's commitment to green, low-pollution vehicles.
"Trouble with the Prius means real trouble for the Toyota brand," said Ryoichi Shinozaki, a crisis management expert at Kyodo Public Relations Co.
"It is a symbol of its commitment to ecology. It lies at the heart of Toyota's new successful business that was defined differently from its past success," he said.
Shinozaki believes Toyota has yet to fully recognize the magnitude of the crisis that has hit.
In Japan, protocol requires an executive to bow deeply and hold that position for at least five seconds to apologize for causing a ruckus, even if a company has done nothing wrong, he said. Toyota executives who explained the quality problems this week in Japan held their heads up high.
Toyota then played down the fix on Prius cars carried out since last month as merely part of a routine improvement program, raising questions about its commitment to the company motto of putting customers first.
Toyota is also investigating possible brake problems with its luxury Lexus hybrid and the Sai compact sedan, both of which use the same brake system as the Prius. Toyota has not received any complaints about the Lexus HS250h and the probe is to ensure safety, she said. The Sai is not sold outside Japan.
Koji Endo, managing director of equity research firm Advanced Research Japan Co. in Tokyo, said Prius is so integral to Toyota's identity that even if financial damage from the latest woes turns out to be small, brand damage would be devastating.
"For Toyota's long-term strategy in the green car field, this is a symbol," said Endo. "This symbol car, one of its best selling models, is defective. That's obviously going to raise big questions among the public."
Congressional investigators expanded their review of Toyota to include the Prius as California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, asked Toyota for records on its Prius brakes.
The committee plans a hearing next week on Toyota's recalls, the first of two in Congress this month. Issa said he would focus on whether Toyota or NHTSA failed to properly deal with safety complaints or address them quickly enough.
"We think they should have acted more aggressively or quickly," said Issa, who owns four Priuses, none of which fall under the investigation.
Some drivers remained loyal.
Toshimitsu Tanimura, a cab driver whose company's fleet includes 94 Priuses, vows by the hybrid and has never heard of the brakes failing.
"The engine is so quiet without any strange shaking," he said.
Toyota said some Prius drivers have complained of an inconsistent feel during slow and steady application of brakes on rough or slick roads when the antilock brakes engage. Normally, the brakes grab and release rapidly in reaction to slipping tires.
Paul Nolasco, a Toyota spokesman in Japan, said the time lag drivers feel before brakes kick in stems from the two systems in a gas-electric hybrid — the gas-engine and the electric motor. The brakes work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal, he said.
NHTSA said some Prius owners reported a "brief lag" or "brief surge" when they used the brakes. The agency did not specify how long those lags were. At highway speeds, a car can travel nearly 100 feet (30 meters) in just one second. The problem is suspected in four crashes resulting in two minor injuries, according to a preliminary NHTSA safety report.
Prius is not Toyota's biggest seller — the company sold 140,000 in the U.S. last year, far less than the 357,000 Camrys — but holds a cherished spot in its lineup.
The complexity of the Prius, a highly computerized car, has led to problems in the past. In 2005, the company repaired 75,000 of them to fix software glitches that caused the engine to stall. It has also had trouble with headlights going out.
Glitches ordinarily don't prove to be public relations disasters for Toyota. But analysts said Toyota may be forced to take decisive action like issuing a recall because of the intense scrutiny it now faces from regulators and customers.
"People are hypersensitive right now," said Erich Merkle, president of U.S. consulting company Autoconomy.com. "I don't know how they will be able to work around this without doing a recall."
US government investigating brakes in 2010 Prius
The Transportation Department opened an investigation Thursday into brake problems in the 2010 Prius, the latest in a series of safety troubles at Toyota that have confused drivers and strained the Japanese automaker's relationship with U.S. regulators.
Toyota earlier Thursday acknowledged design problems with the brakes in its prized gas-electric hybrid, but said it was still deciding how to inform customers and whether a recall is needed.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Transportation Department's safety agency, said it has received 124 reports from consumers about the Prius brakes, including four reports of crashes.
The investigation will look into allegations of momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over uneven road surfaces, potholes or bumps.
The U.S. investigation, while preliminary, represents another setback for Toyota, which has been battered with two major recalls in the United States covering millions of vehicles. Those involve gas pedals that can get trapped under floor mats or become stuck on their own and fail to return to the idle position. The safety probes have challenged Toyota's long-standing reputation for building safe, quality vehicles.
The Prius was not part of the recall spanning the U.S., Europe and China over sticking gas pedals in eight top-selling models including the Camry. That recall involved 2.3 million cars in the U.S. alone.
NHTSA said investigators have talked to consumers and conducted pre-investigatory field work. The preliminary evaluation involves about 37,000 vehicles in the United States.
"Safety is our top priority," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. NHTSA said LaHood spoke with Toyota president Akio Toyoda late Wednesday and was assured by the executive that Toyota was taking the safety concerns seriously.
Toyota said in a statement it would fully cooperate with NHTSA's investigation.
The U.S. investigation came after the Japanese government ordered Toyota to investigate brake problems in the Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid. Toyota said it had already corrected problems with the antilock brake system in Prius models sold since late last month, including those shipped overseas.
The new version of the gas-electric Prius hybrid went on sale in the U.S. and Japan in May 2009.
Paul Nolasco, a company spokesman in Japan, said the time lag for brakes kicking in felt by drivers stem from the two systems in a gas-electric hybrid — the gas-engine and the electric motor.
When the car moves on a bumpy or slippery surface, a driver can feel a pause in the braking when the vehicle switches between the traditional hydraulic brakes and the electronically operated braking system, he said. The brakes work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal, he said.
Toyota acknowledged the brake problem while reporting a $1.7 billion profit for its October-December quarter.
NHTSA said it opens 100 investigations every year and there are currently 40 open defect investigations, three of which involve Toyota. NHTSA said its defect and compliance investigations have resulted in 524 recalls involving 23.5 million vehicles during the past three years.
Shares of Toyota traded in the U.S. fell $2.09, or nearly 3 percent, to $71.40 in late morning trade Thursday. Since Jan. 21, when the U.S. recalls were announced, the stock has lost about 22 percent.
Toyota senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi defended the automaker's quality standards.
"We have not sacrificed the quality for the sake of saving costs," he said. "Quality is our lifeline. We want our customers to feel safe and regain their trust as soon as possible."
Toyota for the first time gave an estimate of the costs of the global gas-pedal recall. The $2 billion total represents $1.1 billion for repairs and $770 million to $880 million in lost sales.
Toyota is expecting to lose 100,000 in vehicle sales because of the recall fallout — 80,000 of them in North America.
Tokyo asks Toyota to investigate Prius
Toyota's consumer woes deepened on Wednesday, and for the first time on native soil.
Japan's Transportation Ministry has asked Toyota to investigate brake malfunction complaints in Japan on its Prius, the gasoline-electric hybrid car which was the best-selling vehicle in the country in 2009, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.
Ministry officials said 14 complaints regarding brakes in the new Prius model has been filed since July. Toyota officials said the Prius has received similar complaints from North American car dealers and that the company is investigating.
It comes after more than seven million vehicles across eight model ranges have been recalled in recent months due to problems related to accelerator pedals in North America, Europe and China. So far, the recalls haven't affected cars sold in Japan.
The Prius -- which was named "Japan Car of the Year" at the Tokyo Motor Show in November -- is not among the models involved in the global recall.
The first incident in Japan involving a Prius was a July collision in Chiba, central Japan, when a driver was unable to stop at traffic lights, according to Hiroshi Nishino at the Transportation Ministry. Two people were slightly injured in the incident.
Most of the complainants say that they experienced brake problems when driving at relatively slow speeds
Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Paul Nolasco said there had been similar Prius complaints in North America. "The complaints received via our dealers center around when drivers are on a bumpy road or frozen surface," Nolasco said. "The driver steps on the brake and they do not get as full of a braking feel as expected."
"We are still looking into the situation, trying to determine what is going on. Beyond that, we don't have a comment at this time," he said.
Nolasco said the company had received "dozens of notifications" from dealers about the issue but would not elaborate.
Toyota tells dealers parts on way to fix pedals
Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday its dealers should get parts to fix a sticky gas pedal problem by the end of this week as the automaker apologized to customers and tried to bring an end to a recall that has affected 4.2 million vehicles worldwide.
The company said in a statement that it has begun shipping parts and is training dealers on the repairs. Some dealers will stay open around the clock to fix the 2.3 million cars and trucks affected by the recall in the U.S.
Technical bulletins on how to install the new parts should arrive at dealers by midweek, the company told dealers in an e-mail. It was not clear exactly when repairs would start, although dealers have said they'll begin as soon as possible.
The automaker also said Monday it would suspend production of eight U.S. models affected by the recall this week, with factories restarting on Feb. 8.
Toyota suspended sales of the models last week, but spokesman Mike Michels said dealers can begin selling the cars as soon they are fixed. However, cars already on the road will be the dealers' first priority, he said in an e-mail.
Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, said in the statement that nothing is more important than customer safety.
In a video clip released by the automaker, Lentz said he wanted to "sincerely apologize to Toyota owners. I know that our recalls have caused many of you concern and for that I am truly sorry."
"Toyota has always prided itself on building high-quality, durable cars that customers can depend on and I know that we've let you down," Lentz said.
Lentz, in an interview on NBC's "Today," said the automaker was "confident that we have the fix" for the gas pedal system. He said the company first developed a report on the problems in late October, and he denied that Toyota had delayed addressing the problem.
"I drive Toyotas. My family members drive Toyotas ... I would not have them in products that I knew were not safe," Lentz said.
Tammy Darvish, a dealer in the Washington, D.C., area, said she expects to get parts Thursday night or Friday morning, and her dealership will begin repairs immediately, staying open around the clock.
Darvish said she has set up a 24-hour hotline for her 30,000 Toyota customers and had already begun to schedule appointments for later this week. She estimated it could take about two weeks for all the vehicles to be fixed.
"No matter what Toyota does, they always do it right," Darvish said. "They might be a little slow in coming out, but that's because they're diligent."
Toyota recalled the vehicles on Jan. 21, determining that excess friction in the gas pedal assembly could in rare cases cause the pedals to stick.
Engineers traced the problem to a friction device in the assembly that is supposed to provide the proper pedal "feel" by adding resistance, Toyota said in a statement.
The device has a shoe that rubs against a nearby metal surface during normal pedal use. But wear and environmental conditions can over time cause the pedals to not operate smoothly or in rare cases stick partially open.
The company said a steel reinforcement bar will be installed, reducing the friction.
"With this reinforcement in place, the excess friction that can cause the pedal to stick is eliminated," the statement said. "The company has confirmed the effectiveness of the newly reinforced pedals through rigorous testing on pedal assemblies that had previously shown a tendency to stick."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Toyota last week that it was satisfied with the repair plan. Legally Toyota did not need NHTSA's approval, but the company would be unlikely to proceed without the government's blessing.
Toyota told its dealers in an e-mail that they should determine what vehicles to repair first. The company said it "strongly recommends dealers prioritize consumer vehicles first, followed by dealer owned inventory." The repairs are expected to take about 30 minutes of work, and drivers should not notice any change in the feel of the pedal.
Owners are expected to receive information by mail beginning this week. The company will cover all repair costs.
Since the recall was announced, dealers have been in the difficult position of telling angry customers that they have no parts to fix the cars.
The recall in the U.S. includes the 2009-10 RAV4 crossover, the 2009-10 Corolla, the 2009-10 Matrix hatchback, the 2005-10 Avalon, the 2007-10 Camry, the 2010 Highlander crossover, the 2007-10 Tundra pickup and the 2008-10 Sequoia SUV. It also has been expanded to another 1.9 million vehicles in Europe and China.
Toyota said that not all the models of Camry, RAV4, Corolla and Highlander listed in the recall have the faulty gas pedals, which were made by CTS Corp. of Elkhart, Ind. Dealers can tell which models have the CTS pedals. Models made in Japan, and some models built in the U.S., have pedal systems made by another parts supplier, Denso Corp., which function well.
All Matrix, Avalon, Tundra and Sequoia models covered by the recall have the faulty pedals.
Etienne Plas, a spokesman for Toyota Motors Europe in Brussels, said that the car maker would implement the same remedy for the sticky gas pedals in Europe, but he didn't know when.
"We will work as fast and as efficiently as possible in the US and in Europe, but we have no precise details in Europe. I cannot tell you precisely when that is going to happen, but as fast as possible," Plas said.
Toyota had announced late Friday that it would begin shipping new gas pedal systems to U.S. dealers as well.
On Sunday, Toyota took out full-page ads in 20 major newspapers to reassure customers.
But crisis management experts said the company's reputation for impeccable reliability has been damaged.
Meanwhile, Consumer Reports, an influential publication for car buyers, on Friday suspended its "recommended" status for the eight recalled Toyota models.
The pedal recall is separate from another recall involving floor mats that can bend and push down accelerators on certain Toyota and Lexus models. The two recalls combined affect more than 7 million vehicles worldwide.
Toyota said Monday it is in the process of recalling vehicles to fix the floor mat problem. Some of its cars are affected by both recalls, and the company said it intends to fix both problems at the same time.
The repairs will not bring an end to public scrutiny on how Toyota handled the problems.
The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is launching an investigation. It has scheduled a Feb. 10 hearing titled "Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?" and asked Yoshi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor North America, to testify. Separately, a House investigative panel is planning a Feb. 25
Toyota chief apologizes for huge recall
Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda apologized for the recall of millions of vehicles around the world, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, as the deepening recall crisis threatened to further damage its sales and delay an earnings recovery.
"We're extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy," Toyoda said on Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a brief clip on NHK showed.
"We plan to establish the facts and give an explanation that will remove customers' concerns as soon as possible."
Toyoda had been conspicuously silent since the top automaker's recall of cars related to unintended acceleration spread from North America to Europe and China this week.
As of Saturday, the global recalls of Toyota cars and trucks had swollen to about 7.5 million vehicles, almost as many as it sold worldwide in 2009. Toyota has said the defective pedal was not used in any of its cars in Japan, Australia and Asia excluding China.
The total includes repairs for an issue involving floor mats becoming stuck under accelerator pedals.
Toyota has not recalled any cars in Japan, where it uses different suppliers.
With calls mounting for Toyoda to address the media on the escalating ordeal, the world's top automaker had said it was studying some form of comment or action from headquarters.
A company source told Reuters a news conference may be held early next week, prior to Toyota's announcement of third-quarter financial results on February 4, but that the company was still working on a final plan. The source did not say whether Toyoda, or another executive, would hold the briefing.
Toyoda, a family scion who took up his post last June, last commented publicly on the matter in October, when he expressed regret for the deaths of four people in a California crash linked to the defects last year.
He has vowed to revamp Toyota's sprawling organization to make problems at every level of operation more visible, as a rapid expansion over the last decade left it with too much production capacity when the economic crisis hammered car demand globally.
In an editorial, Japan's Asahi Shimbun said on Saturday that Toyota was skirting the responsibility to allay Japanese customers' anxiety over the safety issue, and that its brand image, crafted over years of effort, would be damaged.
"Toyota's response may indicate a growing complacency as the company has surpassed General Motors as the world's No.1 automaker," it said.
Toyoda's tenure as head of the company founded by his grandfather is widely expected to last at least a decade given his relatively young age of 53.
RIVALS CLOSE IN
As part of the recalls, Toyota has been forced to suspend sales of eight models in the United States, including its Camry sedan, the best-selling car in the world's second-biggest auto market.
Sources briefed on Toyota's U.S. sales plans told Reuters on Friday the sales shutdown would continue until at least mid-February. A resumption assumes a smooth and swift rollout of a remedy to fix faulty accelerators in vehicles already sold or at dealerships, the sources said.
Competitors moved to profit from rising consumer frustration, readying plans to poach sales with incentives targeting Toyota customers. Ford Motor Co, Hyundai Motor Co, and Chrysler Group LLC said they were rolling out incentives, following General Motors' lead.
Volkswagen, jockeying with Toyota for the title as global sales leader, is considering a similar move.
