WASHINGTON — An internal review launched by the Transportation Department must determine if the DOT unit charged with monitoring vehicle safety is too close to the auto industry to do its job, the Senate Commerce Committee said in a letter today.  The review of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by DOT’s inspector general’s office should examine whether industry-government ties have hampered NHTSA’s consideration of possible electronic defects in Toyota vehicles, the letter said.

“Recent reports indicate that NHTSA may have internal deficiencies in investigating certain safety defects, and even worse, the potential to be excessively influenced by the industry they are supposed to oversee on the public’s behalf,” said committee chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., chairman of the committee’s protection panel.  The letter contains the first indication that the Department of Transportation is supplementing investigations by congressional committees of NHTSA’s performance in the Toyota unintended-acceleration controversy. Read the rest of this entry →

Mark Rechtin, Automotive News

LOS ANGELES — Toyota Motor Corp. launched a media offensive today that attempted to debunk the possibility that its electronic throttle control could be a root cause for unintended acceleration claims.  “There is no evidence, nor any sign, that electronic throttle control systems have been involved,” said Toyota spokesman John Hanson.  In a 90-minute conference call, Toyota engineers displayed internal videos that showed how Toyota “fail-safe” systems would not allow a vehicle to accelerate on its own.

The automaker also showed documents of how its internal electromagnetic interference testing exceeds U.S. and European regulatory minimums. Some claimants have stated that certain radio frequencies made their Toyotas accelerate out of control without warning.  Paul Williamsen, manager with the automaker’s University of Toyota training center, said that once any of many hard-coded central processing units within the car register a fault involving the throttle sensor or throttle pedal, it will return the engine speed to idle or shut off the engine altogether. Read the rest of this entry →

Toyota Gets U.S. Grand Jury Subpoena for Recalls

Automotive News: TOKYO (Reuters) — Toyota Motor Corp. said today it had received a federal grand jury subpoena for documents related to unintended acceleration and braking that led to the recall of millions of cars in the United States. Toyota and its subsidiaries received a subpoena from the attorney’s office for the southern district of New York on Feb. 8, the world’s biggest automaker said in a statement. The carmaker also said it had also been asked by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for documents related to unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles.

Toyota said it had received a request on Feb. 19 to voluntarily submit certain documents from the Los Angeles office of the SEC. U.S. unit Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. separately received a subpoena for related documents, including about the company’s disclosure policies. Toyota said both units intend to cooperate with the investigations. Toyota executives, along with officials from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are due to testify in congressional hearings starting on Tuesday over a series of recalls related to unintended acceleration and braking.

What’s Next: Corollas? The Toyota Recalls Continue.

NHTSA Fielding Complaints About 2009-10 Toyota Corolla Steering
Agency May Open Probe After Reports of Unintended Veering
Neil Roland Automotive News — February 9, 2010

WASHINGTON — Toyota Motor Corp. faces yet another possible federal investigation, this time of the electric power steering in 2009 and 2010 Corollas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering a formal investigation of alleged defects reported in the compact car, agency spokeswoman Karen Aldana said.

Automotive News found that the Corolla has been the subject of 83 power-steering complaints since April 2008, 76 of which have reported that the vehicle unexpectedly veers to the left or right at 40 miles an hour and up.  Complainants have compared the movement to being buffeted by strong winds, sliding on black ice, or hydroplaning. They said that after trying to straighten the car, it can overcorrect — requiring the driver to use a tight, persistent, two-handed grip on the wheel to travel in a straight line. Read the rest of this entry →

KBB Trims Values on Recalled Toyota Vehicles, Discusses Broader Recall Implications – click here for more: http://auttr.com/groups/daily-automotive-news

Neil Roland Automotive News

The U.S. Transportation Department said today that its review of a possible link between electronic sensors and unintentional acceleration at Toyota Motor Corp. is part of a background technology examination involving all automakers.  “This is not a defect investigation because the agency has no reason at this point to believe there are safety defects in these systems or in their ability to function,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today in a statement.

The agency’s broad background interviews could lead to more focused research on electronic systems that may take at least several months, the statement said.  In an interview yesterday, a Transportation official said the agency was looking into possible electronic defects at Toyota and whether they contributed to unintended acceleration. Read the rest of this entry →

Do you think Toyota has done a good job, average job, or a poor job at handling this recall? For more information, visit: http://www.toyota.com/recall/

What about this?

http://jalopnik.com/5461734/how-toyotas-president-lied-to-matt-lauer

Bloomberg Reports:  The U.S. Transportation Department didn’t object to a remedy Toyota Motor Corp. proposed for flawed gas pedals, a department official said, clearing the way for the company’s plan to fix millions of recalled vehicles.

The government didn’t balk at Toyota’s approach during a meeting last week, according to the official, who declined to be identified discussing the session with company representatives. The department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which oversees recalls, doesn’t formally approve specific remedies, the official said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, recalled 2.3 million cars and light trucks in the U.S. on Jan. 21 after finding a part defect that could cause accelerator pedals to stick, leading to unintended acceleration. Toyota accelerator defects have been linked to 19 deaths in the past decade, Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said in a statement last week. Toyota has said it will give customers information this week on a fix to the pedals. Read the rest of this entry →