A federal judicial panel on last week began considering whether more than 80 lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. can be consolidated into fewer cases and, if so, which courts should handle the litigation.  At least a dozen attorneys from across the country argued before the judicial panel in San Diego regarding the lawsuits, many of them stemming from incidents related to unintended acceleration.  Toyota has recalled about 8.5 million vehicles worldwide since last fall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said consumers have reported 52 deaths from unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in this country.

Lawyers argued that the cases should either be held in the eastern district of Kentucky, home to Toyota’s manufacturing headquarters, which is a defendant in many of the actions, or the eastern district of Louisiana or Los Angeles. Los Angeles is where most of the cases have been filed, but there are about 15 possible jurisdictions that could be considered.

Lawmakers Want Toyota to Provide Proof of its Testing Claims

Toyota Motor Corp. has failed to provide congressional investigators with documents to support the company’s contention that its tests have shown no link between electronic defects and unwanted acceleration in its vehicles, two senior lawmakers say. Reps. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Bart Stupak, chairman of the committee’s oversight panel, asked Toyota today to produce employees with direct knowledge of the company’s testing efforts so the employees can be interviewed next week.

“Despite our repeated requests, the record before the committee is most notable for what is missing: the absence of documents showing that Toyota has systematically investigated the possibility of electronic defects that could cause sudden unintended acceleration,” said today’s letter from Waxman, D-Calif., and Stupak, D-Mich. Read the rest of this entry →

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 →

Federal investigators had just bought a 2007 Lexus ES 350 and were running it through a battery of tests at the government’s Vehicle Research and Test Center in East Liberty, Ohio, when they noticed something funny with the electronic throttle control.

The vehicle was rigged with monitors to root out possible causes of unwanted acceleration. The engineers, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, were testing yaw rate, speed, acceleration, brake pressure, brake pad temperature, throttle-plate position, gas-pedal position and the brake booster vacuum, among other things. Click here for more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100208/OEM06/302089957/1143&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

NHTSA to Investigate 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid Brake Systems

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation of the 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid to determine whether the vehicles suffer momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over bumpy surfaces. NHTSA said in a statement that it has received 124 consumer complaints, including four reports of crashes and two of minor injuries. They indicated drivers have described the condition as “a brief lag in braking capability or a brief surge while braking.” The 2004-2009 Prius was included in Toyota’s October recall of 3.8 million vehicles for floormat entrapment of the accelerator pedal.

Check it out – https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/magazine/content.do#:/pub-share/magazine/html/Vehicle-Insider/Self-Restoring-Paint.html

TOYOTA RECALLS – UPDATE

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) U.S.A., Inc. issued a press release today announcing that it will begin fixing accelerator pedals in recalled Toyotas this week. Toyota’s engineers have developed and tested a fix that involves reinforcing the pedal assembly in a manner that eliminates the excess friction that has caused the pedals to stick in rare instances. In addition, Toyota has developed a solution for vehicles in production. According to Toyota, parts to reinforce the pedals are already being shipped for use by dealers, and dealer training is under way. Read the rest of this entry →