Toyota Top Speed Control Complaints Data analysis shows | World Largest Automobile Company Toyota

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In a pattern almost unbroken since 2004, speed control problems are a higher proportion of Toyota's driver complaint filings than they are for other big automakers, a USA TODAY analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data from 2000 to mid-March of this year has found.

The analysis showed 11.7% of the vehicle components named in driver complaints to NHTSA about Toyota-made vehicles in that period were in the safety agency's "vehicle speed control" category. That is the NHTSA complaint category that covers most incidents of unintended acceleration, the problem underlying Toyota's huge recalls in recent months.

The five others among the top six automakers in the U.S. market ranged from General Motors' 2.2% to Ford's 4.8% over the decade.

The analysis excluded the "cruise control" category that's one of several "speed control" classifications. Those weren't directly related to the current issue of stuck gas pedals.

The analysis is similar to an approach used by safety officials to spot troubling trends. It suggests that Toyota's problems with sticking and jammed gas pedals could have been spotted earlier.

Toyota said that it disputes USA TODAY's analysis, because the NHTSA data are polluted by what Toyota says would be "a variety of non-UA (unintended-acceleration) events" listed in NHTSA's "vehicle speed control" category. The automaker said it "disagrees with both the methodology and implications suggested by USA TODAY's analyses," and said, "Toyota has substantially superior performance in terms of complaints to NHTSA."

Jammed and sticking gas pedals have forced Toyota to recall millions of vehicles and to appear before often-hostile committees of the U.S. House and Senate the past few weeks whose members questioned whether the recalls should have been sooner and should cover more vehicle models. The problems also have tarnished Toyota's quality image and led it to offer dramatic incentives to recapture sales lost over safety worries.

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Now Toyota faces a legal assault as lawsuits mount over everything from diminished resale value for used vehicles to endangering public safety. Thursday in San Diego, a federal judicial panel heard arguments on whether more than 100 lawsuits will be consolidated into one court.

Starting Oct. 5, Toyota began a series of recalls, now totaling 7.7 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles, to fix gas pedals that could stick, floor mats that could jam gas pedals, and what Toyota acknowledges are improperly designed, shaped and sized pedals themselves.

It hasn't helped Toyota's image that it recalled 55,000 vehicles for the floor-mat issue in 2007 and the automaker's Washington office later bragged in an internal presentation — made public in the congressional hearings — that it saved more than $100 million by negotiating such a small recall with NHTSA.

"If Toyota isn't fined by the government, I'd be very surprised," says Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety, longtime observer, and frequent critic, of both the government safety agency and the auto industry. Automakers can be penalized up to $16.4 million for each recall not announced within five business days after a safety problem is identified.

The automaker previously has said it recalled vehicles promptly. And company President Akio Toyoda, in an unusual appearance by a foreign chief executive at a congressional hearing, testified last month that he didn't learn of acceleration problems until late last year, when the company was recalling vehicles.

NHTSA, which also came in for criticism at the hearings for not acting sooner, last month sent Toyota letters about three of the recent recalls. The letters insist on proof the automaker announced the recalls promptly. They also question whether the recalls have been broad enough and why some models with another potentially troublesome component — electronic throttle controls — weren't included. The letters — known as timeliness queries and recall queries — have the force of subpoenas but can yield more useful information because they can seek documents generally and needn't specify what the car company must submit, says the Department of Transportation, which oversees NHTSA.

NHTSA is "working to get to the bottom of the unintended-acceleration issue by undertaking a new review of possible causes, including potential electromagnetic interference (EMI)" with electronic throttle control systems, says DOT spokeswoman Olivia Alair.

Toyota has maintained, and repeated in a public statement earlier this week, that it is "making an all-out effort to address the two specific mechanical causes of unintended acceleration we've identified" — mats and sticking pedals — and, "We're very confident that the system is not the cause of alleged unintended acceleration. Toyota engineers have repeatedly and rigorously tested our (electronic throttle controls) and have never found a single case of unintended acceleration due to a defect in the system."

Full News Here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-03-26-toyota26_CV_N.htm

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Toyota says acceleration solution might fall short | Toyota's extensive recalls | House Energy and Commerce Committee | Toyota Cars | Toyota's Cars

In the first of many congressional hearings into Toyota's extensive recalls, a senior company executive told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday that the repairs prescribed by the company might "not totally" solve the problem of unintended sudden acceleration in its vehicles.

Since last fall, Toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars worldwide, including 6 million in the United States, for complaints that the accelerator pedals can become stuck.

This month, dealers began repairing the pedals on cars involved in one of two recalls, using a remedy that James E. Lentz III, the president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, previously said the company was certain would resolve the issue.

But in response to a question on Tuesday by the House energy committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Lentz said that Toyota was still examining the sudden acceleration problem, including the possibility that the electronics system might be at fault - something the company had previously denied was the case.

While Toyota has found no evidence of an electronics problem at this point, Lentz said, "we continue to look for potential causes."

"We need to be vigilant and continue to investigate all the complaints of the consumers," Lentz said. There is the possibility "of mechanical, human or some other type of error."

Lentz also told the committee that Toyota was installing a new brake system that can override a surging gas pedal on almost all its new vehicles and most of those already on the road.

Waxman, while criticizing Toyota's response to the recall, told Lentz: '`We need to be sure that you're doing a full and adequate analysis of something you've denied, but that other witnesses have shown us is very possible.

Another committee session on Wednesday will include questions for Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota. A Senate committee also will examine the recalls next week.

Lentz's disclosure came during a day that regularly turned emotional, as when Rhonda Smith, a Lexus owner whose car was involved in a sudden acceleration incident told her story. Lentz himself spoke in a choked voice when he discussed losing his brother in a car accident more than 20 years ago.

But Lentz, a marketing executive who has an MBA degree, repeatedly avoided answering questions about the company's technical issues.

During one long stretch of questioning by Rep. John D. Dingell Jr., D-Mich., Lentz responded, ''I don't know`` a number of times when asked for data about customer complaints.

He also emphasized frequently that the final authority for deciding actions on defects and other safety matters resided with Toyota officials in Japan.

His frequent references to Japan was a marked contrast to years of effort by Toyota to paint itself as a company that has given more decision-making power to its American employees. Toyota employees, many in colorful oxford cloth shirts with the company logo, sat behind Lentz in the packed committee room.

In the future, Lentz said an employee from North America would participate on a new committee that the company is forming to examine quality issues. ''We didn't have that before,`` Lentz said.

The transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, was also questioned by Dingell and other committee members who were critical of past decisions by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration not to vigorously pursue company recalls.

''There needs to be fundamental reform at NHTSA," Waxman said. "As I look at the record, it's not a happy one. It's not a successful one.``

LaHood, a former Republican representative from Illinois, sidestepped questions about whether his predecessors had been lax. He vowed his agency would ''get into the weeds`` and investigate complaints that the computerized electronic systems were involved.

LaHood said the department, which has 125 engineers to perform investigations, had found no evidence of electronics problems with Toyota cars and believed that floor mats and sticky pedals posed the greatest threat.

LaHood defended the work of government investigators, but he stopped short of saying that the recent recalls would solve the entire acceleration problem in Toyota cars.

''We stand ready to ensure prompt action on any additional defects that we have reason to believe are present,`` LaHood said.

Witnesses who spoke before Lentz described how an electronic problem could have caused cars to surge unexpectedly.

Smith, who paused to wipe away tears, told of the harrowing moments of Oct. 12, 2006, when her Lexus sedan sped out of control at 100 mph.

Smith told the energy committee that she furiously pushed buttons, shifted gears and slammed on the brakes as she tried to stop the vehicle. Six miles later, she finally brought it to a halt.

Smith told the committee that she felt that Toyota's response to her complaint was ''a farce.`` She said a company technician told her he was not able to replicate the episode and suggested that it was caused by pressing on the brakes while the tires were spinning.

''Of course we were insulted, and furious over being called liars,`` Smith said.

Later, Lentz said he was ''embarrassed about what happened" to the Smiths. "We're going to go down and get that car and see what happened,`` he said.

His voice choking when he spoke of his brother's accident, Lentz said, ''There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of what these families go through,`` he said. He did not give the details of the accident.

Asked why Toyota had moved away from a business model that prized quality and openness, Lentz offered a simple explanation: ''We lost sight of our customers.

"We outgrew our engineering resource," he said. "We're suffering from that today."

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a home to Nissan and a plant under construction by Volkswagen, said the goal of the committee hearing was to "make sure that mistakes of the past are not repeated and to be responsible when so much is on the line."

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