REPORT: Toyota execs deny cover-up after feds rebuke automaker over runaway car investigation

REPORT: Toyota execs deny cover-up after feds rebuke automaker over runaway car investigation

Remember Toyota's massive 3.8 million unit unintended acceleration recall that was attributed to pesky floor mats? It appears defective floor mats doesn't tell the whole story, as the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declared in a statement that "this (unintended acceleration) matter is not closed," adding "removal of the floor mats is simply an interim measure, not a remedy of the underlying defect in the vehicles."

Up to 2,000 Toyota customers claim to have experienced a sudden surge of acceleration, and some reportedly told ABC News that they didn't even have the recalled floor mats in their vehicles. Even more disturbing are the results of an ABC News investigation that reportedly found "hundreds" of accidents and up to 16 deaths as a result of unintended acceleration.

Four of those deaths occurred in August when an off-duty California Highway Patrol Officer, traveling with his wife, daughter and brother in-law, were killed after their Lexus accelerated uncontrollably. The driver's brother in-law called 911 and said that the brakes didn't work before the vehicle reached an intersection, struck another car, went into a ditch and caught fire. Some Toyota owners feel there is an electronic glitch in the system that controls the throttle and the ABC report shows that there is some anecdotal evidence which illustrates that incidents rose after the system was put into place in 2002, but so far, NHTSA has found no evidence to support those claims after six investigations.

ABC News caught up with Toyota Vice President Yukitoshi Funo (pictured second from left) and asked him if Toyota was covering anything up. Funo replied "It is not part of the Toyota culture and Toyota way to cover up anything," adding that the Japanese automaker is working with NHTSA to come up with an agreement on how to proceed going forward.
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<http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/06/report-toyota-execs-deny-cover-up-after-feds-rebuke-automaker-o/>

If an American car maker did this they'd be crucified like the Ford Explorer tire issue. There seems to be a double standard in the media when dealing with Japanese carmakers.

i have heard they think even less of the american workers....

Especially the cellphone call with the man & his family that were going 120 mph and you could hear the crash. Floor mats, my ass.

LA Times: Runaway Toyota cases ignored

Safety investigators dismissed numerous reports of sudden acceleration, then said data were lacking.

More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found.

The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.

Owner complaints helped trigger at least eight investigations into sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last seven years. Toyota Motor Corp. recalled fewer than 85,000 vehicles in response to two of those probes, and the federal agency closed six other cases without finding a defect.

But those investigations systematically excluded or dismissed the majority of complaints by owners that their Toyota and Lexus vehicles had suddenly accelerated, which sharply narrowed the scope of the probes, the Times investigation revealed.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-toyota-recall8-2009nov08,0,6120294.story?page=1&track=rss

Owner complaints helped trigger at least eight investigations into sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last seven years. Toyota Motor Corp. recalled fewer than 85,000 vehicles in response to two of those probes, and the federal agency closed six other cases without finding a defect.

But those investigations systematically excluded or dismissed the majority of complaints by owners that their Toyota and Lexus vehicles had suddenly accelerated, which sharply narrowed the scope of the probes, the Times investigation revealed.


this sames to say that the feds investigated and found no defects in the cases they were concerned with so it was probuably driver error..... I think everyone at one time or another has accidently pressed teh wrong pedal no matter what vehicle they drive. I wont change from buying Toyotas as ive yet to have one that i didnt think was worth the money...

Toyota May Face Push to Reopen Rollover-Crash Cases

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. may face demands that rollover-crash cases it won or settled be reopened, in light of accusations by a former company lawyer that the company hid records sought by plaintiffs.

The ex-Toyota lawyer, Dimitrios Biller, sued the company in July, claiming the world’s largest automaker and its U.S. units destroyed engineering and testing evidence relevant in more than 300 suits over sport-utility vehicle rollover accidents. Biller managed the electronic document-discovery program for Toyota, he said in court papers.

“The petition alleges conduct by Toyota that would cause every case ever resolved by Toyota in the past 10 years to be re-opened,” said Mikal Watts, a lawyer in Corpus Christi, Texas, referring to Biller’s suit. “We intend to ask the courts to re-open these lawsuits.”

Watts said Biller’s claims raise questions about the results of 10 other Toyota cases he handled. They include a trial he lost in Huntsville, Texas, over an accident that left a 6-year-old boy quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator.
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<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=avLtyUEIgYI8>

A more likely explanation is that Toyota is covering up evidence in the sudden acceleration cases like they have in the rollover cases.

cause im sure that all the car manufacturers have had issues and problems, would be interesting to see numbers on them all, probuably wouldnt make a difference though to people buying, brand loyalty counts for a lot when it comes to car purchases...

How about the close to slave labor they use to build Priuses?
<http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3796/the_dark_side_of_the_toyota_prius/>

Decades of rust problems with frames on their pickup trucks?
<http://www.examiner.com/x-22760-Toyota-Examiner~y2009m10d12-Toyota-faces-recall-for-rusting-frames-on-2000-2001-Tundra-pickup-trucks>
<http://jalopnik.com/5232946/toyota-truck-owners-clamoring-for-recall-over-dangerously-rusted-frames>
<http://www.zimbio.com/Toyota+cars/articles/5U4j49XsJFy/NHTSA+Investigating+Tundra+Frame+Rust>

Toyota Settles California Emissions Suit
<http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news02/toyota_air.html>
They fixed their cars check engine lights not to work, hows that for reliability and being green?

Then they blamed their customers for their engines sludging up until they couldn't hide it anymore.
<http://www.yotarepair.com/Sludge_Zone.html>

Toyota doesn't get the press it deserves.

people buy what they like and what they have good experiences with regardless of what they read, personal experience trumps what looks like people with eggs to fry might write... As i said im in the market for another SUV and im not going to look beyond toyota simply because i have never had a bad experience with them.

If you like to reward slave labor and anti-union practices from a foreign predator corporation, so be it.

or that dosent have slave labour, good luck to you but ill stick to what i like...

UAW President Walter Reuther saw civil rights as a moral issue important to the continued success of American democracy and U.S. labor and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed the support of labor unions would be an important factor in winning the fight minorities faced. As a result, their philosophies spawned a close friendship between the two.
Irv Bluestone, Walter Reuther’s top aide during the early ‘60s, and later a UAW vice president said, “The UAW did everything possible to support Dr. King and the civil rights movement. When King began planning the Walk to Freedom March that took place in July of 1963, he wanted as many unionists as possible marching with him in Detroit “To help him, Reuther gave King the use of an office in Solidarity house, UAW headquarters. His office was located on the fourth floor, if I recall correctly,” said Bluestone.”King used it while he was planning the march in Detroit and the March on Washington that took place the next month.”


Lot's of "liberals" are just progressives of convenience, the moral equivalent of blue dogs.

Toyota has an obvious in your face slave labor problem and you don't care?