The Auto Writer

Runaway Toyota issue dogs automaker

The Toyota Motor Corporation, faced with an unprecedented recall involving eight models, has decided to halt sales of the affected vehicle lines in a bid to address a nagging and potentially deadly quality issue involving accelerator pedals.

Fiery Crash

Since last summer Toyota has been under increasingly intense scrutiny following the deaths of a California Highway Patrol (ChiP) officer and his family. That car–a loaner Lexus–had a stuck accelerator pedal which quickly pushed the car to speeds well above 100 mph before the driver lost control and crashed. (see SayEducate: ABC News Spotlights Toyota Runaway Problem).

Originally, Toyota voluntarily recalled 4.2 million models in September 2009, blaming floor mats for having the potential to push up underneath accelerator pedals, thereby causing them to get stuck. Toyota’s solution was to temporarily hold the floor mats in place with zip ties.

Runaway Toyota

That recall and Toyota’s “fix” was criticized by consumer advocates as the “Runaway Toyota” outrage soon became one of the top investigative stories for at least two media giants, the Los Angeles Times and ABC News. Toyota did not help its case as company officials appeared defensive in several follow press conferences and comments posted to its website.

Under the latest recall only Toyota division vehicles are included. No Lexus or Scion models are affected. The recalled vehicle lines are as follows:

• 2009-2010 RAV4
• 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• Certain 2007-2010 Camry
• 2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

Unaffected Models

Toyota stressed that all of its remaining models are not being recalled including the remaining Camrys as well as the Sienna, Venza, Tacoma, Solara, Yaris, FJ Cruiser, 4Runner, and Land Cruiser.

Five North American plants will be temporarily shut down during the first week of February as the automaker assesses what direction the company will take and coordinate that response among each of its manufacturing plants.

Moving Forward

Despite the obvious setbacks for Toyota, the company is determined to move forward in 2010. According to Treehugger, Toyota plans to build more than one million hybrid models annually by 2011, which would double what the company sold in 2009.

The Toyota Prius, its dedicated hybrid model, has been a hot seller and with gas prices starting to inch up toward $3 per gallon, demand is expected to rise accordingly.

The Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997. The third generation Prius was released for the 2009 model year and has since been joined by a Lexus model, the 250h.

Source: Toyota Motor Corporation