Toyota to fix pedals in 4.26 mil. cars in U.S. over floor mat recall+

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 Kyodo -
Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will offer to fix accelerator pedals in
more than 4 million vehicles in the United States free of charge due to
problems over loose floor mats involving the company's largest-ever recall.
Newly announced remedies include reshaping pedals and providing newly-designed
floor mats both for the driver's and front passenger's seats to prevent the
risk of unsecured mats slipping forward and jamming the pedals, causing sudden
acceleration, Toyota said.
Subject to the repair are eight models -- the 2007-2010 Camry, 2005-2010
Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius gas-electric hybrid, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Lexus
ES350, 2007-2010 Tundra and 2006-2010 IS250 and IS350, totaling about 4.26
million vehicles as of Nov. 15.
As a further safety measure, Toyota will also install a brake override system
in the Camry, Avalon, Lexus, IS350 and IS250 models that will enable engine
power to shut down when both the accelerator and brake pedals are being
applied.
The company will begin notifying owners of the three models by mail by the end
of this year while the remaining models will be fixed afterward during 2010.
Until then, the company repeated its earlier safety warning for users to remove
unsecured driver-side floor mats.
But Toyota is likely to maintain its position that the gas pedal's shape is not
a ''defect'' and will consider the repair as a voluntary measure, against calls
by U.S. authorities to carry out a stricter, mandatory recall.
By fixing the gas pedals, the world's largest automaker hopes to stem further
damage to its reputation, which could foil efforts to restore sales in the
United States -- its biggest market that has been pounded by the global
economic downturn.
''The safety of our owners and the public is our utmost concern and Toyota has
and will continue to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate measures to
address any defect trends that are identified,'' the automaker's U.S. unit said
in a statement.
The repair cost is estimated at tens of billions of yen, but the automaker,
which anticipates its second straight year of annual losses, does not expect a
major impact on its earnings because it has already set aside about 500 billion
yen in provisions for recalls and other costs.
Toyota began urging users to remove the driver-side floor mats from late
September and later issued a safety recall for 3.8 million vehicles.
But the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had been urging
Toyota to repair the vehicle itself as criticism in the United States grew
following reports of high-speed crashes involving Toyota cars.
Intense media attention worldwide and consumer concerns over the huge safety
recall have badly shaken the so-called ''Toyota Myth'' -- a reputation for high
quality and safety that the automaker has long cultivated.
In an annual industry report released earlier this month in the United States,
none of Toyota's models made the 2010 list of top-rated vehicles for highway
safety despite their strong showing a year earlier.
The automaker has quoted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as
saying it had received reports of 100 related incidents, including 17 crashes
and five fatalities, involving Toyota vehicles.
==Kyodo
2009-11-26 00:02:22