The reputation for quality Toyota's painstakingly built in the United States over the past three decades crumbled as the new year got underway with two product recalls affecting millions of vehicles from 10 model families. Some of Toyota's most popular sellers, including the Camry, were among the 2.3 million Toyota's recalled after sticking accelerators led to crashes that caused the deaths of five people and injured 17 more.
The reputation for quality Toyota's painstakingly built in the United States over the past three decades crumbled as the new year got underway with two product recalls affecting millions of vehicles from 10 model families. Some of Toyota's most popular sellers, including the Camry, were among the 2.3 million Toyota's recalled after sticking accelerators led to crashes that caused the deaths of five people and injured 17 more.
As Toyota's reputation was pummeled for its alleged mishandling of the sticking accelerator problem, its prize environmental hybrid, the Prius, came under scrutiny. On February 8, Toyota recalled 133,000 2010 Prius models and 14,500 Lexus Division 2010 HS 250h vehicles for faulty brakes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) logged 124 complaints about Prius brakes, four of which involved car accidents.
The U.S. vehicles recalled this year are among at least 8.5 million recalled Toyotas worldwide.
Now Congress is questioning whether camaraderie between Toyota executives and their overseers at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) caused the regulators to give Toyota too much leeway in evaluating and choosing remedies for its vehicle defects. Toyota initially blamed the sticking gas pedals on floor mats and issued a recall of floor mats.
The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing to address the safety of Toyota vehicles was rescheduled to February 23 due to blizzard conditions in the nation's capital. In preparation for that hearing, Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D- Ca.) has requested that both Toyota and NHTSA supply the committee with documents revealing how long they knew of the acceleration problem and what steps they took to investigate and resolve it.
The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform has plans for a review of its own, calling upon Toyota's North American Chief of Operations and DOT's Secretary Ray LaHood to explain their actions leading up to the gas pedal recall. According to the New York Times, that committee associated 19 deaths with sudden acceleration by Toyota vehicles in the past decade, twice the number experienced by vehicles made by all other auto manufacturers combined.
Transportation Secretary LaHood has been quick to distance his department from the automaker since Congress announced its investigation, insisting that its officials flew to Japan to pressure Toyota to issue its voluntary recall. DOT is now reportedly considering imposing civil penalties on Toyota in connection with the accelerator recall.
Public consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader has publicly taken DOT's NHTSA to task for coddling Toyota, accusing the agency of helping Toyota keep its sticking gas pedal problem out of the public eye for years. Nader told Reuters, "They have a culture of obeisance where they've become like a consulting firm to the auto companies instead of a regulator and a law enforcement agency."
Nader also cited the underfunding of NHTSA and its absence of expertise to evaluate sophisticated electronic control systems used in cars as factors contributing to NHTSA's ineffectiveness.
In a flash, Toyota has gone from one of the most trusted names in auto manufacturing to one of the most tarnished. Its ability to recover quickly from the sticky accelerator brouhaha by assuring a jittery consumer base and angry lawmakers of its ability to remedy the defective cars and its commitment to future quality may determine whether Toyota survives this firestorm.
