Fatalities Involving Recalled Toyota Vehicles

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reported that there have been 13 fatalities involving Toyota vehicles that were included in the recall that started last September. This brings the total to 34 people.

All but one of the deaths reported to NHTSA occurred in prior years, as far back as 1992. Most of the incidents occurred between 2003 and 2009. According to accounts filed with NHTSA, Toyota and Lexus vehicles suddenly raced forward, smashing into other cars, buildings and pedestrians. In addition to the fatalities, federal regulators said 22 people reported injuries from unintended acceleration accidents involving Toyota vehicles.

“It is normal for NHTSA to receive an increase in consumer complaints after a recall is announced ,” said Olivia Alair, a spokeswoman for the agency. “NHTSA takes every complaint seriously and reviews each one carefully. The agency is quickly gathering more data on all of these additional complaints to help guide our examination of sudden acceleration . . . as well as other safety issues.”

Toyota has not released data from its own internal complaint files on accidents, injuries or deaths related to the unintended acceleration. The automaker has declined to state how many complaints of the problem have been filed. In general databases of auto manufacturers are quite a bit larger than NHTSA’s.

This month, both Congress and NHTSA have said they are looking into whether electronic throttle control could play a role in sudden acceleration.

Toyota officials have denied that possibility, pointing to internal and external testing, as well as eight federal investigations, none of which found a throttle defect.

Mercedes and Chrysler Disagree Over Hybrid Equipment

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Under Chrysler’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, part of the reorganization has led them to sell off some of the specialized equipment from a hybrid laboratory that they had shared with Mercedes. Mercedes has put a stop to the sale saying that they own the technology, along with the stockpile of supplies, and that Chrysler has no right to it. The two auto makers, who formerly operated under the Daimler name in a joint venture, have been fighting over the equipment since Chrysler left the Troy, Michigan, facility a few months before it filed for Chapter 11 protection. Mercedes is asking the court to remove the equipment used for the development of prototype hybrid engines from the sale so that it can continue to negotiate a settlement to its dispute with the bankruptcy estate.

Honda Airbag Recall

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In November of 2008 and June 2009 Japan’s number two automaker, Honda, recalled a total of 510,00 vehicles for an airbag inflator. This week the recall has been expanded to include another 428,000 vehicles.

The driver’s airbag inflators in these vehicles may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture resulting in injury or fatality. The airbag defect has been linked to one fatality and eleven injuries in the United States. There have been no other reports, Honda said. All cars to be recalled globally are made at Honda’s U.S. and Canadian plants.

The latest recall applies to:

Owners of these vehicles will receive notification through the mail or can go to http://owners.honda.com/recalls or call (800) 999-1009; Acura owners can go to http://owners.acura.com/recalls or call (800) 382-2238.

Toyota Prius Experiences Brake Problems

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received over one hundred complaints involving the brakes on the 2010 Prius. People complained about momentary loss of braking while traveling over an uneven road surface. Four of the complaints claimed the momentary loss resulted in an accident. Toyota spokeswoman, Martha Voss, said the company had been informed of the agency’s plans to open an investigation and added that “Toyota will cooperate fully”.

Toyota’s manager in charge of quality, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, said the company had identified the problem and corrected the glitch for Priuses sold since late January. He said the company was still considering what actions to take for cars already on the road and had not ruled out a recall.

Mr. Yokoyama told reporters that the new Priuses experienced a slight unresponsiveness of the brakes that he said was easy to resolve by pressing harder on the brake pedal. The problem occurred, because the technologically advanced Prius has two braking systems, and a glitch sometimes prevented the car from transitioning smoothly between the two.

It’s Important To Get Your Recalls Done

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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), we are not very good at following up on recalls. Recall completion rates are about 30% for child seats, less than 50% for tires and more than 70% for vehicles. What about all the recalls that were not done? Is the product no longer used, has it been sold and the recall hasn’t made it to the new owner, or is it just the neglect of the consumer?

It is in your best interest for the safety of yourself and those around you to seek out any recall information for the products you own, especialy if safety could be a concern. Get your RECALLS and TSB’S at the click of a button with the California Lemon Law Specialist.

Toyota Finds Fix For Recall

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Toyota Motor Corp. has announced that they will resume production of the eight vehicles involved in last weeks sale and production stoppage. Speaking on The Today Show on NBC, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA and a 28 year veteran at Toyota, said the company was confident it had found a fix for the 2.4 million affected vehicles. The recall will also include some PSA Peugeot Citroen cars made at joint Toyota-PSA factory in the Czech Republic. Including recalls in China and Europe, almost eight million Toyota vehicles will be repaired globally, including the separate problem involving floor mats and pedals.

CTS Corporation Supplies Toyota Pedals

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In the auto industry, it is expensive for each auto manufacturer to design and build every component for their vehicles. As a result, they go to automotive suppliers who build OEM parts that are bought by many different auto manufacturers. The gas pedal assembly at the center of Toyota’s stop sale and recall are one of these OEM parts. It was designed and built by a company called the CTS Corporation. They are a leading designer and manufacturer of electronic components and sensors and a provider of electronics manufacturing services in the automotive, communications, medical, defense, aerospace, industrial and computer markets. CTS manufactures products in North America, Europe and Asia. They also sell assemblies to Honda, Ford, GM and Chrysler.

Honda spokeswoman, Christina Ra reassured their customers by saying, “We use the same supplier for a small number of vehicles sold in the U.S. We do not use the same components as are involved in our competitor’s recall. We directly confirmed with CTS that it is not the same component.”

Ford, also a CTS pedal customer, has halted production in China of its Transit Classic diesel van, which is the only Ford product to use a CTS pedal assembly. The van is sold only in China. “Ford has its own unique design and engineering for its accelerator pedals globally,” Said Deep, a Ford spokesman. “In a review, we determined that none of our other vehicles worldwide use the CTS pedal.” ” 1,663 Transit Classic vans with the CTS pedal had been produced, and the company was investigating how many had reached customers. “We are constantly monitoring performance, and we have not seen any design issue related to unintended acceleration in Ford vehicles,” Mr. Deep said.

Alan Adler, a spokesman for G.M., said that the automaker has “no direct contractual supplier relationship” with CTS, though he said the company could be supplying components through other suppliers.

Chrysler said the pedals CTS makes for the company are different from Toyota’s. “Accelerator pedals produced by CTS Automotive for Chrysler Group LLC vehicles are a different specification and design and are manufactured using different production tooling and materials than the pedals produced for Toyota,”

You can CLICK HERE to view CTS Corporations press release of the Toyota accelerator pedal recall.

Toyota Suspends Sales And Production Of Eight Models

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Toyota Motor Company will temporarily stop selling and building eight models for the U.S. market as it tries to resolve a problem with faulty gas pedals. Toyota said the stoppage includes:

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

After recalling 3.8 million vehicles in September over concerns that accelerator pedals could get stuck in floor mats and this months recalled of another 2.3 million vehicles, a total of 1.7 million vehicles were in both recalls. This “stop sale” and the two recalls threaten Toyota’s reputation as an automaker focused on manufacturing safe and high-quality vehicles.