The world's largest automaker has reiterated its defense that "pedal misapplication" is the cause of many unintended acceleration cases, following a report that federal investigators have found little evidence of an electronic source.
Federal investigators looking into reports of unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor vehicles have found little evidence of an electronic source for the problem.
Toyota Motor's recent $50 million investment in electric-car upstart Tesla Motors is already paying dividends. Tesla reportedly will ship two prototypes, based on Toyota's RAV4 sport utility vehicle and Lexus RX crossover, to the Japanese automaker later this month.
After a series of recalls, Toyota is attracting fewer car owners who drive other brands, despite generous incentives and a massive media campaign to address concerns about quality. Nearly half of all new cars sold at Toyota dealerships this year included a Toyota trade-in, up from 42% in 2009.
Acknowledging that "fast growth of the past decade has been too much in some areas for the company to keep up with," a Toyota VP says the carmaker will extend product development by four weeks and add 1,000 engineers to quality control.
Toyota is facing new accusations that it dragged its feet in issuing a recall. The world's largest auto company recently recalled 270,000 Lexus sedans to fix faulty valve springs that could cause the cars' engines to stall while they are in motion -- a problem it has known about since 2007.
No. 1 automaker Toyota says it plans to recall 138,000 U.S. Lexus vehicles as part of a 270,000 global recall. Left unfixed, faulty engines could make these cars stall while in motion.
Toyota will begin recalling 270,000 luxury Lexus cars on Monday to fix a problem that causes the vehicles' engines to stall, the company said Friday in Japan, adding to its already lengthy list of recalls this year.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday about 270,000 cars sold worldwide %u2014 including luxury Lexus sedans %u2014 have potentially faulty engines, the latest quality lapse to hit the automaker following massive global recalls of top-selling models. Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri said in its evening edition that Toyota will inform the transport ministry of a recall on Monday. The paper cited no sources.
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, began the annual shareholders' meeting by apologizing for the massive recall of some 8.5 million cars and trucks in the U.S., Japan and other markets. It was his first such meeting as head of the company, having assumed the position almost exactly a year ago.
Consumer Reports has lifted its "Don't Buy" rating on the Lexus GX 460 SUV less than a month after it warned of handling problems, following new tests that showed recall work corrected the problem. The magazine said Friday the vehicle passed its tests after a Lexus dealer updated the car's electronic stability control software.
Consumer Reports magazine is lifting a "Don't Buy" recommendation for a Lexus sport utility vehicle that failed an emergency handling test.
After duplicating the outcome of Consumer Reports tests that showed its Lexus GX 460 sports-utility vehicles may be susceptible to rolling over, Toyota will recall the luxury SUV to fix the potential safety problem, the company announced Monday.
The news comes after road tests conducted by Consumer Reports showed the GX 460 was susceptible to rolling over during accident-avoidance maneuvers. Despite sales and production halts, Toyota says it doesn't have any recall plans at this point.
Toyota halted sales of its Lexus SUV after Consumer Reports, for the first time in nearly a decade, issued a "don't buy" warning on a vehicle -- the Lexus GX 460. The magazine says handling problems could lead to rollover accidents in the Toyota-made SUV.