sticky accelerator pedals

Toyota has asked a federal judge to dismiss hundreds of lawsuits over problems with unintended acceleration in its vehicles. The world's largest automaker says such complaints are based on anecdotes, and fail to identify specific defects.

A House committee continues to press Toyota about what it knew when regarding unintended acceleration in its vehicles. Lawmakers now suspect Toyota of being less than forthcoming about the "new" brake-override feature it's installing.

Chrysler is recalling nearly 600,000 vehicles for problems ranging from failing brakes to sticky accelerators to electrical fires, including Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, and Jeep Wrangler SUVs, federal safety regulators disclosed Monday.

Already besieged by two recalls this year, Toyota Motor (TM) said Tuesday it is recalling 7,300 of its 2010 Camry sedans for possible braking problems, raising the number of cars the world's largest automaker has recalled to more than 8.5 million since last fall.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda finally breaks his silence as the Japanese automaker struggles with massive recalls and serious damage to its reputation. At a Friday news conference, Toyoda apologized to customers for recalls involving some of its most popular models.

The admission overshadows a good profit report for its fiscal third quarter. But the quarterly report covers a period before the gas-pedal recall and others, so the profit is likely to be short-lived as Toyota scrambles to make repairs and rebuild its reputation.

Toyota is accelerating payments to its 1,200 U.S. dealers for their efforts to help soothe rattled owners of some 2.3 million Toyota cars that have been recalled for unintended acceleration. The company's U.S. sales division will provide payments of $7,500 to $75,000 to help reimburse retailers for extended hours, car washes and other services.

Though the Transportation chief quickly backed down from his initial advice that owners of recalled cars "stop driving" them, Toyota can only chalk this up as one more disaster. Still, it's scrambling to get cars fixed and will have plenty of explaining to do when it reports earnings this week.

Toyota said Monday that it has begun shipping parts to its dealers to fix 2.3 million recalled cars with "sticky" accelerators and that it will begin sending letters to owners of the affected vehicles later this week. Many dealers will stay open extended hours, some around the clock, to repair the cars.