Toyota answers Congress' questions before hearings

[February 13, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. offered concessions Friday to congressional investigators ahead of planned hearings later this month on the company's safety woes, saying it would re-examine some customer complaints and weigh new safety measures.

The automaker will consider expanding the installation of a braking system that can override a vehicle's throttle, a company attorney said in a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Toyota also plans to take another look at consumer complaints of unwanted acceleration in late-model versions of its Tacoma pickup trucks.

Toyota on Friday also recalled a small number of 2010 model year Tacomas to fix potential problems with their drive shaft that could cause the pickups to lose control. The recall only involves 8,000 trucks, but it is the latest safety concern at the automaker that has already recalled millions of vehicles in the past several months.

The oversight committee is expected to hold the first of three congressional hearings to take testimony from top Toyota executives on the company's safety recalls stemming from problems with acceleration on some of the automaker's most popular vehicle models.

Investigators are probing whether Toyota acted quickly enough to deal with safety issues and if federal regulators did enough to hold the company accountable.

When Toyota announced in November a plan to fix gas pedals that could become stuck in the floor mat on about 4 million vehicles, the automaker said it would install a brake override system on some vehicles as a precaution. The system automatically allows the brake to override the throttle and safely bring the vehicle to a stop.

Toyota said in November it would install a brake override system onto the involved Toyota Camry, Avalon, Lexus ES350, IS350 and IS250 models. The letter Friday said the company is "actively identifying additional models that may be able to be reprogrammed."

The brake override system is expected to be standard equipment beginning with 2010 ES350 and Camry vehicles and incorporated into most new Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the end of 2010.

Asked by the committee if the override system would be provided to existing models, Toyota attorney Theodore Hester said the company would consider expanding it to additional vehicle models and report back to the committee on its evaluation.

Investigators also pushed Toyota for more details on reports of unwanted acceleration in Tacoma trucks that didn't appear to be related to floor mat or pedal issues. Toyota's letter stated that the roughly 100 reports received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not suggest any major safety concerns.

But the company said it would revisit the complaints "in the spirit of the recent commitment made by Mr. (company CEO Akio) Toyoda."

Finally, Toyota reiterated its belief that the electronics of its gas pedal systems were not to blame for cases of sudden acceleration. Many analysts have suggested that faulty electronic sensors could also be to blame.

Toyota hired an outside consulting firm, Exponent, which tested Lexus and Toyota vehicles and concluded electronics were not a potential source of the problem.

In Friday's Tacoma recall, Toyota told dealers that a crack could develop that could lead to the front drive shaft separating and falling from 4-wheel drive trucks, causing the vehicles to lose control. A notice to dealers says the part was manufactured by Dana Corp. and the recall involved Tacomas built from mid-December 2009 to early February 2010.

Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the problem was first noticed by the supplier and most of the vehicles were still on dealer lots or in the distribution chain.

[Associated Press; By STEPHEN MANNING and KEN THOMAS]

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