Toyota Tried to Delay and Limit the Scope of Recalls

According to newly disclosed facts from a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into Toyota's unintended acceleration problem, Toyota appears to have actively tried to limit the scope of and delay all recalls. Here is the story from the Washington Post:

"As congressional investigators learned last month, Toyota Motor lobbyists claimed last year to have saved the company $100 million by fending off a 2007 federal investigation into unintended acceleration.

Toyota and agency officials dismissed the claim as an idle boast.

But a closer look at the 2007 investigation, revealed in agency records and internal Toyota e-mails, shows that after federal investigators at the time diagnosed a number of potential dangers in Toyota cars and trucks, the automaker resisted the findings and in the end escaped a broad recall that could have cost millions of dollars.

Investigators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Toyota in 2007 that the design of Toyota pedals or floor pans could allow floor mats to entrap the accelerator. They saw a problem in Camrys, Priuses, Avalons and Lexus ES350s. Moreover, they believed that any type of floor mat could pose a danger.

But the company, which had developed a 'game plan' for handling the inquiry, ignored NHTSA's broad findings and agreed only to a minor recall of a single type of floor mat.

The agency, which has the authority to order a recall, did not push for more.

With the recalls of millions of Toyotas in recent weeks, the agency has been faulted by critics for failing to wield its enforcement power and opting instead to cajole automakers to make cars safe.

In the fall, after two years and 20 more deaths attributed to unintended acceleration, Toyota disclosed that, just as regulators had warned, accelerator pedals and some floor pans in 12 different models would need to be fixed to prevent the floor mats from entrapping the accelerator. They told consumers to remove any driver's-side floor mat in the cars.

Toyota declined to answer questions this week about its lobbyists' efforts in 2007 to limit the scope of the recall."