Toyota May Not Have Handled Complaints Correctly
Right after Toyota’s Sudden Acceleration Recalls, Toyota is now under scrutiny for stopping matters for the Toyota Prius, Toyotas popular hybrid car. According to Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary, Transportation agents will begin an inquiry after write ups were acquired that the Japanese authorities has broached an inquiry regarding brake malfunction complaints, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.
According to a complaint registered with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): My 2010 Toyota Prius has a serious braking problem, the car lunges forward after (I) apply my brakes over a bumpy surface. This is very unexpected and luckily no one was in front of me otherwise I would have hit them. This already happened several times, took my car to the dealer and no solution, I dont know what to do with a brand new (car) like this. There are many complaints with similar descriptions around problems when encountering even minor bumps and potholes with the 2010 Prius.
This current matter is on top of Toyotas recall of 3.8 million cars in Nov. ‘09 to fix accelerator pedals in addition to software to cover what has been described as emergent acceleration problems, which was succeeded by the newest sudden acceleration recall on January 21, ‘10 when Toyota Motor Sales asserted a recall for 2,300,000 vehicles. According to a USA work titled “100 Toyota drivers filed complaints before recall”, there were over 100 charges filed prior to Toyota taking action.
Lately, Ray LaHood made statements which question Toyotas action on the sudden acceleration subject. According to Secretary LaHood, “Today, Toyota is apparently taking the right steps to address these safety issues. Unfortunately it took much effort to get to this point.” While at a Congressional hearing on February 3rd, the Transportation Secretary pronounced that possessors of recalled Toyotas should cease driving the cars until the cars are remedied.
And recently Toyota written documents, which the company is attempting to hold from the populace may bespeak a potential cover up. A past Toyota lawyer, Dimitrios Biller, as a section of his legal action against Toyota has declared that Toyota has obscured safety evidence during rollover hearings. In December, Biller sent word to Toyota that he was determined to render a full replica of the documents he possessed to the LA Times. Toyota responded by calling for a California arbitrator to bar him from sending them to anyone. If Toyota possesses nothing to hide in the rollover lawsuits and has provided another lawyer the exact documents that Biller possesses, as Toyota has proposed, what does Toyota have to conceal?
These current series of results, the Prius braking trouble in addition to the past attorney intimating that Toyota hid written documents, coupled with the Transportation Secretarys notices regarding the car makers treatment of the sudden acceleration recall are wreaking a significant amount of scrutiny on Toyota, questioning the car makers reliability. Will the car maker be able to rectify its credibility?