Soon after Toyota’s Sudden Acceleration Recalls, Toyota Motor Corp. is under pressure for stopping outcomes on the Prius, Toyotas popular hybrid. According to Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary, Transportation agents will commence an investigation after written reports were incurred that the Japanese regime has started an inquiry in brake error charges, reported by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.
Reported by a charge filed 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 ongoing issue is in addition to Toyotas recall of 3,800,000 motorcars in November 2009 to doctor gas pedals and computer software to handle what Toyota reported as emergent acceleration problems, which was succeeded by the freshest sudden acceleration recall on Jan. 21, 2010 when Toyota proclaimed a recall for 2.3 million autos. According to a USA piece titled “100 Toyota drivers filed complaints before recall”, there were more than one hundred complaints filed prior to Toyota taking action.
Recently, Ray LaHood released statements which question Toyotas process on the sudden acceleration issue. According to LaHood, “Today, Toyota is apparently taking the right steps to address these safety issues. Unfortunately it took much effort to get to this point.” During a Congressional hearing on February 3, 2010, the Transportation Secretary stated that possessors of recalled Toyotas should cease driving the autos until they are repaired.
And now Toyota written documents, which the company is attempting to hold from the public may suggest a potential cover up. A past Toyota attorney, Dimitrios Biller, as part of his legal charge against Toyota has alleged that Toyota has obscured safety evidence during rollover suits. In Dec., Biller notified Toyota that he was determined to render a thorough replica of the documents he possessed to the LA Times. Toyota reacted by requesting a CA arbitrator to prevent him from rendering them to anyone. If Toyota possesses naught to cover up in the rollover lawsuits and has shown another lawyer the exact papers that Biller possesses, as it has evoked, what does Toyota have to hide?
These on-going series of events, the Prius brake concern and the departed lawyer intimating that Toyota obscured papers, in addition to the Transportation Secretarys statements regarding the auto makers handling of the sudden acceleration recall are imparting a ton of heat on Toyota, questioning the car manufacturers reliability. Can the auto maker be able to rectify it?