Toyota Agrees To Pay $16.4 Million Fine To U.S. Government

Toyota has agreed to pay a record civil fine of $16.4 million levied by the U.S. Government, which says Toyota "knowingly hid a dangerous defect".

The trouble for Toyota isn't so much the money (2% of its projected net income this year) as the precedent it sets for possible future fines and lawsuits.

Full story from Automotive News (free registration required).

Toyota Recalls 870,000 Sienna Minivans Spanning 13 Model Years

The recall is in effect in 20 states and Canada. The problem is corrosion of cables that hold the spare tire in place...likely from road salt.

Full story from Automotive News (free registration required).

Toyota Sienna Minivan Plunges Off Houston Parking Garage, Killing Driver

Raw video from CBS affiliate KHOU-TV

At 8:45 this morning, a man drove his Toyota Sienna minivan off an upper floor of the Honeywell parking garage....landing upside down and killing him.

The Sienna isn't involved in any of the Toyota recalls, and the driver isn't here to claim unintended acceleration, admit to stepping on the wrong pedal, confess to blackouts or suicidal thoughts or any of a dozen possible reasons the van might have gone forward with enough force to snap the safety cables that keep cars from taking the steep dive, but authorities will be poring over the evidence attempting to determine a cause.  Full details from The Houston Chronicle.

Associated Press Toyota Investigation: "Questionable, Evasive and Deceptive" Tactics In Dealing With Customer Lawsuits

The Associated Press pulls no punches in its investigation, which reads more like an indictment. Read the whole thing at the Detroit Free Press.

Toyota Timeline Widens: Documents Show Knowledge Of Floor Mat, Gas Pedal Problems Four Years Ago

Not good. Not good at all. NHTSA releases documents showing Toyota knew about problems with floor mats and gas pedals in 2006....bolstering the agency's claim that Toyota "knowingly hid a dangerous defect".

Full story from Automotive News (free registration required).

Kogi, We Have A Problem: The Toyota Memo

It's a prosecutor's favorite question: What did you know and when did you know it?

With the feds now alleging Toyota of  "knowingly hiding dangerous defects", and proposing a record civil fine, this is a bad time to have the wrong answer.

Now it looks like the timeline is back at least as far as January 16. Read the memo at Freep.com and the story behind it at Automotive News (free registration required).

Record Civil Fine Proposed For Toyota

The gloves have come off. The United States government is accusing Toyota of  "knowingly hiding a dangerous defect" that caused its cars to accelerate unintentionally.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposes the maximum possible fine: $16.4 million.

Full story from Automotive News.

Toyota, Police Investigating New Unintended Acceleration Claim

76 year old Myrna Marseille of Wisconsin was parking her 2009 Toyota Camry at the local YMCA when she says it accelerated suddenly...into the Y's wall.

She insists her foot was on the brake, not on the gas.

Toyota tells WISN-TV it's investigating. Potentially helpful...the Sheboygan Falls Police Department is right across the parking lot from the Y....and has security cameras that may have caught the entire event.

Watch the story from WISN-TV here.

NASA To Help Investigate Unintended Acceleration

Gee, maybe it is rocket science.

Despite decades of experience and data indicating that the vast majority of unintended acceleration incidents fully investigated end up being cases of drivers standing on the gas instead of the brake, the Obama administration has decided to launch not one, but two investigations...one by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) with the help of The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the other by The National Academy of Sciences...to get to the bottom of the unintended acceleration incidents that have been plaguing Toyota and other manufacturers.

How long? 15 months.

How much? $3 million.

Full story from The Detroit News.

Toyota Death Toll: 102

The Los Angeles Times says its review of public records indicates 102 people have been killed in Toyota vehicle accidents linked to unintended acceleration.

Two things to remember when reading the piece: One, that the number of reports increases when a problem is reported and many of those reports are later found to be unrelated to the problem. And two, that in the vast majority of cases fully investigated where a cause can be found, unintended acceleration incidents end up being a case of drivers standing on the gas pedal when they believe (and have reported, if they survived) they were standing on the brake.

Full story from the Times here.

Jalopnik Calls BS On CNN's TSB

One of the best things about new media is that we acknowledge the existence and work of others in the same field and help it reach a wider audience. In radio and TV, where I began my career (and still work), the "other guys" are never mentioned, unless it's in connection with videotape of one of their reporters and a barnyard animal dressed in the outfit on page 38 of the Victoria's Secret catalog.

Well, Jalopnik scores again...taking dead aim at CNN's story about a 2002 Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) that purports to show Toyota's known about electronic causes of unintended acceleration in its vehicles for eight years.

I've been a Jalopnik reader and fan for a lot of years (the Samuel L. Jackson Maybach piece still has me laughing three-plus years later)...reporting like Matt Hardigree's reinforces that.

Full story here.

Consultants Say Toyota's Looking In The Wrong Places For Electronic Interference

Three British consultants meeting with U.S. investigators tomorrow say Toyota's never found evidence of electronic interference in acceleration because they don't know where to look and it's very difficult to detect.

Full story from Automotive News.

Toyota Will Replace Accelerator Pedals For Customers Who Complain About Repaired Originals

The squeaky gas pedal gets the grease...or something like that.


Anyway, The New York Times has a memo from Toyota to its dealers telling them to replace accelerator pedals only if customers complain about the metal bar repair Toyota recommends.

“Accelerator pedal replacement is based on specific customer request only,” said the memo, which was addressed to dealers, service managers and parts managers. “Dealers are not to solicit pedal replacement.”

Full story from The New York Times.

CNN: 2002 Technical Service Bulletin Suggests Toyota Knew Of Electronic Acceleration Surges

The TSB from eight years ago was provided by attorneys for plainiffs in class action suits. They say it proves Toyota knew it had a problem, and knew it wasn't floor mats, at the beginning of the last decade.

Toyota calls them "baseless allegations" and "unfounded claims".

Harrison, NY Police To Announce "Runaway Prius" Findings This Afternoon

Yes, we know...in fact, we told you on Friday...the NHTSA says the 55-year old woman whose Prius crashed into a wall in the NYC suburb had her foot on the gas, not the brake.

But instead of saying..."yeah...what the feds say....", the Harrison PD plans to announce their own findings this afternoon. It should be interesting, given that the police chief started by ruling out driver error at the scene two weeks ago, then amended his position to a definite maybe last week, before the NHTSA announced the results of its investigation.

The PriusChat forums are talking about it here.

Toyota Sued By Shareholders Over Unintended Acceleration

Three class-action lawsuits alleging securities violations have been filed against Toyota by shareholders who say Toyota "failed to disclose ongoing safety issues"  including faulty gas pedals.

Full story from The Detroit News here.

Memo From 2007 Details Toyota's "Game Plan" For Dealing With Feds About Floor Mat Issue

A three-year old document just released by a Congressional committee gives insight into Toyota officials and their self-described "game plan" for dealing with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's growing concerns over floor mats interfering with accelerator pedals.

Interesting reading, to say the least. Full story from The Detroit News here.

UPDATE: NY Prius Case Human Error

NHTSA says the Toyota Prius driven into a wall by a 55 year old woman in Harrison, New York last week did not experience sudden acceleration. Investigators say their technical analysis of the vehicle show the throttle was open and no brakes were being applied.

That's what's called human error...and as we reported last week, that's the most common finding once investigators dig into allegations of unintended acceleration.

So it's two down as Toyota battles back against sensational stories of Priuses that allegedly defied driver attempts to stop.

Full story from The Detroit News here and discussion on the Prius Chat forums here.

CHP Releases Report On Jim "Runaway Prius" Sikes Incident

The feds and Toyota say the physical evidence indicates what Jim Sikes said happened and what he did on a San Diego County freeway on March 8 don't match, but if you're expecting the California Highway Patrol, which was first on the scene of what Sikes says was an unintended acceleration incident with his 2008 Prius, to make it three for three, stop holding your breath.

The 7-page incident report (which does confirm that Sikes "appeared to be pumping the brakes") refuses to draw conclusions as to whether what Sikes told the CHP was true or not.  CHP spokesman Brian Pennings says the agency is not trying to settle the debate and has "no evidence...that will absolutely disprove Mr. Sikes' statement".

Discussion ongoing on the Prius Chat forums.

Toyota Demands Retraction And Apology From ABC

Toyota is demanding a retraction and apology from ABC News for the February 22 Brian Ross piece in which a Southern Illinois University Professor demonstrated how to induce a sudden acceleration incident.

The March 11 demand letter, obtained and published today by Gawker, alleges that "the American public and the U.S. Congress were seriously misled by ABC News.