Three separate but related recalls of automobiles by Toyota Motor Corporation occurred at the end of 2009 and start of 2010. Toyota initiated the recalls, the first two with the assistance of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), after several vehicles experienced unintended acceleration. The first recall, on November 2, 2009, was to correct a possible incursion of an incorrect or out-of-place front driver's side floor mat into the foot pedal well, which can cause pedal entrapment. The second recall, on January 21, 2010, was begun after some crashes were shown not to have been caused by floor mat incursion. This latter defect was identified as a possible mechanical sticking of the accelerator pedal causing unintended acceleration, referred to as Sticking Accelerator Pedal by Toyota. The original action was initiated by Toyota in their Defect Information Report, dated October 5, 2009, amended January 27, 2010. Following the floor mat and accelerator pedal recalls, Toyota also issued a separate recall for hybrid anti-lock brake software in February 2010.

As of January 28, 2010, Toyota had announced recalls of approximately 5.2 million vehicles for the pedal entrapment/floor mat problem, and an additional 2.3 million vehicles for the accelerator pedal problem. Approximately 1.7 million vehicles are subject to both. Certain related Lexus and Pontiac models were also affected. The next day, Toyota widened the recall to include 1.8 million vehicles in Europe and 75,000 in China. By then, the worldwide total number of cars recalled by Toyota stood at 9 million. As of January 2010, 21 deaths were alleged due the pedal problem since 2000, but following the January 28 recall, additional NHTSA complaints brought the alleged total to 37. In a February 2010 letter to Toyota, US investigators "said a review of consumer complaints produced by Toyota shows that company personnel identified sticking pedals or floor mats as the cause of only 16 percent of the unintended acceleration reports" so the accelerator problem is yet to be fully uncovered. Several media reports later claimed that Toyota had announced that the recalls will not completely solve the gas pedal problems. They are further investigating the potential problems and trying to solve it as quickly as possible. They are also currently looking into the steering problems in Corollas. On February 24, 2010, Toyota responded that it "has rigorously tested its solutions" and are "confident" with the recall repairs, but that it would continue to monitor other possible contributing factors for unintended acceleration, including mechanical, electronics, and driver error.

I agree, dangerous yang defect ng Toyota at ilang libo ang na factory recall. As far as I know ala pa namamatay sa biglaang acceleration nito dahil nagagawan ng paraan sa emergency brake.

Pero disagree ako sa ginawa ng mga 'Kano sa CEO ng Toyota, US. Pinahiya nila ng husto ito sa congressional hearing nila, at para bagang ang trato ay kriminal at sadya nitong gumawa ng krimen.

Kung baga, komo't nalulugi na ang GM [General Motors], Ford, at Chrysler dahil sa US recession, ay gusto nila itong buhayin by embarrassing Toyota na matagal nang top car company sa US. Ang pagbagsak ng Toyota ay ang pagbalik ng Big 3.

On top of mounting criticism of mechanical glitches in its cars, Toyota faces a much more complex set of issues related to car electronics, based on consumer complaints and analysis by an electronics engineer familiar with Toyota's history of throttle control.

This comes as political problems continued to pile up for the company, in the wake of of its recall of 6.5 million vehicles--including recent Camrys, Corollas, and RAV4s--because of potential acceleration problems and its subsequent halt of production on the affected models.

2010 Prius comes with what Toyota calls Electronic Throttle Control System with intelligence (ETCS-i)

The U.S. Department of Transportation upped the pressure on Toyota when the agency's head, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, told owners of recalled vehicles to stop driving them during remarks he made Wednesday before a House appropriations hearing. He later backed away from this statement and said he meant only that Toyota owners who are worried about their cars should take them to dealerships.

And in Japan on Wednesday, authorities told Toyota to investigate reports of faulty brakes on its high-profile Prius hybrid car as federal safety regulators in the U.S. began a broader investigation into Toyota's electronic systems.

The Prius also came under scrutiny this week after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claimed that he had been experiencing sudden acceleration in his 2010 Prius because of an alleged "software" glitch.

Wozniak's claim, valid or not, underscores questions about Toyota's electronic systems raised by less-famous consumers. In a well-documented case detailed in a petition to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jordan Ziprin claims that, in 2005, when backing out of a driveway near his home in Phoenix, his 2002 Toyota Camry XLE suddenly accelerated and slammed into a utility box.

He did not have his foot on the gas pedal and the car accelerated under its own accord, Ziprin claims. This appears to be an electronic glitch: an issue very different from the mechanical defects cited in the accelerator pedal cases that Toyota is trying to address now with its recall.

"The problem began with 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles," Ziprin said in a phone interview. "That was the year that Toyota introduced electronic throttle control," he said. (Toyota introduced it selectively prior to 2002, but first used it on a large scale in 2002.) Reports of unintended acceleration jumped after drive by wire systems were adopted, according to a review by the Los Angeles Times of thousands of consumer complaints filed with the NHTSA.

Toyota, at least publicly, is saying that it has found no evidence of electronic problems. "We have not found any evidence of an electronic problem that would have led to unwanted acceleration," said John Hanson, national manager of environmental safety and quality in Toyota's communications group. "That doesn't mean that we've written it off. We are aggressively investigating any claims."

Hanson continued. "NHSTA over many years of investigation on a wide variety of complaints has found no evidence of any electronic problem with the electronic control system. That doesn't mean it's not possible. We're not ruling out any possibility. And we continue to investigate actively."

Dear Toyota Customer,

You may have heard that a tiny number of Toyota vehicles,
among the millions being driven around the world, have not
had acceleration problems. This is not true. As President of
Toyota's North American Division, I want to assure you that
all our vehicles are SAFE (Sometimes Accelerating Forward
Erratically).

Your safety is important to us. We want to make sure that
driving a Toyota continues to be a pleasure for you, that
you always arrive at your destination safely and no sooner
than you intend to.

In the past few months, we have recalled millions of
vehicles, including our Prius, Camry and Tacoma models, and
in the next few months, we will try to recall what we did to
them.

Recalling millions of vehicles is a difficult, costly task.
But we have taken this measure to prevent potential problems
with the floor mats, accelerators and brakes. In some
models, we have replaced the all-weather floor mats with
newly designed, ultra-thin transparent mats that you will
not be able to see or feel. In other models, our highly
trained technicians have made a slight adjustment to the
accelerator pedal, removing the patch of Velcro from its
underside. We will no longer buy pedals from the same
company that supplies Wal-Mart with children's shoes.

Many of you, of course, are driving Toyotas that have never
been recalled. Your vehicles should not cause you any
problems, but just to put your worries to rest, we will soon
be sending you, free of charge, our new Toyota Stopping Kit
(TSK). It consists of a bungee cord and a hook. Please do
not throw the hook out of your vehicle while passing a
pedestrian. This is not a good idea, as we discovered during
our extensive testing in Japan. The TSK proved to be very
effective, but we received complaints from a few
pedestrians, including one man who ran after our Toyota,
screaming, "Hey you idiots, give me back my toupee!"

As you can see, we are doing our best to solve any problems
associated with our cars. We hope that you, our loyal
customer, will continue to trust us and ignore any rumors
about our company. We hope you will also ignore the Rev. Pat
Robertson when he expresses his unshakable belief that some
of our cars have been possessed by evil spirits. (We
appreciate the good reverend's advice, but have no intention
of changing our Toyota Prius to Toyota Pious.)

We are a company that believes in focusing on the positives
of any situation. Every cloud has a silver lining. Many of
our customers, thankfully, are just like us, as evident in
some of the emails we've received:

---"I'm so glad I own a Toyota. I've been pulled over by
cops three times in the last week, but haven't gotten a
single ticket, thanks to my explanation: 'Sorry, officer, my
Toyota just went out of control.'"

---"You won't believe what happened the other day. My
husband and I were driving home from the grocery store. He
wanted to make a right turn to visit the liquor store, but
our Toyota wouldn't slow down. It zoomed straight ahead and
took us to church instead."

---"My husband drove his 1990 Toyota Celica for almost 20
years and often said that he would go to his grave driving
it. Well, he died last year and we buried him in the Toyota.
I'm sure he's happy, but it's going to take me a long time
to recover. I really miss the Toyota."

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(c) Copyright 2010 Melvin Durai. All Rights Reserved.