Toyota Motors tried Sunday to put the best face on its massive recall to fix an accelerator problem, running ads in US newspapers with a large "pause" symbol taken from electronic recorders. "A temporary pause. To put you first," reads the full page ad taken out in major publications.
Toyota on Saturday told some of its dealers that it has developed a solution to the sticking gas pedal that has plagued some of its models sold in the US, according to the Washington Post.
Earlier this week, the North American branch of Toyota suspended the sales of eight of its recent year models, accounting for about half of its US sales. It also shut down the assembly lines that produce them, including Corolla, Camry and RAV4. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told CNN on Saturday that Toyota was acting within the law.
Unnamed officials in his department told Bloomberg financial news service that they do not object to the remedy Toyota has proposed.
On January 21, Toyta's US branch recalled 2.3 million vehicles to correct a gas pedal problem that apparently did not involve the floor mat. That followed a recall in 2009 of 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to reduce the risk of pedals getting stuck on floor mats. Some of the recalled vehicles fell into both categories. In Europe several days ago, Toyota said it would recall 1.8 million vehicles for similar problems.
Toyota accelerator defects have been linked to 19 deaths in the past decade, Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said last week. Congress plans to hold hearings next month on the problem.
The accelerator problem came to public attention after a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members were killed in an accident in their Lexus in August.
To get control of the car, experts told ABC news drivers should shift the gear into neutral if confronted with uncontrolled acceleration.
On Friday, Akio Toyoda, the reclusive president and chief executive officer of Toyota, apologised for the manufacturing flaws in brief comments made to Japanese broadcaster NHK at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"We are very sorry to have made our customers uneasy. We are now working to grasp the facts so that we can deliver an explanation as quickly as possible to alleviate our customers' concerns," he said.
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