Did Toyota Care More About Profits Than Customers? Yes!

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Toyota Apologizes But Asserts Electronics OK



The president of Toyota's operations apologized for the company's handling of safety issues Tuesday while insisting that electronic problems did not contribute to sudden acceleration of its cars. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued that such a possibility could not be ruled out.

Toyota's James Lentz and LaHood presented differing views in prepared testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel, the first of three congressional panels holding hearings on Toyota's problems.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., set the tone for sharp questioning of Lentz at the hearing's outset.

"Toyota all but ignored pleas from consumers to examine sudden unintended acceleration events," he said. "They boast in a briefing of saving Toyota $100 million by negotiating a limited recall. They claim that they first became aware of sticking pedals in late October of 2009 when in fact they had received numerous complaints many months and years earlier."

"They misled the American public," Stupak added, "by saying that they and other independent sources had thoroughly analyzed the electronics systems and eliminated electronics as a possible cause of sudden unintended acceleration when, in fact, the only such review was a flawed study conducted by a company retained by Toyota's lawyers."

Lentz said in prepared testimony that Toyota had poor communications within the company, with government regulators and with its customers.

But he also said that Toyota has no problems with its electronic throttle controls, which have been blamed as a possible cause of unintended acceleration in some Toyota models.

Also being heard from Tuesday are drivers like Rhonda Smith, a Sevierville, Tenn., woman whose Toyota-made Lexus suddenly zoomed to 100 miles per hour as she tried to get it to stop — shifting to neutral, trying to throw the car into reverse and hitting the emergency brake. Finally, her car slowed down before she crashed.

Smith wrote down her feelings after the 2006 scare, saying she had "a near death experience, which occurred on October 12, 2006 between approximately 10:50 and 11:00 a.m. At almost exactly 6 miles God intervened" and slowed the car. She said that nothing she had tried had worked.

Smith's description of her nightmare ride in October 2006 will precede testimony by safety experts — and set the tone for the hearing. Toyota executives and the secretary of transportation also will be at the witness table. Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel will be armed with preliminary staff findings that Toyota and the government failed to protect the public.

Toyota, which has recalled 8.5 million vehicles to fix acceleration problems in several models and braking issues in the 2010 hybrid Prius, is bringing apologies to the hearing.

"In recent months, we have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota," said Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. in prepared testimony. "Put simply, it has taken us too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good faith efforts."

More than 150 Toyota dealers gathered in the Capitol Tuesday morning before the hearing to lobby lawmakers in support of the carmaker. Many wore buttons saying, "I am Toyota in America."

"We made a choice, a conscious decision, to be part of something, rather than just submit to it," said Tammy Darvish, a Washington area dealer who helped organize the action, which Toyota also helped coordinate.

Dealers Complain

Toyota dealers are complaining that the besieged automaker is being treated unfairly by the U.S. government. Some say it's because the government has invested billions in two competitors, General Motors and Chrysler.

At a news conference in advance of the hearing Tuesday morning, some complained the government is picking on Toyota, even though there have been dozens of recalls of other automakers' vehicles in the past year.

Toyota revealed Monday that federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now investigating the company's safety problems and what it told government investigators.

Lentz was defiant on one point, asserting that Toyota is confident "no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles. We have designed our electronic throttle control system with multiple fail-safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure."

LaHood, in written, prepared testimony, said his agency will ensure the safety of Toyota vehicles. He added the department's investigation includes the possibility that interference with electronics had a role in sudden acceleration.

"Although we are not aware of any incident proven to be caused by such interference, NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is doing a thorough review of that subject to ensure safety," the secretary said. "If NHTSA finds a problem, we will make sure it is resolved."

Slow to Respond

Committee investigators have made preliminary findings that the government was slow to respond to 2,600 complaints of sudden unintended acceleration from 2000 to 2010.

LaHood countered, "Every step of the way, NHTSA officials have pushed Toyota to take corrective action so that consumers would be safe."

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hear from company president Akio Toyoda, who is expected to speak to the committee and the American public through a translator.

In an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal, Toyoda acknowledged that the automaker had stumbled badly.

"It is clear to me that in recent years we didn't listen as carefully as we should — or respond as quickly as we must — to our customers' concerns," wrote Toyoda.


Sources: MSNBC, Toyota