US customer suing Toyota Motor Sales

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:45 February 09 2010]
• Comments

A Californian woman is suing Toyota Motor Sales for its negligence and breach of warranty over a 2010 Prius she bought last August, court papers showed on Monday.

Elaine Miller is seeking unspecified damages, alleging that the car she bought has severe braking problems that make it dangerous to drive, according to the court papers.

A Toyota spokesman said the company does no comment on litigation against the carmaker.

The lawsuit was filed amid reports that Toyota plans to recall about 300,000 Prius hybrids worldwide over a brake problem and is likely to notify both the US and Japanese governments on Tuesday.

On January 21, Toyata announced the recall of nearly 2.3 million group of cars in order to fix sticking accelerator pedals, but that recall did not include Prius hybrids.

According to Miller's suit, the braking problem impairs the driver's ability to slow down or stop the Prius properly. Since Miller bought her Prius, she has "repeatedly suffered the braking defect when operating her vehicle," according to her court papers.

Many of the complaints received Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Administration concerning the Prius state that the car will jump and lunge forward when drivers apply brakes along bumpy roads.

Since the 2010 Prius was introduced in May 2009, it has been the third most popular Toyota sold nationwide, and a large portion of the 103,000 bought in the United States were purchased in California, the suit states.