Toyota hasn't fixed all sudden acceleration problems: Toyota USA sales chief

• Source: Xinhua
• [09:00 February 24 2010]
• Comments

Toyota Motor USA sales chief Jim Lentz told a congressional committee in Washington on Tuesday the company's two recalls for sudden acceleration issues will "not totally" address the problem.

The statement during the House Energy and Commerce Committee's hearing on Toyota's recalls is at odds with Lentz's statements on February 1, when he told TV interviewers that the Japanese automaker believed its recalls of 5.4 million vehicles for pedal entrapment and 2.3 million for potentially sticky pedals would resolve the issue.

"We need to continue to be vigilant and continue to investigate all of the complaints from consumers that we have done a relatively poor job of doing," Detnews quoted Lentz as saying.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said it hasn't determined all the potential problems of sudden unintended acceleration.

"NHTSA does not contend that the two recalls will fully resolve all concerns about unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in written testimony released on Tuesday.

But with one minor exception, he said, "NHTSA has not been able to establish a vehicle-based cause for unintended acceleration events in Toyota vehicles not covered by those two recalls."

Lentz also disclosed that the company would add three engineering centers to its two engineering centers and 80 engineers in the United States.

The hearing has focused on the fact that many of the more than 2,600 complaints since 2000 of runaway vehicles -- including 34 deaths -- are not all explained by trapped pedals in floor mats and sticky pedals. Critics say problems with the software and other electronics are to blame and that Toyota hasn't done enough to investigate electronics as a possible cause for racing vehicles.

Lentz has not explained what else needs to be done to resolve the issue. He said the company is retrofitting a majority of its recalled vehicles with a brake override system that will allow drivers to stop a car, regardless of the cause of unintended sudden acceleration.

That position came under criticism from several members who asked why Toyota wouldn't add the software to all vehicles on the roads.

"There are many factors that lead to it," Lentz said.

The brake override systems will be standard on all new vehicles starting with the 2011 model year.