Toyota accused of failing to sound safety alarms in Canada

[DainBramaged]

Canadian lawmakers accused Toyota Motor Corp. executives of waiting too long to inform the government of problems with faulty accelerators in some of the company's vehicles.

Separately, Canada's transport minister said his department would conduct an investigation into Toyota's actions, and would consider making disclosure laws tougher if necessary.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, has recalled about 8 million vehicles -- 270,000 of them in Canada -- to address sticky gas pedals and floor mats that may interfere with accelerator pedals and cause unintended acceleration.

"Many Canadians have wondered whether their vehicles are safe, and we regret this has caused our customers both anxiety and inconvenience," said Yoichi Tomihara, CEO of Toyota Canada Inc.

The company told Transport Canada of the problems with the sticky pedals on Jan. 21, the same day it announced a recall. On Jan. 26, it temporary halted the production of eight models in North America as it worked on a fix.

The lawmakers wanted to know why Toyota, which said it knew of the problems in October and began working with pedal supplier CTS Corp. on a redesign later in the year, waited so long to inform the government.



Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100317/OEM/100319915/1143#ixzz0iSX7UHeo

[SPedigrees]

1. "sticky gas pedals and floor mats that may interfere with accelerator pedals" my ass.

It is a computer problem that shims, new pedals, and new floor mats cannot address.