Chris Woodyard writes for the USA Today “Drive On” blog that Toyota announced it has repaired some 3.9 million vehicles it has recalled in relation to its unintended acceleration crisis. “Almost 58% of the floor-mat entrapment modifications have been completed on the 5.4 million vehicles that were recalled for this issue, including nearly eight out of 10 Avalons, Camrys and Lexus ES350s involved.” Meanwhile, “About 80% the sticking pedal modifications have been completed on the 2.3 million vehicles that have been recalled. If the gas pedal sticks, a car can become a runaway. … More than 86% of the anti-lock brake system software updates have been performed on the 148,000 Prius and Lexus models that were recalled.”
Under the headline “Toyota Says 65% Of Recall Repairs Are Completed,” the New York Times reports that Toyota announced yesterday that “the rate of complaints about sudden acceleration had fallen 80 percent since April and that dealers had repaired 3.7 million of the six million vehicles in the United States covered by its two biggest recalls. The completed repairs to date represent 65 percent of those needed under the recalls.” The Times compares this to NHTSA statistics indicating that “for an average recall, 72 percent of repairs are made within 18 months.”
The AP reports that Toyota “has recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide over the last year for a wide range of problems, including some that have nothing to do with unwanted acceleration. The company has appointed several quality review panels and given more autonomy to regional operations as it aims to improve quality.” Toyota “also has begun installing brake override systems on all cars and trucks built this year and will install so-called black boxes in all its automobiles starting with the 2011 model year.” The AP concludes, “Toyota officials said they had not received an update from the Obama administration on the progress of the investigation run by engineers at NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The government has said it expects to complete its review this fall.” The Wall Street Journal also covers this story.
Toyota says no electronic fault found in sudden acceleration investigation. Bloomberg News reports that in a conference call yesterday, Toyota North America quality control chief Steve St. Angelo said that the automaker “hasn’t found evidence electronic throttle controls triggered unintended acceleration after its engineers and technicians studied more than 4,000 US vehicles whose drivers made such complaints.” St. Angelo said Toyota engineers have “not found a single case in which electronics would lead to sudden unintended acceleration.”
Allstate files subrogation suit against Toyota. The Los Angeles Times reports, “Allstate Corp. has sued Toyota Motor Corp. over sudden-acceleration-related claims it has paid, alleging that the accidents were caused by vehicle defects. The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks $3 million in compensation for about 270 claims that the insurance giant has paid out since January 2007.” Allstate spokeswoman Christina Loznicka “said the suit was ‘a last resort’ taken after negotiations on the claims with Toyota, a practice called subrogation, failed out of court.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
