Toyota to withdraw 3.8 million vehicles in its largest recall in U.S.+

NEW YORK, Sept. 30 Kyodo -
Toyota Motor Corp. will recall around 3.8 million vehicles in the United States
due to reports of a problem with an unsecured driver-side floor mat that could
possibly lead to fatal crashes, the company's U.S. marketing arm said Tuesday.
The world's largest automaker will further investigate the cause of the problem
before issuing a formal recall as early as next week. The recall, for seven
models including the gas-electric Prius hybrid, will be the largest of its kind
in the United States since Toyota entered the market in 1957, officials said.
The huge recall, which will be far bigger than around 2.2 million units of new
cars Toyota sold in the United States last year, could be a severe blow to the
automaker as it tries to stem heavy losses by pulling together its mainstay
U.S. operations, which were ravaged by the global economic recession.
Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. said the vehicle's accelerator pedal could get
caught under the removable floor mat, causing the car to continue accelerating
and possibly resulting in serious injuries or a fatal crash.
Subject to the recall are seven models including the popular 2007-2010 Camry,
2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350,
2007-2010 Tundra and the 2006-2010 IS250 and IS350, Toyota said.
Toyota officials said Wednesday that they will look into whether vehicle models
sold in Japan and other countries also have loose floor mats.
''Toyota considers this a critical matter and will soon launch a safety
campaign on specific Toyota and Lexus vehicles,'' Toyota said in a statement.
While working out the details for an action plan, Toyota will advise the U.S.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company said.
''This is an urgent matter,'' U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in
a NHTSA statement. ''For everyone's sake, we strongly urge owners of these
vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended
acceleration.''
If the floor mat cannot be removed, Toyota advised drivers to firmly step on
the brake pedal with both feet and shift the transmission to neutral position
or turn the engine off if the gear does not shift.
According to U.S. media reports, an ES350 crashed on a highway in San Diego,
California last month at a speed of around 190 kilometers per hour, killing
four people on the vehicle. Before the crash, the driver called the police to
say the accelerator was stuck.
The U.S. government said it has received reports of 100 related incidents that
include 17 crashes and 5 fatalities involving Toyota vehicles, according to a
Reuters report.
NHTSA also said in a statement that Toyota recalled in September 2007 an
all-weather floor mat sold for use in some 2007-2008 Lexus ES350 and Camry
vehicles, citing similar problems.
Toyota's new car sales in the United States slid 29 percent from a year earlier
during the January to August period due to the worldwide auto slump. But
nascent signs of recovery were emerging on the back of the cash-for-clunkers
program the U.S. government introduced in July for a limited period.
Officials fear the safety warning could once again chill consumer sentiment at
a time when Toyota was set on increasing its advertising expenses to bring the
U.S. market back on a recovery track by the year-end.
''We had to deal with this issue at an unwelcome time,'' a senior Toyota
official said.
==Kyodo
2009-09-30 22:54:41