Toyota mobilizes to fix sticking gas pedals as scrutiny rises

Toyota said Wednesday that its dealers are working overtime to fix sticking gas pedals on some 2.1 million recalled vehicles at a rate of 50,000 per day and have so far repaired 225,000 cars.

Bob Carter, vice president for Toyota North America, said in a news conference at the Chicago auto show that it is "too soon" to say when Toyota will win back the customer confidence that it obtained by making high-quality, reliable vehicles over the past two decades.

Carter worked to fend off doubts that the sticky accelerator pedal is entirely the fault of mechanical problems. Questions have arisen that the vehicles' complicated electronics systems may be to blame, as well.

"Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability of our vehicles, and right now we are completely focused on fixing the vehicles that have been affected under this recall," Carter said.

Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles last fall to repair what it called floor-mat "entrapment" of the gas pedal, and an additional 2.1 million cars last month to fix what it calls an unrelated sticky-gas-pedal problem.

Carter told Reuters that Toyota still has 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles on its dealers' lots that have yet to be fixed.

Also on Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, invited Toyota president Akio Toyoda to meet Senate and House leaders when he visits the United States later this month.

Issa's committee has scheduled a Feb. 24 hearing on Toyota's floor-mat issue and the role played by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in searching for the source of the problem. Issa has asked the committee chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), to ask Toyoda to testify at the hearing. Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, plans to meet with Toyota dealers during his visit but has announced no plans to stop on Capitol Hill.

Toyota's ongoing quality problems overshadowed the company's rollout of a redesigned Avalon sedan at the auto show, which came on the same day when Toyota received one award and declined another.

The company turned down a Japanese government energy-efficiency award given to the Prius, saying that it's not right to accept a prize for a car that is the subject of two massive recalls. The 2004-2009 Priuses were included in last fall's floor-mat recall; the 2010 Prius was recalled this week to fix squishy-feeling brakes following some 200 driver complaints in the United States and Japan.

"We declined to accept the award, because we thought it is not appropriate," Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco told the Associated Press.

Also on Wednesday, in the bad-timing category, Maryland Public Television show "MotorWeek" gave its 2010 car of the year award to the Prius.

"If you can only buy one car for your family, the 2010 Prius is the one," the show's host, John Davis, said in a release. Included in the release was a second statement from Davis, noting that "MotorWeek" had reached a decision "well before any potential safety issues were raised."

In an interview, Davis said that he picked the Prius in December, and noted that the fall recall was for model years 2004-2009. He gave his top prize to the 2010 Prius, which is a third-generation Prius. Davis tested two 2010 Priuses on a variety of road surfaces and did not experience the squishy-brake feeling.

"It's obviously not the best timing you can imagine," Davis joked, but added that he might still pick the 2010 Prius as his top car even after the brake recall. "We're still very high on the car. We think it's a superb automobile."

In another rare bit of good news for the embattled Japanese auto giant, car research firm Edmunds.com noted on Wednesday that, from 2001 to February of this year, Toyota vehicles were the subject of 9.1 percent of all customer complaints in the NHTSA database. During this time period, Toyota had 13.5 percent of the U.S. vehicle market. By comparison, Chrysler, which had 13 percent of the U.S. market, drew 16.3 percent of the complaints in the NHTSA database. Volkswagen had only 2.4 percent of the U.S. market but 4.1 percent of NHTSA complaints.