Toyota officials muddied the water further this week as lawmakers and regulators sought answers about hundreds of the automaker’s still-unresolved unintended acceleration reports, say members of Congress.
In two days of congressional hearings, Toyota sought to assure that electronics are not the culprit and that its recalls in recent months of 8 million vehicles, because gas pedals may stick open, have solved the problem. “This week’s hearings have raised as many questions as they have answered,” says Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., a member of the House Energy committee. “By Toyota USA’s own admission, the non-electronic quick fixes that Toyota’s first recalls indicated are not sufficient to prevent these very dangerous incidents.”
House Oversight Chair Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., says: “I don’t feel we’ve gotten to the bottom of this.” Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda told Towns’ panel that electronics weren’t to blame, but Toyota’s U.S. President James Lentz said he wasn’t sure the recalls had solved the problem.
Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy subcommittee that held Tuesday’s hearing, said Thursday that Toyoda’s testimony was hard to reconcile when testimony showed 70% of sudden-acceleration complaints in Toyota’s own database don’t involve recalled vehicles. Testing by auto engineering professor David Gilbert showed he could defeat the fail-safe protections that Toyota says prevent sudden acceleration in its cars.
Toyota provided lawmakers with a preliminary report on the safety of its electronic throttle controls by an outside research firm to assuage concerns. But the report was roundly criticized.
FULL STORY: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-02-26-toyota26_ST_N.htm
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