Toyota of Withholding Crash Evidence

Toyota may just have been caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Corporate blower of whistles and former Toyota Motor Sales USA (a "product liability group") managing counsel Dimitrios Biller has apparently brought a few documents to light - documents the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee finds "troubling".
According to panel chairman Ed Towns (D-NY), the documents "indicate Toyota deliberately withheld records that it was legally required to produce in response to discovery orders in litigation... [The] documents concern 'rollover' cases in which a driver or passenger was injured, including cases where victims were paralyzed."
Furthermore, "the Biller documents indicate [Toyota's] systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation... Moreover, this also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from NHTSA."
It seems as if a court in Texas put a gag order out on Mr. Biller (do I sound like a lawyer or what?), but a Congressional subpoena came in and took over in order to get to the truth. Towns says he hopes Biller will bring to light information regarding Toyota's hiding "evidence of safety defects from consumers and regulators, and foster[ing] a culture of 'hypocrisy and deceit."
For people keeping up with this debacle, you may hear the term "Books of Knowledge". This refers not to the Indiana Jones trilogy, but to digital records "in which Toyota engineers kept their design and testing data across all vehicle lines and parts."
Sounds normal; companies keeping their secrets secret. Not really a problem, until evidence is found that Toyota may have settled multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits when they learned that victims' lawyers were on the path of discovering the "Books".
Towns asked Toyota to respond to the issues raised by the documents by Friday, March 12, with the Japanese automaker saying that it would.

Presentation shows Toyota knew of tougher regulations

WASHINGTON – Toyota’s Washington executives warned new U.S. chief Yoshimi Inaba last summer that federal regulators were getting tougher on vehicle recalls, and said the $3-billion cash-for-clunkers plan was a “conquest bill for Toyota.”

In the same presentation given to congressional committees where Toyota’s staff said limiting a 2007 recall of floor mats was a $100-million “win” for the company, the staff warned Inaba that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had new powers to force recalls, including civil fines.

Earlier this month, NHTSA opened three investigations into Toyota’s handling of two recalls covering 5.6 million vehicles and other complaints of sudden acceleration. In theory, the agency could fine Toyota as much as $49 million if it found the company withheld information in all three cases, although NHTSA has never levied a fine greater than $1 million over a recall.

During his testimony Wednesday, Inaba said he did not recall the July 2009 meeting where he received the presentation, but that the claim of saving $100 million by limiting the 2007 recall to floor mats was “inconsistent” with Toyota’s principles.

“New strong civil and criminal penalties were implemented for knowingly hiding a defect/recall, or less-than-timely reporting,” executives said in the notes to the presentation. NHTSA’s new stance is “resulting in more investigations, and more forced recalls — even those that historically were not deemed ‘safety’ in nature.”

The presentation also touted the scrappage plan that would be launched the following month as a “conquest” for the company. Earlier versions of the plan would have limited sales to vehicles built in North America, giving Detroit automakers more of an advantage.

Instead, Toyota sold 120,530 vehicles under the plan, or 20% of the total, more than any other automaker.

In addition to those two issues, executives raised several others with Inaba, according to the full presentation obtained by the Free Press today.

The automaker worried that a mandate requiring its vehicles be able to burn 85% ethanol fuel could cost $400 million to $600 million a year, with costs rising in the future due to tougher emission standards. Detroit automakers have vowed that half of their new models by 2012 will have such capability, and President Barack Obama had made a campaign pledge to push for flex-fuel models.

Toyota was working to reduce California state rules requiring automakers to sell certain numbers of zero-emission and electric vehicles. It estimated those rules would cost $260 million in the 2009-11 model years, with unknown costs in the years ahead.

Toyota chief at Ky. plant tells workers company must rethink operations to win back customers

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) — Toyota's president visited the company's largest North American assembly plant Thursday, telling workers that the automaker is at a "crossroads" and needs to rethink its operations to win back customers.

Akio Toyoda toured the assembly line in Georgetown before giving a brief speech to about 100 employees. It was his first visit to the plant as head of the company his grandfather founded.

Toyoda's trip to Kentucky came one day after lawmakers grilled him in a congressional hearing over the company's recall of millions of vehicles due to sticky gas pedals, faulty brakes and floor mats that can snag accelerators.

He told the workers he was "more comfortable" visiting with them and seemed to choke up during the speech, particularly when he thanked those who made the trek with him Wednesday to Washington.

"I'd just like to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart," he said.

Toyoda rode a tram through one of the assembly lines Thursday, waving to workers on his way. Then he got out and stopped at a few stations, including the one where a gas pedal is installed.

The plant's production is slated to halt entirely Friday, and possibly other days, less than a month after a gas pedal recall forced a weeklong shutdown of one of its two assembly lines.

Although he didn't talk about specifics during his speech, Toyoda told the Kentucky employees that the company needs to "rethink everything about our operations."

Earlier Thursday, he met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, repeating pledges he made to Congress this week to improve safety efforts.

Toyoda told LaHood that the world's top automaker would "advance safety to the next level" as it tries to restore customer faith in its cars and trucks that has been badly damaged by the recall of 8.5 million vehicles.

Lisa Webb, a plastics worker from Shelbyville, Ky., said Toyoda made a good impression during his visit, and when he teared up, it showed he was going through many of the same things the workers are.

"That just made me feel more inspired," she said.

The Georgetown plant employs around 6,600 people, and more than 20,000 jobs across central Kentucky are directly attributed to Toyota and its suppliers.

"It's scary, it really is, especially for a community that is this small," said shop manager John Miller, who formerly worked for Ford in Detroit. "Quite honestly, if Toyota wasn't here, I'm not even sure this community would exist."

Martha Tirlea, who has one son who works at Toyota and another who transports parts there, says she is hopeful the setback will strengthen the company long-term.

"You're always fearful, in this climate especially, about every job, but I think they will come out of it," said Tirlea, owner of Country Peddler Shoppe in downtown Georgetown.

2010 Toyota Auris Gallery from European

We've already seen details and a pair of official photos of Toyota's refreshed 2010 Auris for the European market, but now we have a comprehensive image gallery of both the three- and five-door hatchback versions of the car shot during a media event in Europe.
For 2010, the Auris has been pepped up with a new front end that includes a restyled grille, swept-back headlamps, new bumper and revised bonnet profile, while at the back, the tail lamp clusters are revised and there's a new rear bumper with extended corner sections.
Inside, the new Auris has been upgraded with a new centre console and revised Optitron dials with white illumination, while Toyota also added soft-touch materials on the top of the instrument panel and around the glovebox.
Under the skin, Toyota's engineers fine tuned the Auris' suspension and speed-sensitive Electric Power Steering (EPS).
The standard Auris retains its current range of petrol and diesel engines and six-speed manual and MultiMode transmissions.
The facelifted Auris will have its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March alongside the production version of the Auris HSD Hybrid.

Toyota Announces Voluntary Recall on 8,000 Tacoma Trucks Over Potential Defect in Front Drive Shaft

Appearing to have learned its lesson from its accelerator pedal / floor mat woes, Toyota is now issuing voluntary recalls right and left before problems escalate to a point of crisis.
In this latest episode, the Japanese automaker announced it will conduct a voluntary safety recall to inspect the front drive shaft on a small production run of certain 2010 model year Tacoma 4WD trucks.
According to Toyota, the front shaft in these vehicles may include a defective component that contains cracks that developed during the manufacturing process. As the truck get used, the cracks may lead to the separation of the drive shaft at the joint portion.
Toyota said that the recall affects approximately 8,000 Tacoma 4WD trucks in the U.S. adding that no other Toyota or Lexus vehicles are involved.
The company's dealers will inspect the affected vehicles and if necessary, replace the front drive shaft.
Toyota said that it will notify owners by first class mail starting in mid-March, 2010.

1996 Toyota Supra in St. Louis Shrewsbury, MO 63116

2010 Toyota RAV-4 Facelift:

 

This year's edition of the Geneva Motor Show will see Toyota lifting the wraps off the refreshed RAV-4 compact SUV. According to the Japanese automaker, for the 2010 model year, the European specification RAV-4 receives a new front-end design and a more refined interior, plus engineering tweaks to further nudge CO2 emissions downwards.
In what concerns the exterior updates, the single photo released by Toyota suggests that the automaker's designers simply copied the front fascia of the recently revised Japanese market Vanguard (a.k.a. the long-wheelbase version of the RAV-4) to the short-wheelbase European model.
The styling changes include different head lights, a new front grille with more chrome bars, reshaped front bumper with different fog lights and a restyled hood.
Toyota did not say whether or not these cosmetic tweaks will also apply on the North American spec RAV-4.

2010 TOYOTA RAV-4 FACELIFT (EURO-SPEC)

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2009 TOYOTA RAV-4 (EURO SPEC)

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2010 TOYOTA VANGUARD (JAPANESE-SPEC)

Tokyo 2010: Toyota Supra IV Dressed Up as a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Eleanor