Toyota's woes continue

The hits just keep coming for Toyota. In the past week, one of the largest brands in the U.S. recalled 8 different models accounting for more than 4 million vehicles in North America and Europe. The reason for the recall is an accelerator mechanism that tends to stick over time due to prolonged wear, leading to unintended acceleration.

WFAA.com reports that Toyota has developed a potential fix for the purportedly defective piece that is supplied by a Louisiana parts supplier called CTS, and as of Saturday the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved the plan. There is no timetable set for implementing the plan, but it is expected that factories and vehicle owners that have reported problems will be high on the priority list.

At any rate, Toyota is still recovering from the backlash that came when they announced replacement parts would be sent to the shut down North American factories before they were sent to dealerships for current customers. Some Toyota dealers have since reported that parts are being shipped to them, but it is unknown when parts will arrive. Specific training will be required for dealerships to implement the fix.

While at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda apologized "for making our customers feel concerned." All the apologizing in the world doesn't change the fact that Consumer Reports has withdrawn its "recommended" rating from the Toyota models in question. According to Consumers Union president Jim Guest:

"Although incidents of sudden acceleration are rare, we are taking this action because the vehicles have been identified as potentially unsafe without a fix yet being avaliable to consumers."

Fleets are also withdrawing Toyota models from service. The Detroit Free Press reports that rental car firms Avis Budget Group and Enterprise Holdings are pulling thousands of models from fleets in the United States and Canada "until a fix is available." According to Matt Darrah, vice president of North American operations for Enterprise Holdings:

"The safety of our customers is our number one concern, so we are acting out of an abundance of caution to remove the affected vehicles from our fleet until Toyota has identified a remedy for the issue."

With the rough spot Toyota is in, other manufacturers are taking advantage of the situation. General Motors, Ford, Hyundai and now Chrysler have all announced they will offer dealer incentives for Toyota owners and lessees whose leases are expiring. The incentives vary depending on the company and what type of Toyota you own, but most dealers are offering incentives of around $1,000. Honda has decided not to take part in the frenzy, though. According to John Mendel, vice president of American Honda Motors Co., "we will not react in a predatory way toward either Toyota or Toyota customers."

So much bad news in so little time, and Toyota has yet to report to Congress about the recalls. Apparently NHTSA investigations into earlier accident claims were limited around the same time a former NHTSA employee Christopher Santucci joined up with Toyota. At least that's what a 2008 lawsuit claims.  Expect the issue to be probed during the Feb. 25th hearing.

Stay tuned as there will certainly be further developments on these various issues, especially as parts supplier CTS is claiming no fault in its product and Los Angeles Times research indicates that over the past decade as few as 5 percent of reported Toyota/Lexus unintended acceleration incidents were blamed on a sticking gas pedal.