Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. may add the
Corolla, the world’s top-selling car, to a record recall list as
U.S. regulators begin investigating the vehicle on reports of 11
injuries tied to a suspected power-steering flaw.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration inquiry
opened today will cover about 500,000 vehicles from model years
2009 and 2010. Toyota is reviewing the Corolla’s steering and
will recall the car if there is a safety issue, Executive Vice
President Shinichi Sasaki said yesterday.
Toyota is already recalling more than 8 million vehicles
on five continents spanning models from the Camry sedan to the
Prius hybrid for brakes and accelerator pedals. The world’s
largest carmaker has lost more than $31 billion in market value
since announcing fixes for the pedal defects on Jan. 21.
“Toyota’s troubles are going to continue for a while,”
said Mamoru Kato, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center in
Nagoya, Japan. “Customer complaints will just snowball because
they are related to driver perceptions.”
Toyota fell 0.6 percent to close at 3,360 yen in Tokyo. The
company’s American depositary receipts, each representing two
ordinary shares, declined 71 cents to $73.44 at 4:15 p.m. in New
York Stock Exchange composite trading.
NHTSA, which regulates auto safety, said in a posting on
its Web site that it has received 168 complaints from Corolla
owners about steering “becoming unresponsive or loose while
driving at highway speeds.” The agency said it had reports of
eight crashes and 11 injuries, and is opening the preliminary
evaluation to assess the alleged defect.
‘Cooperate Fully’
“We are aware of complaints regarding 2009 and 2010
Corolla steering systems, are investigating the issue and will
cooperate fully,” with NHTSA’s investigation, Cindy Knight, a
Toyota spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
President Akio Toyoda said yesterday the company is making
progress addressing the recalls, and that dealers in Japan will
have fixed as much of 80 percent of Priuses by the end of
February.
Toyoda said he plans to skip testifying before the U.S.
Congress about the company’s recalls and hasn’t decided on his
schedule for a U.S. visit. North American President Yoshimi
Inaba will attend hearings in Washington next week, Toyoda said.
Toyota’s U.S. sales unit president Jim Lentz will testify at the
first U.S. house hearing on the recalls, according to the
company.
‘Dangerous Situation’
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked whether
Toyota’s president should testify before Congress, said the
Obama administration hopes Toyota will do all it can to rectify
this “dangerous situation.”
“Everybody I think is rightly concerned about the recalls
that have happened,” Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One
as Obama traveled to a political event in Colorado.
The U.S. is traditionally the automaker’s most profitable
market. Toyota placed advertisements in Japanese newspapers
yesterday apologizing and promising to complete repairs as soon
as possible.
The automaker has set up a global quality committee, headed
by Toyoda, and will appoint a chief quality officer for each of
the company’s regions, Toyoda said yesterday. The committee will
have its first meeting on March 30, he said. The company will
appoint a third party to test its electronic throttle system.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at
agreilingkea@bloomberg.net;
Kiyori Ueno in Tokyo at
kueno2@bloomberg.net