Toyota to file recall over Prius brakes both in U.S. and Japan

Monday 08th February, 10:37 AM JST

NAGOYA —

Toyota Motor Corp is set to file a recall over brake problems with its 2010 Prius hybrid both in the United States and Japan, in a move that will affect more than 270,000 vehicles, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.

The world’s biggest automaker decided it needs to act promptly to address growing complaints over its best-selling hybrid model with criticism already mounting about its response to a recent spate of quality issues, including a massive global recall over faulty gas pedals in some of its other vehicles, the sources said.

The planned recall would affect about 100,000 units in the United States and around 170,000 units in Japan. The model was released last May in Japan and in June in the United States.

Dealers in Japan, which have already been notified of the recall, will begin the repair once Toyota reports it to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, which is expected to happen early this week, according to the sources.

Because dealers cannot notify their customers about a recall until the official procedure with the government is completed, many are currently scrambling to deal with a growing number of inquiries from confused drivers.

‘‘If there is a problem, I wish they would admit it quickly and disclose specific measures (to address it),’’ a dealer in Hiroshima Prefecture said.

Toyota officials earlier emphasized that complaints over the Prius brakes temporarily not working properly do not involve serious defects and that the automaker has sought to fix them on a voluntary basis under what they dub a ‘‘service campaign.’‘

When the recall is carried out, a Toyota user can bring the Prius to a nearby dealer where the problems can be fixed by improving the software for the antilock brake system. The procedure itself is expected to take up to around two hours.

The software for the repair has already arrived at some of the Toyota dealers.

‘‘Once the recall is announced, we are prepared to be open on our regular holidays to respond (to our customers),’’ a manager of a dealership in Fukushima Prefecture said.

Toyota is also investigating if there is a need for a similar recall of other hybrid models, such as the luxury Lexus HS250h sedan and the hybrid-only Sai compact sedan, which employ a similar brake system to the Prius.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Toyota has began to resume temporarily suspended sales of eight models, not including the Prius, after the necessary safety measure was implemented to fix sticky accelerator pedals.

Last month, the automaker began a recall of the eight models, including the popular Camry and Corolla vehicles in the United States, which then spilled over from North America to Europe, China, Latin America and other parts of the world.

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14 Comments

goddog at 01:43 PM JST - 8th February

Software problem. Interesting.
sfjp330 at 01:58 PM JST - 8th February

So much media hype for Prius. Does govenment make any sense to target Toyota Prius? Recall of 270,000 Prius with accused 4 accidents, 2 injuries and No death. This means 1 accused accident per 70,000 Prius that resulted from suspected brake problem, but still under investigation and not conclusive. Do these statistics make sense for a recall? Why don't the govenment recall Ford F-150 with sudden accelation problem that is 1 per 65,000 vehicles?
Tahoochi at 02:12 PM JST - 8th February

sfjp330: Toyota doesn't have much of a choice right now. They either don't issue the recall and get criticized, or issue the recall and get criticized. Toyota is under a global microscope from hell right now, and don't have many people to blame but themselves.
goddog at 10:39 PM JST - 8th February

I have a Daihatsu. I love that little tin can.
kaminarikeizai at 11:30 PM JST - 8th February

Is Toyota still enjoying sells with the help of Japanese Eco point system?

After this mass recall Japan government should ban Eco points for Toyota’s car. Do not waste tax payers money.
The758 at 08:55 AM JST - 9th February

I have a Daihatsu.

Toyota has a 51% controlling interest in them
Branded at 12:01 PM JST - 9th February

Another day- another recall notice from Toyota. However, this is really not the news getting attention here in the US today. "That" headline was for Toyota's tantrum against all ABC affiliates. It seems that it was ABC news that broke the news nationwide here in America. They stayed on the story refusing to let it die, and even went after top level Toyota execs. So now Toyota has decided to stop all advertising with ABC !

Now, Toyota has made one idiotic blunder after another- but this could be the coup de gras ! By seeking vengence against one of the big 3 networks they risk even more targeting by ABC news, have lost an opportunity to win back customers through advertising, essentially look guiltier than ever before of a cover-up, and finally come off extrenmely immature by throwing such an illogical temper-tantrum- hey, it wasn't ABC news producing defective products that killed 19 Americans and injured 200+ ! In any case, this story is blowing up all over the internet and American talk radio. It seems that even Toyota's ad execs tried to talk upper management out of this- Toyota still doesn't get it ! And now, they are blaming ABC news for their plight- Can't wait to see how this plays out.
Branded at 12:05 PM JST - 9th February

Ho-hum sfjp330- "This means 1 accused accident per 70,000 Prius that resulted from suspected brake problem, but still under investigation and not conclusive. Do these statistics make sense for a recall?

Yes- because obviously the "recall/investigate the B'stards" limit is 1/68,000 units ! Toyota is simply over the limit !
Tahoochi at 02:58 PM JST - 9th February

Branded at 12:01 PM JST - 9th February

now Toyota has decided to stop all advertising with ABC !

Just to clarify things, the company in question is not Toyota, but Southeast Toyota Distributors. They are a private company, completely independent of Toyota. Southeast Toyota Distributors is part of JM Family Enterprises which also owns a dealer finance company (World Omni). They are one of the largest private corporations in America.

Here is the link to my source Branded, where is yours?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/08/southeast-toyota-dealers-pull-ads-from-local-abc-stations-citing/

Now look at this situation from a DEALER'S point of view; Picture this: after one of your Toyota dealer ads runs on the air, the screen switches back to ABC news reporting that all Toyota's are defective and accuses Toyota of cover ups... does it make sense to continue running dealer ads? Seems pretty useless, doesn't it?
Branded at 05:33 PM JST - 9th February

"Here is the link to my source Branded, where is yours?"

ABC.com ! I chose to go to the source.

"after one of your Toyota dealer ads runs on the air, the screen switches back to ABC news reporting that all Toyota's are defective and accuses Toyota of cover ups... does it make sense to continue running dealer ads? Seems pretty useless, doesn't it?"

First of all ABC has more news to run than just the Toyota story, so the scenerio you describe is extremely limited.

Second, as I mentioned above,

"By seeking vengence against one of the big 3 networks they risk even more targeting by ABC news, have lost an opportunity to win back customers through advertising, essentially look guiltier than ever before of a cover-up, and finally come off extremely immature by throwing such an illogical temper-tantrum- hey, it wasn't ABC news producing defective products that killed 19 Americans and injured 200+"

Finally- By doing this Toyota apperas to be acting lie the schoolyard bully that can't have his way so he will just tae his ball and go home- Very UnAmerican ! Toyota should hit the airwaves, like they did with their Superbowl ad, and try to win back their customers by- how do the Japanese say- showing some humility. Walking off in a huff will only hurt them. Toyota needs to learn more about American culture- for one, Americans never quit !
Tahoochi at 06:38 PM JST - 9th February

Branded at 05:33 PM JST - 9th February

Finally- By doing this Toyota apperas to be acting like the schoolyard bully that can't have his way...

Branded: Did you read my post? IT'S NOT TOYOTA THAT PULLED THE ADS. I have seen the ABC report, and even ABC reports it as "Southeast Toyota Dealers"... if you ask me, this is very shady of them because they do not mention the fact that Southeast Toyota is a completely independent company, and the decision to pull the ads was NOT made by Toyota Motor Corporation. Of course, then ALL the media outlets pick up ABC's story, and then word spreads that "TOYOTA PULLED ABC ADS!" oooooh, very distasteful of TOYOTA!

Why don't you look up "Southeast Toyota" on Wikipedia or something and I guarantee you will find out that they are wholly owned by an American company called JM Family Enterprises... NOT Toyota Motor Corporation!

I guess the next question then would be: Did Toyota direct Southeast Toyota to pull the ads? ...well, I don't know. I doubt they would have based on some of the reasons you have already pointed out.

I don't understand why someone as seemingly intelligent as yourself continually believes 100% of what you read and see on selected media outlets on the internet and tv. Why don't you try getting different angles on something yourself once in a while? While I am not a GM fan, I still visited their dealerships (when I used to live in the states) to see what they had to offer when I was looking to buy a new car. I am also admittedly a Toyota fan, but I read Detroit press coverage, and blogs run by predominantly D3 (Big 3) fans to get a different view once in a while.

When you jump to conclusions and accuse Toyota of "Seeking vengeance against one of the big3 networks..." like you said, it makes you look just as bad as the Toyota-lovers who refuse to admit any fault of Toyota in this whole fiasco (not necessarily on this site, but they exist on other blogs).
Branded at 01:36 AM JST - 10th February

"Branded:IT'S NOT TOYOTA THAT PULLED THE ADS. I have seen the ABC report, and even ABC reports it as "Southeast Toyota Dealers"

Tahoochi, I think we are starting to enter "the silly" zone when we start making comments like this. "Southeast Toyota Dealers" ARE Toyota ! They had to get "permission, the go ahead, the OK" from the higher ups at Toyota ! Again, they are not acting independently ! It doesn't work that way. If it did, what's stopping the JM Family Enterprises from going out and doing their own commercials to rebuke ABC news like you have been trying to do here at Japantoday ?

Once again we have an attempt to create some "disconnect" within this company- like "hey the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" ! Nonsense ! ABC news has reported that Toyota has had various strategic meetings on the fallout of taking this action- it is no secret ! And for all you know Tahoochi, this may be a "market test", to see how quickly the consumers forget about the problems ailing Toyota-"out sight, out of mind". I some how doubt it will work, the bad news from Toyota continues to flow like the Zambizi in the spring ! Another 400,000 plus vehicles recalled (close to 1/2 a million) again today ! Gee, what's next ? THE LAWSUITS ?
skipbeat at 01:17 PM JST - 12th February

Branded said, "By seeking vengence against one of the big 3 networks they risk even more targeting by ABC news, have lost an opportunity to win back customers through advertising, essentially look guiltier than ever before of a cover-up, and finally come off extremely immature by throwing such an illogical temper-tantrum- hey, it wasn't ABC news producing defective products that killed 19 Americans and injured 200+" Finally- By doing this Toyota apperas to be acting lie the schoolyard bully that can't have his way so he will just tae his ball and go home- Very UnAmerican ! Toyota should hit the airwaves, like they did with their Superbowl ad, and try to win back their customers by- how do the Japanese say- showing some humility. Walking off in a huff will only hurt them. Toyota needs to learn more about American culture- for one, Americans never quit !

Good for the Toyota dealers to take a stand on the Southeast ABC news media stations for their unfairness reporting on Toyota. The media can do whatever they want and get away with it because they are the NEWS. Did people forget the media is also a business? The media is seen as the good guys doing justice for the little people. Therefore, ABC doesn't have to be accountable for their Toyota recall sensationalism reporting. There is not an organization that oversee the media to hold them accountable for unfair and unbalance journalism reporting. But hey, we are living in a time where integrity and ethics don't matter much. Since Toyota have not live up to the standard as Toyota founder have set, the same can be said of the media with the lack of credible news reporting.

Why advertise when the Toyota cars are on recall? It's not like people are going in drove to buy a Toyota car.

Please explain the logic for the Toyota dealers to keep advertising on the Southeast ABC stations? Should the Toyota dealers keep supporting ABC sensationalism reports about them without them further compromising their integrity when the ABC stations have clearly compromise their code of journalism? Toyota and the media have both already lost the people's faith in them.

What's wrong with the news media these days from paying people for their stories to being paid by company to broadcast their ads? Please justified the action of KTLA-TV Channel 5 aired a Ford documentary which turns out to be paid by Ford to have it aired for three consecutive days. The media news don't lie there was a small liner of a disclaimer at the beginning of the broadcast. Maybe the disclaimer should be stream on the bottom while the broadcast is showing.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-onthemedia5-2010feb05,0,7067793,full.column