Toyota was aware of sticky accelerator pedal problems months before recalls were issued, according to news reports of company documents turned over to federal inspectors. Toyota knew about similar problems in their European models as far back as 2006.
The Detroit News, which obtained 70,000 pages of documents turned over to investigators, reports that Toyota first noticed the problems in the U.S. last August. Toyota attributed similar issues in Europe to right-side driving and did not check the cars in America. But even amid more reports of accelerator malfunctions, Toyota did not notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration until November, in spite of a requirement to report mechanical issues to the government within five days.
Toyota issued a recall of 2.3 million cars in the U.S. in January — five days after an e-mail obtained by journalists showed the company’s vice president of environmental and public affairs saying, “We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over.”
Read more in the Detroit Free Press and in The Detroit News.
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