Toyota Knew…

Toyota tried to cut costs on recalls
L. A. Times
By Ken Bensinger February 22, 2010

Toyota Motor Corp. officials took credit for saving hundreds of millions of dollars by persuading federal regulators to limit or avoid safety recalls and rules, a company document released Sunday shows.

A company document touts successes in limiting regulators' safety actions -- months before the sudden-acceleration problem was widely known outside of Toyota and the federal highway regulatory agency.

The document, an internal company presentation, depicts an automaker focused on getting what it termed "favorable recall outcomes" from regulators, with a goal of saving money even as the death toll climbed from accidents in which Toyota vehicles accelerated uncontrollably.

The presentation by executives in the company's Washington, D.C., office was addressed to Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's top U.S. executive, and dated July 6, 2009 -- months before the sudden-acceleration problem was widely known outside Toyota and the federal highway regulatory agency. Released by congressional investigators, the document describes the automaker's regulatory agenda and highlights a wide-ranging string of "wins for Toyota."

Among the accomplishments cited in the document:

* Saving more than $100 million as it "negotiated" a limited recall in 2007 of 55,000 floor mats in Camry and Lexus ES sedans that had been the subject of a sudden-acceleration investigation. By agreeing to the recall, Toyota avoided a deeper investigation into the problem.

* Delaying the implementation of a federal safety rule requiring side-impact air bags, which saved the company $124 million and the cost of 50,000 hours of labor.

* Stalling or mitigating safety regulations governing roof crush standards, electric shocks from hybrid- and electric-vehicle batteries, and sliding doors on vehicles, which saved Toyota $11 million on its Sienna van.

* Avoiding a government probe of rust problems in the Tacoma pickup -- even though Toyota had issued an internal buyback program because of that issue. It also passed, unscathed, an investigation into the rear hatch on the Sienna, which numerous consumers had complained could fall without warning and cause injury.

In the document, officials also indicated that "sudden acceleration" was one of the "key safety issues" in models including the Lexus ES, Lexus LS, Camry and Tacoma, showing that it was concerned about the problem months before its first major recall.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-docs22-2010feb22,0,5030188.story