Honda Cars : Toyota tackles acceleration lawsuits; questions remain | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Recent settlements of lawsuits involving vehicle value loss and a few involving wrongful death claims may signal that Toyota doesn't want to risk potentially costly court decision.

by Greg Risling of www.usatoday.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As Toyota Motor chips away at settling lawsuits claiming its vehicles suddenly accelerate, the question remains whether attorneys who sued could prove to a jury there was a design flaw.

The company maintains that stuck accelerator pedals, faulty floor mats and driver error are the reasons for vehicles unexpectedly surging, while plaintiffs' attorneys contend Toyota's electronic throttle control system is to blame.

Recent settlements totaling more than $1 billion to resolve numerous lawsuits involving economic loss and a few involving wrongful death claims could signal that Toyota doesn't want to risk coming out on the losing end of a potentially costly court decision.

"A bad loss in a jury trial would inflict lasting damage to Toyota in loss of public confidence," said Los Angeles-based attorney Christine Spagnoli, who has won several multimillion-dollar verdicts against automakers over safety defects. "I believe Toyota will continue to look for better opportunities to get a win."

The company said Thursday that it settled a lawsuit with the family of two people killed in a Utah crash that was set to go to trial next month and serve as a test case for hundreds of others that are pending.

Terms of the agreement weren't released, but it comes weeks after Toyota agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle lawsuits in which vehicle owners said the value of their cars and SUVs plummeted after the company recalled millions of vehicles because of sudden-acceleration issues.

In the Utah case, Paul Van Alfen and his son's fiancée, Charlene Jones Lloyd, were killed when their Camry slammed into a wall near Wendover, Utah, in 2010. The Utah Highway Patrol concluded, based on statements from witnesses and crash survivors, that the gas pedal was stuck.

It was the first bellwethercase, before a federal judge in Orange County, Calif., chosen to help predict the potential outcome of other lawsuits making similar allegations.

Wayne Mason, a product liability attorney in Dallas, doesn't believe Thursday's settlement portends poorly for either side going forward.

"This is like taking an aspirin when you have a migraine," Mason said. "Each of these cases has to be weighed on their own merit. I will be surprised if some don't get tried."

Toyota continues to be dogged by sudden-acceleration issues that arose four years ago. Last month, the U.S. government hit the company with a record $17.4 million fine for failing again to quickly report problems to federal regulators and for delaying a safety recall. More than 150,000 2010 Lexus Rx 350s and RX 450h models were recalled because the driver's-side floor mats can trap the gas pedal and cause the vehicles to speed up without warning.

Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles globally to fix sticky gas pedals and floor mats. The company also paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.

While the recalls have soiled the company's sterling reputation for reliability, Toyota has regained its position as the world's largest automaker and saw sales increase 27% last year.

The automaker also has received some vindication. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause acceleration problems. 

In 2011, a federal judge found that Toyota wasn't liable for a 2005 crash involving a Scion that the driver blamed on the electronic throttle or a floor mat. 

A second bellwether trial is scheduled for later this year, but it's unclear if a resolution will be made before then. Plaintiffs' attorneys have reviewed thousands of internal Toyota documents, reviewed data and deposed employees, but most of that material has been kept under seal in court records.

In a statement announcing the Van Alfen settlement, Toyota said there will be a number of other chances to defend itself in a court of law, although the company may "decide from time to time" to settle select cases.

"It would seem that Toyota did not want a public airing of the evidence that has been gathered in the lawsuits, so that it can continue to say that there is not a problem," Spagnoli said. "If Toyota felt it could have successfully defended its products in these cases, it would have welcomed a public trial."

Source;
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/driveon/2013/01/21/toyota-sudden-acceleration-lawsuits/1851813/

Honda Cars : Toyota to spend 1.1 billion USD to settle lawsuits related to unintended acceleration | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Toyota will spend a minimum of 1.1 billion USD to settle U.S. lawsuits and other claims resulted after many claims of unintended acceleration.

They will also install new braking override systems in some cars and reimburse owners that were affected financially by these issues. In a statement released by the plaintiffs' lawyers it is mentioned up to 16 million cars are covered in this statement. All components related to unintended acceleration will receive 3- to 10-year warranties. It is estimated that 3.25 million cars are eligible for the brake-override systems.

The NHTSA has given Toyota a 60 million USD fine because they didn't inform U.S. safety regulators in a timely manner about this problem. The Japanese company blamed in many cases the drivers or misuse or misplacement of floor mats.

Source;
http://www.worldcarfans.com/112122752039/toyota-to-spend-11-billion-usd-to-settle-lawsuits-related

Honda Cars : Feds: No electronic link to runaway Toyotas | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington— Federal safety officials said a comprehensive investigation has found no evidence that electronics were to blame for runaway Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles.

Instead, the government blamed sticky accelerator pedals and trapped floor mats — two causes that led Toyota to recall 11 million vehicles worldwide, including nearly 8 million in the United States, since 2009.

"The jury is back. The verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a packed press conference at the department's headquarters. "Our conclusion is Toyota's problems were mechanical, not electrical."

The finding should go a long way in helping the Japanese automaker put the question behind it.

Toyota has long insisted that electronics played no role in sudden acceleration cases Steve St.Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America, praised the findings. "We believe this rigorous scientific analysis by some of America's foremost engineers should further reinforce confidence in the safety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles," St. Angelo said. Toyota said a "real world, un-commanded acceleration of the vehicle cannot occur."

LaHood said Toyota vehicles were safe — and that his daughter asked him last year if she should buy a 2011 Sienna.

"She wanted an ironclad guarantee from me that her vehicle was going to be safe," LaHood said. "I told me daughter that she should buy the Toyota, which she did."

After a 10-month investigation requested by Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA, in two studies, now say they found no proof that electronic glitches or computer problems led to unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. LaHood said the findings showed that NHTSA had been "right all along" in discounting electronic issues.

But federal regulators are considering new rules to address mechanical flaws in vehicles.

NHTSA may propose mandatory brake override systems on all vehicles. That software upgrade allows a drive to stop a vehicle by pressing on the brake, even if the throttle is stuck.

Toyota and many other automakers already are making the systems standard on all new vehicles.

NHTSA also is considering proposing mandatory event data recorders — so-called black boxes — in all vehicles by the end of the year. The recorders would help investigators determine the cause of crash.

The government said it will begin a study to see if new rules should address the placement of gas and brake pedals to help drivers avoid hitting the wrong pedal or getting one stuck. NHTSA is also considering new rules to standardize keyless ignition systems.

Many safety advocates, as well as some members of Congress, have insisted that electronics were to blame for some runaway Toyotas. They cited harrowing testimony of people who recounted that their vehicles suddenly accelerated.

The two mechanical causes of unintended acceleration — sticking accelerator pedals and pedals trapped under floor mats — "remain the only known causes for these kind of unsafe unintended acceleration incidents," the agency said.

NHTSA also said human error -- or pedal misapplication -- was to blame for many incidents.

After looking at more than 280,000 lines of software code in Toyota vehicles, NASA engineers found no electronic flaws capable of producing the large throttle openings required to create dangerous, high-speed unintended acceleration incidents, the Transportation Department said in a statement releasing its findings.

NASA said its review showed complaints of unintended acceleration are extremely rare — just one in 100,000 vehicles — or one for every 1.4 billion miles driven. NASA said it was "theoretically possible" that two electronic faults could cause unintended acceleration under specific circumstances, but said there would be warranty data to support it.

Despite a half dozen NHTSA investigations into sudden acceleration claims in Toyota vehicles, the automaker did little until the high profile deaths of four motorists — including an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer near San Diego in August 2009, who were killed when the vehicle sped out of control.

Investigators said the cause was a trapped floor mat in the loaner Lexus.

The company's once sterling reputation for quality took an enormous hit from the issue; it has paid nearly $49 million to settle three separate allegations by the government that it delayed recalls.

Since 2000, NHTSA has received more than 3,000 complaints alleging at least 93 deaths from Toyota sudden acceleration incidents, but has confirmed a link in just five deaths.

In January 2010, Toyota was forced to stop selling more than 60 percent of vehicles in the United States, as it searched for a fix for its sticky pedal problem. Its top executive, Akio Toyoda, was called to testify before Congress, and the issue got worldwide attention.

"Just about every member of Congress that questioned me said 'It's got to be electronics,'." LaHood said.

NHTSA focused on the facts, he said. "Everything is data-based. It's not made up. It's not based on emotion. It's not based on some story somebody told us."

Many in Congress criticized a July 2009 internal Toyota memo that bragged that the company saved more than $100 million by avoiding a more extensive mechanical fix to address sudden acceleration claims.

NHTSA and NASA's review of electronics or electromagnetic interference was extensive.

At the Goddard Space Flight Center, they examined and tested components of Toyota vehicles.

At a special facility at Chrysler Group LLC headquarters in Auburn Hills, NHTSA and NASA engineers bombarded vehicles with electromagnetic radiation to study whether it could be the cause of unintended acceleration claims.

Toyota has taken other steps to give U.S. employees more power to move on safety issues and been much quicker to recall vehicles. It led the industry with 7 million vehicels recalled in 2010 in the U.S.

LaHood praised Toyota for deciding to spent $50 million on a safety center in Michigan. "That's extraordinary. That shows they really care about safety," LaHood said.

The National Academy of Sciences is conducting a separate investigation into unintended acceleration in cars and trucks from all automakers. The findings of that probe are due by year's end.

Toyota still faces hundreds of lawsuits, and a federal grand jury in New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission have pending investigations into Toyota's handling of recalls.

Toyota's stock jumped in New York trading to $89.08 — up 4.6 percent — or nearly $4 a share on the news.

Source;
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110208/AUTO01/102080381/Feds-clear-Toyota-of-electronic-causes