“We’re not finished with Toyota,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in an e-mailed statement to Reuters. Bad choice of words? Doesn’t that sound a tad vengeful? If a 900 lbs gorilla barks “I’m not through with you” at me, then I’m very afraid. Toyota should be too. Read More >

And the hits, they keep on coming. Now, brakes of the Prius flake out.

Japan’s transport ministry has received 14 complaints about problems with brakes on Toyota’s latest. The ministry has asked Toyota to investigate the complaints, says the Nikkei [sub.] “Those are purely reported cases, so we still need to investigate to find out where problems really exist,” said a ministry spokesman, who said that the number of complaint over such a short time-span “more than usual.” There is more in the U.S.A. Read More >

Today, Toyota gave a press conference in Nagoya, the first at Toyota’s home base to address the recall. Akio Toyoda was AWOL as usual. Instead, Toyota’s Vice President Shinichi Sasaki, who is also in charge of quality assurance, did the dubious honors. He did what he had to do: He apologized profusely.

“I’d like to offer an apology for causing anxiety among our customers around the world,” Sasaki said, according to the Nikkei [sub]

Sasaki said Toyota aggravated the situation by disclosing the problem before firming up countermeasures. By doing so, “we ended up creating mistrust in the market,” he said. “We prioritized customer safety, focusing on releasing solid information first.”

In a rather un-Japanese move, he passed a tiny bit of the blame: Read More >

Japanese car sales are coming back with a vengeance, reports The Nikkei [sub] Sales of new vehicles (exluding minivehicles, or Kei cars) rose 36.8 percent to 238,362 units. That according to data by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. January marks the sixth consecutive month of growth, and the increase is the largest ever recorded for the month of January. Minivehicles edged up 0.7 percent to 128,297 units in January, recording their first rise in 15 months, as per data by the Japan Mini Vehicles Association. Read More >

In case you are reading TTAC before watching the “Today Show,” turn it on. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Jim Lentz, the executive in charge of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm, is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Today Show” Monday morning, a Toyota spokesman confirmed. Mr. Lentz is expected to lay out a timetable for shipping repair parts to dealers, as well as for resuming sales of the eight models whose sales were suspended last week and for restarting production and shipment of new vehicles that are free of the gas-pedal problems, according to people briefed on the plans.”

And here is today’s media schedule according to the Nikkei [sub]: Read More >

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal wrote: “Hell, in modern imagination, is not a place of fiery lakes and acrid fumes. It’s a maze of deposition rooms you can’t escape, where nothing is what it seems. That’s where Toyota has landed.“

Welcome to hell. Read More >

The Obama administration either decided that Toyota has been sufficiently maimed and weakened to give its wards of the state some breathing room (a theory rising in popularity amongst some conspiracy buffs), or Toyota has definitely found the definitive cure for UAS (unintended acceleration syndrome). Be it as it may, the NHTSA has approved the shim fix, says Reuters. If the Wall Street Journal got it right, recalled Toyotas may also get a re-flash, and a feature amiss in most American cars. Read More >

Toyota hopes to re-open its shut NA plants by the end of February. Then, sales of eight recalled models will be re-started, said “three sources briefed on plans” to Reuters:

Also, if the shim solution is approved, Toyota dealers can begin fixing flawed accelerator pedals as early as next week, said the anonymous sources. Read More >

When a Japanese company NFSWs up in a big way, it is customary that the CEO says “honto ni moshiwake arimasen” (“I am deeply, seriously sorry”) in front of running cameras, takes a very deep bow and exits stage left, not to be seen or heard of anymore while someone else takes his job . That’s just the way Nipponese crisis management works.

Not so at Toyota. Read More >

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association today officially conceded defeat and yielded the title “world’s top automobile manufacturer in 2009” to China, reports the Nikkei [sub]. The world had known for quite some time that China made more than 13m cars in 2009, and that Japanese production was a mere shadow of its former self. But it needs some time to sink in and to make it official.

Note: All that follows are production data, as opposed to sales data. In China, production data nearly equal sales data. Couldn’t be more different than in Japan. Here, usually twice as many cars are made than sold. Half of the Made in Japan cars are exported. Usually. Let’s see what happened this time. Read More >

Toyota knows how to fix the sticking gas pedals, says today’s Nikkei [sub]. Nobody will go publicly on record, and nothing will be announced before the NHTSA has approved the fix. Read More >

Here is a round-up of the Toyota news that is flowing furiously out of all news outlets. Everybody, from the Wall Street Journal to Al Jazeera weighs in on the issue. Grab a cup of coffee. Or something stronger.

More recalls: Toyota announced late Wednesday that it must recall another 1.1 million vehicles “to address the risk that floor mats could trap accelerator pedals and cause bursts of sudden acceleration,” says Reuters. According to Reuters, “Toyota now has recalled nearly 6m vehicles for problems with the accelerators used across its lineup.” This is not counting the 2m vehicles in Europe that will be recalled.

EU recall official: Toyota Motor said today that it definitely will be expanding the recall to Europe, says AFP via Google. “Toyota will implement a recall in Europe,” said company spokesman Paul Nolasco. “We are still not sure about the models and the number of vehicles.” Initial estimates, published by The Nikkei [sub], spoke about another 2m cars in Europe. Plants will not be closed in Europe, because different parts already are being used in new production.

Recall spreads to China: China’s quality watchdog agency said “bu hao” to Toyota and ordered  the  recall of “at least 75,000 vehicles  in China,” says London’s Times. Read More >

Japan surely can use some good news, what with pedal-gate and Standard & Poors warning that they might downgrade Japan’s sovereign debt rating from stellar to less than stellar. CSM to the rescue: They think, vehicle sales in Japan could grow by 4 percent in 2010. Honto? What’s driving sales go motto-motto? Government stimulus money. Read More >

Toyota’s decision to suspend production and sales in North America of eight recalled models is sending shock waves through seismically sensitized Japan . Tokyo’s Nikkei [sub], usually not prone to sensationalist reporting and strong language, says today that “the fiasco is likely to have unfortunate consequences for the automaker’s image and earnings.”

According to the Nikkei, the eight models recalled for sticking accelerator pedals accounted for about 60 percent  of Toyota’s North American sales last year.  The production freeze will affect five North American plants. “A prolonged halt would inevitably influence Toyota’s bottom line,” warned an analyst at one major securities firm.

According to the Nikkei, “it is rare for an automaker to suspend production and sales because of a recall.” A Toyota spokesperson pointed out that this is not the first time for the company to make such a move. However, they acknowledged that the scale this time is unusually large. Read More >

Here is an interesting facet of the “the Chinese car market is bigger than the American car market” meme:

In 2009, Japanese automakers have, for the first time, built more cars in China than in the U.S. reports the Nikkei [sub]. Says the paper: “Of the eight Japanese passenger carmakers, six manufacture vehicles in China. Their aggregate Chinese output came to roughly 2.25 million units in 2009, exceeding the 2.1 million produced in the U.S.”

Which pours cold water on the often voiced theories that people base their car choices on ethnic prejudice. Japanese people are not necessarily hugely popular in China. Japanese cars are. Read More >