California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

Toyota is looking worse by the week. A House congressional committee recently subpoenaed documents from Mr Dimitrios Biller, a former in-house Toyota lawyer, who alleges Toyota withheld key documents in personal injury lawsuits in spite of court orders to produce the documents.

Based on Toyota documents produced in response to the subpoena, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D. N.Y.) last week sent a letter to Toyota asking about Toyota's electronic "Books of Knowledge," in which Toyota engineers kept design and testing data. Rep. Towns states the books were not not turned over to the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.

Rep Towns said Toyota settled lawsuits paying millions of dollars when the plaintiff was close to getting to obtaining the "Books of Knowledge."

According to a House committee investigating NHTSA's handling of Toyota owners' complaints of sudden acceleration, Toyota executives were told the company saved $100 million by convincing NHTSA to drop an investigation into a recall of the company's Camry and Lexus vehicles.

The House committee also noted NHTSA lacked the expertise to evaluate the complaints of sudden acceleration. Incredibly, NHTSA officials told the Committee staff that the agency does not employ any electrical engineers or software engineers. As a result, NHTSA lacks the expertise to investigate incidents of sudden unintended acceleration that may be caused by the cars' electronic systems.

NHTSA conducted only one cursory investigation in 2004 into the possibility that defects in electronic controls could be responsible for these incidents. This investigation was led by Scott Yon, who informed Toyota in an e-mail that he was "not very knowledgeable" about the electronic throttle control system used in Toyota vehicles.

Carfax.com and Experian's Autocheck.com sell vehicle histories for about $35 and $25 per search, respectively. Anyone wanting to research a car history should know there are now sites with more complete histories offered at much lower prices. One is Auto Data Direct, Inc., www.add123.com, and the other is CARCO Group, Inc., www.autotitleinfo.com. These sites charge only $4.95 and $3.50 per VIN search, respectively.

These sites have information collected by the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS). Under NMVTIS, insurers and salvage pools from all 50 states are required to report when they total vehicles. The system has over 9 million salvage vehicle records

Let's say you are driving your car, OK a Toyota, and the car suddenly acclerates. Shutting off the engine or putting the transmission in neutral seems like a good idea. An AP article raises the question why drivers do not have the presence of mind to shut off the engine if the car accelerates on its own.

According to the article, experts say making these moves is almost impossible for most drivers to consider when they're in a panic, because frightened people often can't remember even simple steps to protect themselves.

"You're stamping on the brakes and your attention is going to be focused on where you're going and steering. There's no cognitive space left to think of alternatives," said Dr. Boadie Dunlop, a psychiatrist and director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at Emory University. "To do something that's not natural, such as turning off the engine, is just not going to come to mind."

Anothe problem is that some Toyota and Lexus vehicles have push-button ignitions that require drivers to hold the button down for three seconds to turn off the engine. Drivers would not necessarily know that is the case.

As every one knows, Toyota has recalled millions of cars and trucks because of a defective gas-pedal. According to Toyota's press releases, the company acted as soon as it learned a problem exists, but the truth is just the opposite. On February 8, 2010, the Wall Street Journal published an article tracing the history of Toyota's actions and inactions titled "Secretive Culture Led Toyota Astray. (subscription required).

Toyota owners reported they experienced sudden accleration for years. For years, Toyota conveniently blamed the problem on misplaced after-market floor mats. The gas-pedal design was put into use in the 2002 Camry sedan; it uses electronic sensors to send signals to the computer controlling the engine. Toyota adopted the system in the Lexus ES sedan later on. By early 2004, owners had complained to Toyota about sudden acceleration. In 2004, NHTSA, our safety agency, investigated 37 such complaints that involved 30 accidents. Toyota told the agency the floor mats pinned the gas pedal. NHTSA closed the investigation in July 2004.

Complaints continued in succeeding years. Toyota said there was no defect.

In March 2007, NHTSA opened a new investigation on sudden acceleraton in the Lexus ES350; Toyota argued that after-market floor mats were the problem. Owners were told to buy new floor mats, but the reports continued.

Then in December 2008 Toyota's European unit investigated cars in Ireland and England that failed to slow or surged. After months of testing, Toyota found the culprit: a plastic part in the pedal mechanism also widely used in the U.S. Toyota redesigned the pedals for new cars coming off the assembly line, but failed to initiate a recall in Europe or the U.S.

In August 2009, an off-duty CHP officer and his family died when his Lexus ES350 accelerated to more than 100 mph. An occupant made a 911 call when the car was acclerating. The accident was well publicized.

In September 2009, NHTSA told Toyota they needed to resolve the floor mat issue and that replacing the floor mats was not enough. NHTSA told Toyota to later the gas pedals to make sure they don't get caught on the mats. On October 5, 2010, Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles to fix the floor mats.

Incredibly, on November 3, 2010, Toyota put out a press release stating "no defect exists" in the recalled vehicles. NHTSA put out its own statement in response saying Toyota's statement was "inaccurate and misleading."

On December 15, 2010, NHTSA officials flew to Japan and told about 100 Toyota executives and engineers that Toyota was obligated to comply with U.S. defect-recall rules.

Less than a month later on Jan 19, 2010, Toyota officials told NHTSA's new chief that there was a flaw in the gas pedals. A few days later Toyota announced a 2.3 million vehicle recall, but it did not have sufficient parts available. NHTSA told Toyota it would have to stop selling cars until the parts were available. On January 26, 2010, shocked everyone by stopping sales of unrepaired vehicles on dealers' lots.