Concerns rev up over Toyota cars

WASHINGTON - Americans should park their recalled Toyotas unless they are driving to dealers for accelerator repairs, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned yesterday - then quickly took it back - even as skepticism of company fixes for the gas-pedal problem on eight Toyota models grew.

Meanwhile, questions are being raised about the brakes on Toyota's marquee Prius hybrid. The Prius was not part of the recall of 2.3 million vehicles, but Japan's transport ministry yesterday ordered the company to investigate complaints of brake problems with the hybrid. LaHood said his department, too, was looking into brake problems. About 100 complaints over Prius brakes have been filed in the United States and Japan.

Early today, Toyota said it had received 77 complaints in Japan over brake problems with the Prius. A Toyota spokeswoman said the complaints involved the new model, which went on sale in Japan and the United States in May 2009. She said no accidents were involved. She said today that Toyota had also received eight complaints in North America, including one in Canada, over brake problems with the new Prius model. She declined to give further details.

Harried dealers late Tuesday night and yesterday began receiving parts to repair defective gas pedals in the recalled vehicles and said they would extend their hours deep into each night to try to catch up with the workload. Toyota said its fix - a steel reinforcement rod - would solve the problem of cars unaccountably accelerating. It said the problem was extremely rare.

The company also said it would send each Toyota dealer a check for $7,500 to $75,000, depending on how many cars it sold last year, to help pay for the added work and for extra services to win back customers' trust. Toyota suggested, for instance, that dealers could offer free car washes or oil changes, or send mechanics on the road to make the repairs.

LaHood, at a congressional hearing, first said his advice to an owner of a recalled Toyota would be to "stop driving it. Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it."

His comment prompted new questions and rattled Toyota stockholders, causing its American shares to quickly drop 6 percent yesterday.

LaHood later told reporters, "What I said in there was obviously a misstatement. What I meant . . . was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it."

He also said he planned to call the Japanese company's president, Akio Toyoda, "and explain to him that this is serious business."

Adding to Toyota's woes, LaHood said his department had received new complaints about the recalled vehicles' electronic systems and would undertake a broad review, looking beyond Toyota vehicles, into whether automobile engines could be disrupted by electromagnetic interference caused by power lines or other sources.

Toyota has said it investigated for electronic problems and did not find a single case pointing in that direction. The steel rods are a mechanical fix intended to reduce friction, which, Toyota says, can cause the accelerator to stick.

The confusion came as the world's No. 1 automaker dealt with fresh probes in the United States and Japan over the Prius.

Complaints about Prius brakes could be an issue with people's unfamiliarity with the feel of some hybrid braking systems, which take the energy from braking and cycle it back into the drivetrain, said Rebecca Lindland, director of the autos group for IHS Global Insight Inc., an economic-forecasting firm in Lexington, Mass.

Highlights of yesterday's Toyota developments:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood added to the confusion over gas-pedal problems. Related story, A1.

The company will pay dealers to provide extra services to win back customers' trust.

Kelley Blue Book may cut its suggested price on resales of affected models 5 percent.

Japan will investigate reported brake problems with the Prius hybrid.

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