Results tagged “Toyota” from Biz Waves

This case, which seemed so explosive just a few months ago, pales in comparison to Toyota's problems with the floor mats and gas pedals.

Toyota Former Inhouse Lawyer Must Arbitrate Claims

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. won a ruling forcing a former inhouse lawyer to arbitrate racketeering and other claims he brought in a lawsuit accusing the carmaker of hiding information in litigation over rollover crashes.

U.S. District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles, in an order today, granted Toyota's request to compel Dimitrios Biller to arbitrate the dispute as was stipulated in his September 2007 severance agreement. Biller's claims against Toyota will be put on hold pending the completion of arbitration, the judge said.

Read more on Toyota's legal battle.

Toyota may lose the crown for a while, but it could bounce back because of its high-quality vehicles with great gas mileage. But if Toyota's sudden-acceleration controversy blows up, that could seriously damage the company.

(USA Today) Toyota's reign as the world's largest automaker didn't last long.

Only a year after the Japanese automaker wrested the title from General Motors for the first time in 80 years, Toyota has been overtaken by the Germans.

Volkswagen-Porsche now is the the world's largest car manufacturer, reports the Guardian of London.

Read more on Toyota's reported drop to No. 2.

This bad PR could spiral out of control for Toyota.

Probe finds jump in runaway Toyota complaints: report

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Over 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported sudden, spontaneous acceleration of their vehicles since 2001, including crashes blamed for 19 deaths, far more than earlier disclosed, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration previously has said it had received reports of 100 such incidents, including 17 crashes and five fatalities.

Read more on the LA Times probe.

If there's some sort of glitch in Toyota's vehicle computer systems, this could devastate the carmaker as it tries to recover from the recession. But it's too early to say what the problem is. Plus Toyota is a powerhouse that may be able to recover quickly, even from the worst possible scenario involving its reent 3.8 million vehicle recall.

Toyota Executive Denies "Cover Up" In Probe of Runaway Cars

A senior Toyota executive denied today allegations the company is trying to cover up the cause of an estimated 2,000 reports of so-called runaway cars that experience sudden surges of acceleration.

"It is not part of the Toyota culture and Toyota way to cover up anything," said Yukitoshi Funo, one of Toyota's five executive vice-presidents at its Tokyo headquarters.

Read more on Toyota's acceleration problem.

Just wow.

Car maker develops its own flower species

(Drive.com.au)Toyota has created two flower species that absorb nitrogen oxides and take heat out of the atmosphere.

The flowers, derivatives of the cherry sage plant and the gardenia, were specially developed for the grounds of Toyota's Prius plant in Toyota City, Japan.

Read more on Toyota's new flower species.

Toyota is one step closer to getting past this PR nightmare. And as Toyota officials have said, the tragedies connected to the gas pedals jamming shines light on vehicle floor mat safety.

Toyota warns 3.8M of floor mats

(Detroit News) Washington -- Toyota Motor Corp. began mailing notices this week to 3.8 million vehicle owners, urging them to remove their floor mats while it seeks a remedy for reports of sudden, unintended acceleration.

Toyota hasn't determined the factors behind a number of accidents, including the Aug. 28 wreck of a Lexus ES-350 in which an off-duty California Highway Patrolman and three others died.

Read more on Toyota's recall.

The cost in bad PR is probably higher than the actual price tag for fixing the gas pedals.

Toyota may spend $440 million on U.S. recall: media

Tokyo (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp may need to spend about 40 billion yen ($440 million) to fix the accelerator pedals on 3.8 million cars being recalled in the United States, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Read more on Toyota's recall.

Regardless of the potential legal vulnerabilities, the marketing idea is pretty creative.

Woman Sues Toyota For Convincing Her She Was Being Stalked

(CONSUMERIST.COM) It's probably a bad idea to market to consumers by tricking them with practical jokes. It's definitely a bad idea to make a consumer fear for her safety over a five day period because she thinks a stalker is coming after her. That's why a woman in Los Angeles is suing Toyota for $10 million after being on the receiving end of a Punk'd-style stunt to promote the Toyota Matrix.

Read more on Toyota's prank marketing issue.

Despite the efforts of Honda and others in the hybrid market, Toyota still is tops. With Toyota's huge financial resources and growing market share, it'll be tough another car company to pass it in the near term.

Toyota Prius tops U.S. fuel economy list for 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's 2010 hybrid Prius leads the industry in fuel economy at 48 miles per gallon/city and 51 mpg/highway, while Ford Motor Co boasts four vehicles on a U.S. government list released on Thursday of the most-efficient models.

Japanese manufacturers again dominated the annual rankings issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, placing eight gasoline/electric hybrid models in the Top 10.

Read more on fuel efficient vehicles.

Will the floor mat issue lead to a flood of new lawsuits for Toyota?

Widow asks Toyota to act quickly on floor mats

(AP) TOKYO -- Two years before the fatal accident that prompted Toyota to warn 3.8 million American car owners to take out floor mats, Troy Johnson died in a crash also suspected of being caused by a floor mat jamming an accelerator.

Melodie Bohuchot, the widow, pleaded with Toyota Motor Corp. Thursday to act quickly to prevent any more accidents.

"I just want Toyota to fix the problem now. Don't wait," Bohuchot, 30, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Sacramento. "How many people have to die before they take this seriously?"

Read more on Toyota and the window.

But Toyota may be se to rebound.

Troubled Toyota: Patent ruling, recall hurt image
By Muhammed El-Hasan Staff Writer

For decades, Toyota Motor Corp. had dutifully cultivated a reputation for building reliable, economical vehicles.

However, 2009 has come like an oil slick on an icy road, forcing Toyota to swerve to deal with multiple challenges that could damage its reputation.

Read more on Toyota's reputation.

This will make a lot of hybrid enthusiasts very happy.

Toyota Plans U.S. Retail Sales of Plug-In Prius Hybrid by 2012

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest seller of hybrid autos, said it intends to begin offering plug-in versions of the Prius hatchback to U.S. consumers within three years.

"The target is 2012 to be coming to market with them," Irv Miller, a group vice president for Toyota's U.S. sales unit, said Friday at a conference in Los Angeles. Before that, "we're going to study the challenges of consumer demand," he said.

Toyota already plans to begin U.S. tests late this year on 150 Priuses with lithium-ion battery packs that can be recharged at electric outlets. The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker hadn't previously provided a tentative date for consumer sales.

Read more on Toyota's plug-in Prius.

Toyota has been through a lot in the past few weeks. Aside from sluggish sales, the company plans to recall 3.8 million vehicles in the US and also is dealing with anothe PR nightmare, a former Toyota attorney who claims the automaker destroyed evidence in rollover injury lawsuits.

Toyota Chief Offers Profusion of Excuses

(NYT) TOKYO -- Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, might as well have thrown himself on the ground in a tearful kowtow.

From grief over a fatal crash linked to Toyota floor mats to regrets over the company's forecast for a second consecutive annual loss, the executive spewed a litany of apologies to astonished reporters gathered for a briefing Friday at the Japan National Press Club.

Read more on Toyota.

It's a fascinating article about Jim Press. Could a mid-life crisis have felled his marriage? And will his reputation and career suffer as a result?

The truly puzzling life of Chrysler's deputy CEO

DETROIT (Fortune) -- When the news broke recently that Jim Press, the deputy CEO of Chrysler, is being hounded by creditors and the IRS for an array of debts, it presented a puzzle. How could an executive who worked at the top of the auto industry for decades get into such financial difficulty? And what turmoil was going on in the personal life of Press, who had been renowned in the industry for his Kansas-bred calm and quiet charm?

The answers appear to lie in two dramatic changes in his life, in which he abruptly left both his wife and his longtime employer for new situations. In 2006, the father of four startled colleagues when he appeared at a Florida car-dealer event with a new girlfriend, attendees told Fortune. The following week, his wife filed for divorce in Los Angeles.

Read more on Jim Press.

What a headache for Toyota. Lawsuits settled years and years ago could be revisited. It's been a tough time for the automaker. On Tuesday, Toyota said it planned to recall 3.8 million vehicles because of the possible risk of a jammed gas pedal.

Toyota Ordered Not to Destroy Car-Crash Documents

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., its units, lawyers and any other employees were ordered by a U.S. judge to preserve all documents about the "crashworthiness" of its vehicles after the carmaker was accused of destroying lawsuit evidence.

"The court finds an immediate threat of irreparable harm in that, under the allegations, a threat exists that evidence material to this case would be destroyed or altered," U.S. District Judge T. John Ward in Marshall, Texas, wrote yesterday.

Ward's order stems from a federal lawsuit filed in July in Los Angeles by a former in-house attorney for Toyota. Dimitrios Biller claims Toyota destroyed documents that should have been retained as possible evidence in personal injury claims. A Texas lawyer representing families of crash victims who'd resolved their product liability claims with the company sued Toyota after Biller made his claims.

Read more on the lawsuit against Toyota.

I love it, a company warning against "over-promising." Who would've thought the day would come...

Toyota Says Battery-Vehicle Hype May Hurt Technology, Sales

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest seller of hybrid autos, said carmakers risk damaging the long- term reputation of battery-powered vehicles by over-promising on what the technology can deliver.

"Managing expectations is critical," Michael O'Brien, Toyota's U.S. corporate manager for advanced technology vehicle planning, said at a briefing in Sacramento, California, yesterday. "If consumers are disappointed, market adoption is not guaranteed and that can permanently harm the technology's image and future market potential."

Read more on Toyota.

This lawsuit will serve as a long, drawn out embarrassing episode for Toyota. The carmaker will want to settle this issue as quickly as possible.

Ex-Toyota Lawyer Amends Suit to Include Defamation Charge

(LAW.COM) It can be tricky when a company gets sued by a former insider. The company wants to respond, especially when it depends on selling products to consumers. But what it says can then provide the plaintiff with additional fodder.

Consider the amended complaint filed against Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., (TMS) on Sept. 17 by former in-house lawyer Dimitrios Biller. Citing Toyota's September 10 press release about his lawsuit, Biller added a new claim: defamation.

Read more on the Toyota lawsuit.

If it the information was all in the public domain already, how would sealing it now help Toyota?

Toyota's Request to Seal U.S. Racketeering Suit Denied by Judge

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s request to seal a U.S. lawsuit by a former in-house attorney claiming the carmaker destroyed crash data was denied yesterday by a judge who said the suit was already "irreversibly" public.

The suit, filed in July by Dimitrios Biller, a former Toyota in-house lawyer, claims the world's largest automaker hid engineering and testing results in more than 300 car- rollover cases. The company is "disappointed" with the decision, said Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman.

Read more on Toyota and the lawsuit.

This marketing effort will be run from Torrance, where Toyota's US sales and marketing headquarters is located.

(AP) NEW YORK -- Toyota Motor Corp. is pouring $1 billion into a U.S. marketing effort in the fourth quarter as the Japanese automaker bets on a recovery in the ailing auto market.

Spokesman Irv Miller says the sum is "more than we've spent before" in the period. The fourth quarter is typically a strong sales season for automakers including Toyota, which rolls out its "Toyotathon" marketing and sales blitz around the end of the year.

Miller says inventories of Toyota cars and trucks remain tight and additional production increases are planned for the coming months. Toyota, the world's largest automaker, was the top-selling automaker under the Cash for Clunkers program and has been left with short supply of some fuel-efficient vehicles as a result.

In a followup to allegations that Toyota withheld relevant documents in liability cases against it, here's a good New York Times piece on a court fining the automaker for withholding documents.

Court Fined Toyota for Nondisclosure in 2005

(NYT) Toyota has denied the claims of Dimitrios Biller, a former company lawyer, that it often withheld documents in product-liability suits filed against it, insisting "it works to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards." But in 2005, a California court found the company guilty of failing to turn over documents in a liability case.

Read more on Toyota.