Toyota Motor Corp. faces a maximum penalty of more than $16 million, a record civil penalty against an automaker, for failing to promptly notify the U.S. government about defective gas pedals among its vehicles.
On Monday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that documents gathered from the Japanese automaker showed that Toyota had known of the problem with the sticking gas pedals in late September but did not issue a recall until late January.
Because Toyota failed to notify the government of the problem when learning of it in September, the government is seeking a fine of $ 16.375 million, the maximum penalty possible.
"We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations," LaHood said in a statement. "Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families."
In 2004, General Motors paid a record $ 1 million fine for responding too slowly on a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles over windshield wiper failure.
Toyota has recalled more than 6 million vehicles in the U.S., and more than 8 million worldwide, because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius hybrid.
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2 comments:
Maybe Toyota should start installing kill switches in their cars; you know, just in case.
As I mentioned when this whole ordeal began to unravel on Toyota, they are in serious trouble. Everything that comes out just keeps getting worse and worse. Now this whole cover-up angle is being investigated and their quarterly sales have already plummeted by more than 25 percent last quarter. Not that it would make things much better but, their PR should have kicked in MUCH sooner. Oh and I dig your pun Andrew.
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