Toyota Recall -- Toyota's Lobbying Efforts Save Company $100M, But Costs How Many Lives
Toyota's lobbyists claimed last year to have saved the company $100 million by staving off a 2007 U.S. government investigation into acceleration problems.
Toyota and federal agency officials dismissed this claim as an just boasting. But, a closer look at the 2007 investigation, revealed in agency records and internal Toyota e-mails, shows that after federal investigators at the time diagnosed a number of potential dangers in Toyota cars and trucks, Toyota resisted the findings and in the end escaped a broad recall that could have cost millions of dollars.
Investigators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Toyota in 2007 that the design of Toyota pedals or floor pans could allow floor mats to entrap the accelerator. They saw a problem in Camrys, Priuses, Avalons and Lexus ES350s. Moreover, they believed that any type of floor mat could pose a danger.
But the company, which had developed a "game plan" for handling the inquiry, ignored NHTSA's broad findings and agreed only to a minor recall of a single type of floor mat. The agency, which has the authority to order a recall, did not push for more.
