**A US Congressional committee has cast doubts on Toyota’s plans to fix its series of acceleration problems.**It has also raised questions about its own Highways Safety Agency.
In a memo to lawmakers it said there was growing evidence that neither Toyota nor the agency had identified all the faults.
It added there was “substantial evidence” that redesigned floormats failed to stop the pedals from sticking under the mats.
The memo emerged as Toyota UK prepares to begin its recall for vehicles affected by sticking accelerator pedals.
Toyota’s recall saga began in the US with reports that accelerator pedals were getting caught under the floormats.
The company began taking back vehicles potentially affected by that problem in October last year and Toyota redesigned the mats.
Shim’ll fix it
Later, separate acceleration problems were found to be caused by the pedal sticking. This is currently being fixed by adding a small piece of metal - called a “shim” - the procedure that Toyota is beginning in the UK on Wednesday.
The floormat issue affected a number of vehicles in the US - but not in the UK.
Mass complaints
The existence of the memo comes to light as the Japanese car giant - the world’s number one carmaker - faces up to mass complaints about the performance of the brakes in its third-generation Prius hybrid.
The memo is from the majority staff of the US House of Representative’s oversight and government reform committee to its members.
They were due to meet on Wednesday in Washington to hear evidence from the Department of Transport and the head of Toyota US, among other key players in the saga.
Bad weather has meant that hearing will now take place later this month.
Early on Tuesday, Toyota announced the recall of about 436,000 hybrid vehicles worldwide, including its latest Prius model, to fix brake problems.
The total includes more than 200,000 Prius cars sold in Japan and 8,500 cars in the UK.
Company president Akio Toyoda made the latest recall announcement at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon.
TOYOTA RECALLS: STORY SO FAR
- September 2007, US: 55,000 Camry and Lexus cars in floormat recall
- October 2009, US: 3.8m Toyota and Lexus vehicles recalled due to floormat problem
- November 2009, US: floormat recall increased to 4.2m vehicles
- January 2010, US: 2.3m Toyota vehicles recalled due to accelerator pedal problems (of those, 2.1m already involved in floormat recall)
- January 2010, US: 1.1m Toyotas in floormat recall
- February 2010, Europe: 1.8m Toyota’s in pedal recall
- February 2010, Japan, US: 200 reports of brake faults in new Prius. Cars recalled
- February 2010, worldwide: 436,000 hybrid vehicles in brake recall. Also, 7,300 Camry vehicles recalled in the US over potential brake tube problems
Reputation could suffer for years
Toyota fights back as problems escalate
After the conference, he told reporters that he might go to the United States next week to explain details about the recall.
Credit rating agency Moody’s said it had put Toyota’s credit rating on review for a possible downgrade, following the latest recall.
Slow reaction
Toyota’s president has come under criticism in Japan itself from the country’s Transport Minister Seiji Maehara for not reacting quickly enough to recall faulty vehicles.
“I wish you had taken measures earlier rather than simply saying it was not a major technical problem,” Mr Maehara told Mr Toyoda in a meeting.
There have been complaints in Japan and the US that the brakes momentarily fail when driven on rough or slippery road surfaces.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received 124 reports from drivers about it, including four of crashes.
There have been no reports of any such accidents in the UK.
The US investigation will look into allegations of momentary loss of braking power while travelling over uneven road surfaces.
Before it announced the Prius recall in Japan, Toyota estimated that its losses would reach $2bn (£1.23bn) in costs and lost sales from its worldwide recall of vehicles that might have faulty accelerator pedals.
The Prius recall is expected to send this figure even higher.
Do you own a Toyota Are you affected by the recall Have you experienced problems with your car Send us your comments.
A selection of your comments may be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.