**Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, has reported a huge swing back into profit in the last quarter of 2009.**Its net income was 153 billion yen ($1.68bn; £1.06bn) after a loss of 164 billion yen a year earlier.
Toyota confirmed its estimate that it would lose about $2bn (£1.23bn) in costs and lost sales from its worldwide recall of potentially faulty vehicles.
Toyota is recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, including more than 180,000 cars in Britain.
Toyota in the UK says it will be nearly a week before it can start repairs on cars with defective accelerator pedals.
However, the firm said it still expected higher sales.
Its forecast last November was for sales of 7.3 million - and despite the heavy blow to the company’s reputation it now thinks it will sell 7.18 million in the next financial year.
Back in the black
It also says it will make a profit this year. It had been prepared for a loss - and that was before the crisis.
It added it had not yet worked out the cost of the latest reports of brake problems with the new Prius.
Shares in Toyota have hit their lowest level for 10 months on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with continuing concern about the safety of the company’s vehicles.
The world’s biggest carmaker has recalled more than eight million vehicles globally because of problems with defective accelerator pedals on seven models and a separate problem in the US - also acceleration-related - to do with pedals sticking in floor mats.
Alarm
At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood alarmed both investors and consumers with the advice, which he later retracted, that owners of a recalled Toyota should “stop driving it”.
He later said: “What I said in there was obviously a misstatement. What I meant to say… 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 repeated that they were studying the possibility of civil penalties against Toyota for safety violations, which could mean fines of millions of dollars.
Both he and his Japanese counterpart have ordered the company to investigate complaints of brake problems with the Prius in the US and Japan and have not ruled out a recall.
A day after falling 5.7%, Toyota shares fell a further 3.5% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday morning and hit their lowest level for 10 months.
UK RECALLED MODELS
- February 2005 - August 2009 AYGO
- November 2008 - November 2009 iQ
- November 2005 - September 2009 Yaris
- October 2006 - 5 January 2010 Auris
- October 2006 - December 2009 Corolla
- February 2009 - 5 Jan 2010 Verso
- November 2008 - December 2009 Avensis
US-listed Toyota shares ended Wednesday trading down 6% or 4.69 cents to 73.49 cents, continuing the falls of recent days.
The shares have now lost about 22% of their value since 21 January, when the company announced the recall of some 2.3 million vehicles in the US amid concerns that their accelerator pedals could become stuck. It is also recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, including 180,865 in the UK.
The seven models being recalled in Europe are the Aygo, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, and Avensis, and cover manufacturing dates going back to February 2005. In the US, they are the RAV4, Corollas, Matrix, Avalons, Camrys, Highlander, Tundra, and Sequoia, and cover dates going back to October 2005.
The parts needed to repair the cars will not arrive in the UK until next week, with the first repairs scheduled for Wednesday. Toyota says the process, which should only be carried out by its dealers, takes around half an hour.
The carmaker said it was not aware of any accidents resulting from the issue and that only 26 incidents involving accelerator pedals had been reported in Europe.
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