Toyota officials claimed their test ruled out electronics problems, but two senior lawmakers say they've seen no documents supporting such claims.
Has Toyota withheld critical documents from federal investigators looking into the recall of more than 8 million cars, trucks and crossovers?
That’s a question several senior lawmakers – running for reelection – are hoping to have answered.
Even before Toyota launched the first of a pair of recalls, last October, designed to deal with the “unintended acceleration” of its products, the automaker insisted that “extensive” tests had ruled out problems with the electronic control systems used on its vehicles.
But U.S. Reps. Bart Stupak and Henry Waxman contend that the embattled automaker has so far failed to provide documents supporting that claim, as they outlined in a letter sent to senior Toyota officials.
During two days of hearings, late last month, the subject of electronic control problems came up repeatedly, though Toyota representatives, including Jim Lentz, the maker’s top U.S. executive, repeatedly expressed their confidence that digital systems were not at fault, based on what they described as “extensive” testing by both Toyota and an outside consultancy.
“If so,” says the letter sent by Reps. Stupak and Waxman, “the results of this testing should have been provided to the committee. Despite our repeated requests, the record before the committee is most notable for what is missing: the absence of documents showing that Toyota has systematically investigated the possibility of electronic defects that could cause sudden unintended acceleration.”
TheDetroitBureau.com has so far been unable to reach the appropriate Toyota officials for comment. However, in a new statement published on the maker’s website, it said it does not believe electronic glitches are behind new reports of unintended acceleration problems involving vehicles that have gone through recall repairs.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has so far received 60 such complaints, and that it is contacting owners to get more details. The Toyota statement said the maker has also been investigating.
While it declined to provide details, the company insisted that, “the evaluations have found no evidence of a failure of the vehicle electronic throttle control system, the recent recall remedies or the brake override feature.”
The fact that some Toyota owners claim to be experiencing new problems is not entirely unexpected. Despite expressing their confidence in two recalls – one designed to prevent carpets from jamming accelerators, the other mean to repair potentially sticky accelerators – Toyota’s Lentz acknowledged, under questioning, that the recalls probably would not address all unintended acceleration claims.
Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee for investigations, along with California Democrat Waxman, chairman of the full committee, have asked that any Toyota executives involved in electronic systems testing make themselves available for questioning, next week.