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Nader Accuses Toyota of ‘Unseemly Coverup’ in Vehicle Recalls
February 05, 2010, 02:51 AM EST
By Angela Greiling Keane
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is guilty of an “unseemly coverup” in dealing with reports of dangerous sudden acceleration by some of its vehicles, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said.
“Toyota dropped the ball -- too little, too late,” Nader, who founded groups including Public Citizen to push for strong auto-safety regulation, said in an interview yesterday. “It was an unseemly coverup.”
Toyota has known about sudden acceleration complaints since the mid-1980s and should have acted sooner, said Nader, 75, who slammed the auto industry’s safety record in his 1965 book, “Unsafe at Any Speed.”
Nader, who said he doesn’t own a car, also blamed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for lax oversight and said presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan haven’t adequately funded the regulator.
“Toyota dropped the ball, and NHTSA allowed it to drop the ball and did not protect the American public from a very frightening problem,” said Nader, who is based in Washington.
Ed Lewis, a Toyota spokesman in Washington, declined to respond directly to Nader’s coverup charge, saying in an e-mail he would “rather take the high road and focus on what we’re doing to remedy the situation.”
Prius Brakes
“Obviously, our first priority had to be to find the right solution for our customers,” Lewis said in an earlier e-mail in response to Nader’s comments. “Now that we have done that, we are focused on making this recall as simple and trouble-free as possible for our customers. And, we are working night and day with our dealers to get that done.”
Nader commented after the U.S. said yesterday it has opened an investigation into Toyota’s Prius hybrid cars for reported brake defects. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, has already recalled almost 8 million vehicles worldwide for defects linked to sudden acceleration.
Toyota’s president of U.S. sales, Jim Lentz, this week told reporters on a conference call that he thought the company dealt with the acceleration problem promptly.................
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February 05, 2010, 02:51 AM EST
By Angela Greiling Keane
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is guilty of an “unseemly coverup” in dealing with reports of dangerous sudden acceleration by some of its vehicles, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said.
“Toyota dropped the ball -- too little, too late,” Nader, who founded groups including Public Citizen to push for strong auto-safety regulation, said in an interview yesterday. “It was an unseemly coverup.”
Toyota has known about sudden acceleration complaints since the mid-1980s and should have acted sooner, said Nader, 75, who slammed the auto industry’s safety record in his 1965 book, “Unsafe at Any Speed.”
Nader, who said he doesn’t own a car, also blamed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for lax oversight and said presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan haven’t adequately funded the regulator.
“Toyota dropped the ball, and NHTSA allowed it to drop the ball and did not protect the American public from a very frightening problem,” said Nader, who is based in Washington.
Ed Lewis, a Toyota spokesman in Washington, declined to respond directly to Nader’s coverup charge, saying in an e-mail he would “rather take the high road and focus on what we’re doing to remedy the situation.”
Prius Brakes
“Obviously, our first priority had to be to find the right solution for our customers,” Lewis said in an earlier e-mail in response to Nader’s comments. “Now that we have done that, we are focused on making this recall as simple and trouble-free as possible for our customers. And, we are working night and day with our dealers to get that done.”
Nader commented after the U.S. said yesterday it has opened an investigation into Toyota’s Prius hybrid cars for reported brake defects. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, has already recalled almost 8 million vehicles worldwide for defects linked to sudden acceleration.
Toyota’s president of U.S. sales, Jim Lentz, this week told reporters on a conference call that he thought the company dealt with the acceleration problem promptly.................
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