In this Oct. 1, 2009 photo, a top selling Toyota Camry is on display in the showroom at the McGeorge Toyota dealership in Richmond, Va. Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009, it will replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million recalled vehicles in the United States to address problems with the pedals becoming jammed in the floor mat
In this Oct. 19, 2005, file photo a Toyota Prius hybrid compact car is exhibited at the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari, east of Tokyo. Toyota is slashing managers' bonus pay 20 percent as the Japanese automaker tackles a massive recall in the U.S. and deep losses for the second fiscal year straight.
The accelerator pedal, right, in a 2010 Toyota Avalon is seen on the show room floor of Bobby Rahal Toyota in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009. Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on about 4 million recalled vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats.
The accelerator pedal, right, in a 2010 Toyota Camry is seen on the show room floor of Bobby Rahal Toyota in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009. Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on about 4 million recalled vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats.
Toyota Motor Corp. is replacing accelerator pedals on about four million recalled vehicles to address concerns over sudden acceleration.
"I'm happy they've taken the direction they have," says Jeff Pepski of Plymouth.
While many have read about the sudden acceleration problems, Pepski says he lived it last February. His Lexus ES-350 suddenly accelerated from 60 to 80 miles an hour. He says he desperately tried to stop by pushing down and pulling up on the accelerator with his foot, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, he got the car to stop.
"It was one of the most dangerous situations I've ever been in," he says.
A similar situation near San Diego, Calif., ended tragically for a family of four. All of them died when their rented Lexus suddenly accelerated, apparently after the gas pedal got stuck under the floor mat.
Other incidents have been reported throughout the country.
Concerns over floor mats prompted Toyota to recall about four million vehicles in September. At the time, the company asked owners to remove their driver's side mats until a permanent solution could be found.
But Pepski had his doubts. "The floor mat wasn't the cause of my incident," he said in late October.
Toyota is now taking action and isn't just replacing the floor mats. The company plans to shorten the gas pedals by three-fourths of an inch on recalled cars starting in January, then install newly designed gas pedals starting in April.
In some recalled cars, Toyota will also install a brake override system as a precaution. That system stops the car from acceleration if there's any pressure on the brake. To Pepski, that move is very important.
"All of the problems that I've experienced with the vehicle involving runway acceleration I think can be solved with having this brake override system," he says.
Pepski does wonder why Toyota isn't installing the brake override system in all of the recalled vehicles. Toyota says it will be standard in many models by the end of next year.
Toyota says it's "very, very confident" these changes will address the acceleration issue and says it has no reason to believe there are problems with the cars' electronic control system.
Affected owners will be notified starting in late December. The recall involves 3.8 million vehicles, including the 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS250/350.
Toyota top manager face 20% cut in bonuses as Toyota face the largest recall of vehicles.Toyota is slashing bonus pay for managers as the Japanese automaker tackles a massive recall in the U.S. and deep losses for the second straight fiscal year.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday winter bonus payments for 8,700 managers in Japan will be cut by 20 percent.
Japanese workers at major companies such as Toyota get twice-a-year bonus pay in addition to their monthly salaries which reflects the company's performance.
Toyota announced in the U.S. on Wednesday a massive recall affecting 4 million vehicles to replace the gas pedals that can get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration.
The recall, Toyota's largest ever in the U.S., comes at a time when the maker of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury car is trying to reverse losses caused by a global slump and strengthening yen.
Earlier this month, Toyota lowered its loss forecast for the fiscal year through March 2010 to 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion) from its initial projection for a 450 billion yen ($5 billion) loss.
The world's biggest automaker had just managed to crawl back into the black for the July-September quarter following three straight quarters of red ink as government stimulus measures helped boost global sales of green vehicles.
Toyota's top executives and board have already given up their bonus pay.
The cuts for managers follow a 60 percent year-on-year decline for their summer bonus this year, and a 10 percent cut for their winter bonus in 2008.
The bonuses for union workers have also been cut. Their winter bonus will average 930,000 yen ($10,700) this year, down 18 percent from the previous year, according to Toyota.
The cost of the U.S. recall is expected to be significant because of the sheer number of vehicles.
The Nikkei, Japan's biggest business newspaper, said the recall cost, although reaching tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) won't change Toyota's annual earnings forecast because the company earmarks money for such measures.
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