26.02.10
(Adds liftgate supplier in the 26th paragraph. See {EXT2 <GO>} for coverage of Toyota recalls.)
By Jeff Green and Alan Ohnsman
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. in 2008 succeeded in blocking a formal withdrawal of Sienna minivans linked by U.S. regulators to 98 injuries caused by collapsing liftgates, according to Theatre troupe and U.S. documents.
Instead of issuing a recall under the U.S. Safety Act, Toyota sent letters to owners of 196,222 Sienna vans sacrifice to replace struts on the liftgates as part of a “safety reform campaign” without acknowledging a defect. The National Highway Traffic Sanctuary Administration accepted the response and stopped pressing for a costlier recall, energy documents show.
The Sienna case was among the “wins” cited by the automaker’s Washington function in a memo obtained by a congressional panel investigating the recalls of 8 million Toyota vehicles worldwide for defects that could justification unintended acceleration. The claimed wins saved Toyota $255 million, including $100 million some time ago reported for less extensive responses to the acceleration issue, according to the memo.
Source: BusinessWeek