Lexus had previously suspended sales of the GX 460 SUV after Consumer Reports rated the vehicle as unsafe. During routine tests, Consumer Reports discovered that if a driver took a sharp turn and abruptly lifted his foot off of the accelerator, the rear of the vehicle would skid sideways dangerously. This presented a rollover risk as the rear would skid to a degree that would likely cause the back tire to leave the pavement or hit a curb.

Lexus has offered free loaner cars to its GX 460 customers until a solution could be found.

Effective April 19, Toyota is officially recalling the Lexus GX 460 worldwide and the Land Cruiser Prado, which is not available in the US. The recall affects 21,000 Prados worldwide and 13,000 GX 460s. About 9,400 of the GX 460s were sold in the US, the rest were sold in the Middle East and Russia.

Dealers will update the software on the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system, which should correct the problem. All dealers are expected to have the software update available by the end of April and Toyota will begin sending letters to customers in early May. The software update is expected to take roughly one hour.

Toyota will launch a voluntary Safety Recall involving approximately 600,000 first- and second-generation Sienna 2WD minivans sold in the United States to address potential corrosion in the spare tire carrier cable.

This condition may appear on certain 1998 through 2010 model year Siennas that have been operated in cold climate areas with high road salt use. Continued prolonged exposure to road salts may cause excessive corrosion of the carrier cable in some of these vehicles. In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tire could become separated from the vehicle, a road hazard for following vehicles that increases the likelihood of a crash.

Toyota is currently working to develop a remedy for this condition. Until a remedy is developed, customers will receive an interim notice instructing them to bring their vehicle to a dealership for a preliminary inspection.

Once the remedy has been developed, customers will receive a second notice regarding steps to correct the problem.

In addition to the District of Columbia, vehicles originally sold or currently registered in the following cold climate states with high road salt usage are covered by this recall: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Owners of vehicles in other states will receive a separate Special Service Campaign notification that includes details on how to obtain an inspection if they desire. Toyota will perform the same inspection and repair for those vehicles at no charge. The inspection will take approximately 30 minutes depending on the dealer’s work schedule.

Toyota is offering a free inspection of all affected vehicles regardless of whether or not they are from states affected by the recall.

Toyota has asked dealers to suspend sales of the Lexus GX 460 SUV after Consumer Reports issued a safety warning regarding it.

After tests done by Consumer Reports indicated a potential rollover problem with the SUV, it designated the vehicle with as, “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk.” The special designation hasn’t been used since 2001 when Consumer Reports gave it to the Mitsubishi Montero Limited.

In response, Toyota has suspended sales of the 2010 GX 460 and is offering a loaner car to any of the 5,000 people who have already purchased one, “until a remedy is available.”

Toyota maintains that the GX 460 meets or exceeds all government safety regulations.

Consumer Reports found the defect in a test for “lift-off oversteer.” In the test, the driver enters a sharp turn and lifts his foot off of the accelerator. Tests showed that the GX 460′s rearend, “slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic stability control system was able to regain control.”

The test simulates a driving condition such as when a driver takes an exit and suddenly encounters an obstacle, for example. Natural impulse is to suddenly take one’s foot off of the accelerator.

With the rear of the vehicle skidding out so dramatically, it is likely that the rear tire will strike a curb or leave the pavement, inviting the rollover risk.

The Toyota 4Runner shares the same platform as the GX 460, but it passed similar tests done by Consumer Reports.

Toyota reported February sales of 100,027 vehicles. With equal selling days in February 2009 and 2010, sales were down 8.7 percent from the year-ago month on a daily selling rate and unadjusted raw volume basis.

The Toyota Division posted February sales of 86,240 units, a decrease of 10.6 percent from the same period last year. The Lexus Division reported February sales of 13,787 units, an increase of 5.2 percent over the year-ago month.

Toyota Division
Toyota Division passenger cars recorded sales of 52,827 units, a decrease of 10.3 percent from last February. Passenger car sales were led by Corolla with sales of 16,996 units for the month. Camry and Camry Hybrid posted combined February sales of 16,552 units. The Prius mid-size gas-electric hybrid posted February sales of 7,968 units, up 10.2 percent over the year-ago month. Venza reported sales of 3,414 units for the month.

Toyota Division light trucks posted sales of 33,413 units in February. Light truck sales were led by the Tacoma mid-size pickup, which reported sales of 8,325 units for the month, up 5.7 percent over last February. The RAV4 compact SUV recorded monthly sales of 6,799 units. Highlander and Highlander Hybrid posted combined sales of 3,615 units for the month. The all-new 4Runner reported February sales of 2,973 units, up 54.7 percent over the year-ago month. The Tundra full-size pickup recorded sales of 5,468 units.

Scion posted February sales of 3,027 units. The xB urban utility vehicle led the way with sales of 1,539 units. The tC sports coupe posted February sales of 860 units. The xD reported sales of 628 units for the month.

Lexus Division
Lexus reported passenger car sales of 6,366 units, up 4.5 percent over the year-ago month. Lexus passenger car sales were led by the recently revised ES 350 entry luxury sedan which posted sales of 2,349 units. The IS luxury sports sedan reported combined sales of 1,991 units. The HS 250h luxury hybrid sedan recorded February sales of 712 units.

Lexus light trucks recorded sales of 7,421 units, up 5.8 percent over last February. Lexus sales were led by the RX, which posted combined February sales of 5,694 units. The all-new GX mid-size luxury utility vehicle reported sales of 1,473 units.

TMS Hybrids
TMS posted February sales of 10,957 hybrid vehicles. Toyota Division posted sales of 9,318 hybrids for the month. Lexus Division reported sales 1,639 hybrids in February.

There were 24 selling days this month and last February.

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF
JAMES LENTZ
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, U.S.A., INC.
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
FEBRUARY 23, 2010
Chairman Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Stupak, Ranking Members Barton and Walden,
members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today. My name is Jim Lentz, and I
am the President and Chief Operating Officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA.
In my testimony, I will address Toyota’s recent recalls and the decisive steps we are taking to
restore the trust of the tens of millions of Americans who purchase and drive our vehicles. For
two generations, we have provided Americans with cars and trucks that are safe and reliable.
And we fully intend to produce even safer, high quality vehicles in the future, even as we pave
the way with the next generation hybrid and electric vehicles that our society needs.
In recent months, we have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public
have come to expect from Toyota. Put simply, it has taken us too long to come to grips with a
rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good faith efforts. The problem has also
been compounded by poor communications both within our company and with regulators and
consumers. While all auto companies have recalls and all major auto companies have
experienced complaints about unintended acceleration, Toyota’s recalls have caused concerns
among our customers.
I would like to assure the Committee, and the American people, that nothing matters more to
Toyota than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive. We are committed
not only to fixing vehicles on the road and ensuring they are safe, but to making our new
vehicles better and even more reliable through strict quality control, enhanced communication
and a redoubled focus on putting our customers first.
Our 1,500 dealers are making extraordinary efforts to complete our recalls as quickly and
conveniently as possible. Some dealers are staying open 24/7 and they are repairing vehicles at
a rate of about 50,000 a day. To date, we have repaired close to a million vehicles.
We have rigorously tested our solutions and are confident that with these repairs, Toyota
vehicles will be among the safest on the road today. Our engineers have identified two
specific, mechanical causes of unintended acceleration covered by the recalls and we are
currently addressing these through the open recalls. One involves floor mats that when loose
or improperly fitted can entrap the accelerator pedal. The other concerns accelerator pedals
that can, over time, grow “sticky” with wear. The solutions we have developed are both
effective and durable.
We are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our
vehicles. We have designed our electronic throttle control system with multiple fail‐safe
mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure. We have done
extensive testing of this system and have never found a malfunction that caused unintended
acceleration.
Additionally, in December we asked Exponent, a world‐class engineering and scientific
consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive, independent analysis of our electronic throttle
control system with an unlimited budget. Their interim report confirms that it works as
designed. Toyota will make the results of this comprehensive evaluation available to the public
when it is completed.
Why did it take so long to get to this point? With respect to pedal entrapment, Toyota
conducted investigations of customer complaints which focused too narrowly on technical
issues without taking full account of the way customers used our vehicles. And in the case of
sticking accelerator pedals, we failed to promptly analyze and respond to information emerging
from Europe and in the United States.
We acknowledge these mistakes, we apologize for them and we have learned from them. We
now understand that we must think differently when investigating complaints and
communicate faster, better and more effectively with our customers and our regulators. Our
recent voluntary recalls of certain 2010 Prius and Lexus hybrids and of certain 2010 Tacoma
trucks illustrate this new approach.
We are also going further. Our President Akio Toyoda has announced a top‐to‐bottom review
of our operations that he will lead personally, with the support of new Chief Quality Officers for
North America and our other principal regions. We will ask independent, outside experts to
evaluate the findings to make sure we meet or exceed industry standards.
We are expanding our network of technical offices in the U.S. so we can gather information
faster and respond more aggressively to incident reports.
And, we will install advanced brake override systems in all our new models – making us one of
the first full‐line manufacturers to offer this customer confidence feature as standard
equipment. Additionally, we are announcing that we will install this system on an expanded
range of vehicles – including the Tacoma, Venza and Sequoia models – that are capable of
accepting the new software. We had previously announced that the system would be installed
onto the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES 350, IS 350 and IS 250 models. These actions underscore
that Toyota is going above and beyond making the necessary vehicle modifications and repairs
to ensure that our customers can be completely confident in the safety and reliability of the
cars and trucks they drive.
Chairman Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Stupak, Ranking Members Barton and Walden,
members of the Committee, these are only some of the steps Toyota is taking to earn back the
confidence of Congress and the American people. Our 200,000 team members, dealership
employees and suppliers in the United States are the backbone of that effort – and I am
confident we will succeed in restoring customer trust in the quality, safety and reliability of our
vehicles.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF
AKIO TOYODA
PRESIDENT, TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
FEBRUARY 24, 2010
Thank you Chairman Towns.
I am Akio Toyoda of Toyota Motor Corporation. I would first like to state that I love cars as
much as anyone, and I love Toyota as much as anyone. I take the utmost pleasure in offering
vehicles that our customers love, and I know that Toyota’s 200,000 team members, dealers, and
suppliers across America feel the same way. However, in the past few months, our customers
have started to feel uncertain about the safety of Toyota’s vehicles, and I take full responsibility
for that. Today, I would like to explain to the American people, as well as our customers in the
U.S. and around the world, how seriously Toyota takes the quality and safety of its vehicles. I
would like to express my appreciation to Chairman Towns and Ranking Member Issa, as well as
the members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, for giving me this
opportunity to express my thoughts today.
I would like to focus my comments on three topics – Toyota’s basic philosophy regarding quality
control, the cause of the recalls, and how we will manage quality control going forward.
First, I want to discuss the philosophy of Toyota’s quality control. I myself, as well as Toyota,
am not perfect. At times, we do find defects. But in such situations, we always stop, strive to
understand the problem, and make changes to improve further. In the name of the company, its
long-standing tradition and pride, we never run away from our problems or pretend we don’t
notice them. By making continuous improvements, we aim to continue offering even better
products for society. That is the core value we have kept closest to our hearts since the founding
days of the company.
At Toyota, we believe the key to making quality products is to develop quality people. Each
employee thinks about what he or she should do, continuously making improvements, and by
doing so, makes even better cars. We have been actively engaged in developing people who
share and can execute on this core value. It has been over 50 years since we began selling in this
great country, and over 25 years since we started production here. And in the process, we have
been able to share this core value with the 200,000 people at Toyota operations, dealers, and
suppliers in this country. That is what I am most proud of.
Second, I would like to discuss what caused the recall issues we are facing now. Toyota has, for
the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly. Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which
we have grown may have been too quick. I would like to point out here that Toyota’s priority
has traditionally been the following: First; Safety, Second; Quality, and Third; Volume. These
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priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think, and make improvements as
much as we were able to before, and our basic stance to listen to customers’ voices to make
better products has weakened somewhat. We pursued growth over the speed at which we were
able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that. I
regret that this has resulted in the safety issues described in the recalls we face today, and I am
deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced.
Especially, I would like to extend my condolences to the members of the Saylor family, for the
accident in San Diego. I would like to send my prayers again, and I will do everything in my
power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.
Since last June, when I first took office, I have personally placed the highest priority on
improving quality over quantity, and I have shared that direction with our stakeholders. As you
well know, I am the grandson of the founder, and all the Toyota vehicles bear my name. For me,
when the cars are damaged, it is as though I am as well. I, more than anyone, wish for Toyota’s
cars to be safe, and for our customers to feel safe when they use our vehicles. Under my
leadership, I would like to reaffirm our values of placing safety and quality the highest on our list
of priorities, which we have held to firmly from the time we were founded. I will also strive to
devise a system in which we can surely execute what we value.
Third, I would like to discuss how we plan to manage quality control as we go forward. Up to
now, any decisions on conducting recalls have been made by the Customer Quality Engineering
Division at Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. This division confirms whether there are
technical problems and makes a decision on the necessity of a recall. However, reflecting on the
issues today, what we lacked was the customers’ perspective.
To make improvements on this, we will make the following changes to the recall decisionmaking
process. When recall decisions are made, a step will be added in the process to ensure
that management will make a responsible decision from the perspective of “customer safety
first.” To do that, we will devise a system in which customers’ voices around the world will
reach our management in a timely manner, and also a system in which each region will be able to
make decisions as necessary. Further, we will form a quality advisory group composed of
respected outside experts from North America and around the world to ensure that we do not
make a misguided decision. Finally, we will invest heavily in quality in the U.S., through the
establishment of an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence, the introduction of a new position
– Product Safety Executive, and the sharing of more information and responsibility within the
company for product quality decisions, including defects and recalls.
Even more importantly, I will ensure that members of the management team actually drive the
cars, and that they check for themselves where the problem lies as well as its severity. I myself
am a trained test driver. As a professional, I am able to check on problems in a car, and can
understand how severe the safety concern is in a car. I drove the vehicles in the accelerator pedal
recall as well as the Prius, comparing the vehicles before and after the remedy in various
environmental settings. I believe that only by examining the problems on-site, can one make
decisions from the customer perspective. One cannot rely on reports or data in a meeting room.
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Through the measures I have just discussed, and with whatever results we obtain from the
investigations we are conducting in cooperation with NHTSA, I intend to further improve on the
quality of Toyota vehicles and fulfill our principle of putting the customer first.
My name is on every car. You have my personal commitment that Toyota will work vigorously
and unceasingly to restore the trust of our customers.
Thank you.