Toyota to recall Prius for brake glitch: dealer
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1 of 12. Toyota Motor Corp's Prius is displayed at its office in Tokyo February 4, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon
TOYOTA CITY, Japan |
TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.
Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius's biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan's top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.
Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.
Toyota's president apologized Friday for safety problems.
"I would like to take this opportunity to apologize from the bottom of my heart for causing many of our customers concern after the recalls across several models in several regions," Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, told a news conference in Nagoya.
He said the company would make an announcement on the Prius soon.
U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co last week decided to roll out a software patch for consumers to address similar problems with braking on the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan models. It said it notified its dealers of the problem in October but not the public because it did not believe the glitch represented a brake failure.
Toyota officials were not immediately available to comment.
Toyota has come under intense scrutiny, with U.S. safety authorities and members of the Obama administration accusing it of responding too slowly on problems related to uncontrolled acceleration that have been linked to up to 19 crash deaths in the United States over the past decade.
Japan's Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said Friday he believed Toyota would take a unified measure on the Prius across the world.
Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported Sunday that Toyota had considered voluntarily fixing the cars but chose a recall instead in the hope of restoring public trust.
Since its launch last May, Toyota has sold over 300,000 of the newest version of the Prius worldwide, including around 200,000 in Japan, 103,200 in the United States and 29,000 in Europe.
(Additional reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Rika Otsuka; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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However, the car does remain stopped even when the accelerator pedal is briefly tapped. The behavior is repeatable and consistent. Personally verified that there are no external hydraulic leaks. Observed the fluid surface in the brake fluid reservoir while an assistant sank the brake pedal. The surface remained undisturbed, indicating that the master hydraulic piston is not leaky. Took it to the dealer. The sales & service managers observed but reluctantly admitted the behavior, tested it on their computer and declared it acceptable. I tested a second 2010 Prius on their lot and the behavior was identical.
Consequences: Having dealt with dealers before, we are unwilling to accept the dealer’s reassurance for this seemingly unsafe behavior, and are now compelled to set the parking brake at every waiting stop.
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