Toyota knew of accelerator pedal problem in UK a year ago (Renault now involved with CTS pedals)

[FarCenter]

February 2, 2010
Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Toyota, the Japanese motor manufacturer that is recalling millions of defective cars around the world, knew in the UK a year ago that accelerator pedals in its cars were jamming.

The admission came amid reports in Canada that class-action lawsuits have been launched against Toyota, demanding compensation for injuries sustained by out-of-control cars.

The scare is threatening to spread to Renault. It has emerged that nearly 100,000 Peugeot 107 and Citroën C1 models may be affected as they share parts with Toyota and now Renault has said that it is “monitoring the situation” since it shares the same Toyota pedal supplier, CTS Corp of the US, on some models.

Toyota is putting out recall notices on eight million of its cars around the world because of incidents when the accelerator pedal in certain models has stuck — a defect that has had allegedly lethal consequences in some instances, according to statistics from a US safety agency.

Of that recall, 1.8 million of the cars are in Europe with, it is believed, more than 200,000 owners in the UK affected. The company, however, says it is still unable to quantify a UK figure. Toyota in the UK, however, has admitted that it knew of failures in accelerator pedal mechanisms at least a year ago. A spokesman for the company said: “There were cases that were looked at in the winter of 2008-09 and where parts were subsequently modified. Very few vehicles had been reported. The situation appeared to disappear and there were no cases in the spring and summer months. However, within a few days of this winter setting in, that was no longer the case.”

<SNIP>http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article7011671.ece