By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
April 8, 2010
An executive in charge of public relations at Toyota urged the carmaker in mid January to "come clean" about sudden acceleration problems in its vehicles, The Detroit News reported in Thursday's editions.
The newspaper, which said it obtained an email sent by PR executive Irv Miller, quoted the Toyota executive as saying the company "was not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet."
Five days later Toyota ordered a recall of 2.3 million vehicles to repair "sticking" gas pedals.
The Detroit News reports the email was among 70,000 pages of documents turned over to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its investigation of
consumer complaints about Toyota's sudden acceleration problems. Until then the carmaker was addressing the problem by having consumers remove floor mats, which it said could trap the accelerator on the floorboard of the vehicle.Toyota has maintained from the beginning that the sudden acceleration problem had a physical cause, not electronic. The carmaker this week reiterated its contention that its cars' electronics are not causing the problem. Even so, NHTSA continues to investigate that possibility.
In the email published by the News, Miller, who was Toyota's U.S. vice president of environmental and public affairs, wrote to a colleague saying "WE HAVE A tendency for MECHANICAL failure in accelerator pedals," using capital letters for emphasis.
'Time to hide is over
"The time to hide on this one is over," Miller wrote.
In the email published by the News, Miller concluded "we better just hope that they can get NHTSA to work with us in coming to a workable solution that does not put us out of business."
NHTSA, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that it is seeking the maximum civil penalty of $16.375 million against Toyota in connection with incidents associated with unintended acceleration.
Specifically, the Japanese carmaker was cited for failing to notify the auto safety agency of the dangerous "sticky pedal" defect for at least four months, despite knowing of the potential risk to consumers.
