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Toyota Ranks Well In Consumer Reports

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After all the news we have been hearing about Toyota and their problems, Consumer Reports still ranks Toyota vehicles as number three. (The same ranking as last year.) The rankings are based on performance, comfort, utility and reliability of over 280 different vehicles.

“Toyota builds extremely good, reliable cars”, said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center. “I think once they get through all the recalls you will see that they are a very reliable manufacturer.” The magazine ended up dropping a couple of Toyota models from the Top Picks after the company suspended sales because of the recall. Since the vehicles were not for sale at the time, they could not make the list.

Honda (which includes Acura models) and Subaru were tied for first place, the fourth year that Honda was the leading manufacturer. They were followed by Toyota, and Hyundai (including Kia) which was ranked fourth, up from ninth last year. American manufacturers fared poorly. Ford was ranked eleventh, moving up one place from last year. General Motors and Chrysler occupied the bottom two slots, respectively.

Faked Emissions Tests

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The 1990 Clean Air Act is a piece of United States environmental policy relating to the reduction of smog and air pollution. Although the Clean Air Act is a federal law covering the entire country, the states do much of the work to carry out the Act. Auto inspections were included in the law to make sure cars are well maintained. When your register a car in California, an emissions check is required, and with every other registration renewal the check must be done again. Used car dealers are required to issue a valid emissions test for any vehicle they sell. With a private sale it is the responsibility of the buyer.

Dozens of auto repair shops and service stations in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County faked the results of emissions tests, giving nearly 21,000 cars and light trucks passing grades, state environmental officials said Thursday. Officials with the State Department of Environmental Conservation said they had issued citations to 40 of about 3,500 inspection sites in the region for granting inspection certificates for vehicles that were not tested. These stations could face fines of $375 to $15,000 for the first offense and up to $22,500 for each ensuing offense. Although the emissions testing costs only about $37, repairs to vehicles that fail the test can cost much more. Dealerships may pass a vehicles emission test to save on money, leaving the consumer to have to pay for the repairs when they take their vehicle for the next emissions test.

Corolla Problems. Another Recall For Toyota?

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Toyota and U.S. regulators are looking into a possible recall on Toyota’s best selling car the Corolla. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 163 complaints about the steering in its 2009-2010 Corollas. Toyota said Wednesday it is looking into complaints about steering issues with the Corolla in the U.S., though it said it had received fewer than 100 reports and it was too early to consider a recall.

Toyota has been a top seller for decades and has sold nearly 1.3 million Corolla cars worldwide just last year. The recent rash of recalls has hurt Toyotas reputation resulting in sales to be the lowest since January 2006. Fears of an extended sales slump pushed Toyota’s shares down 3.7 percent in a flat market in Tokyo, compounding a slide that has sent the stock down 17 percent since its recall was announced on January 21.

Fix For Toyota Prius Brake Problem

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If you have received a recall notice for the brakes on your new 2010 Toyota Prius, you will be happy to know the fix is a quick one. As a matter of fact, you will probably have your car back in thirty minutes, and even though the problem is with the brakes, you will not need a mechanic to fix it. That’s because the problem is with a software glitch and the solution is as easy as fixing a security flaw in Microsoft windows.

Most modern cars are run on computers these days which eliminates the need for a mechanical connection. For many people, that’s not a comforting thought. We don’t like the thought of computers running our cars because software experiences glitches. Each year, cars get more complicated, some having over forty microprocessors in them. Although these microprocessors make it more difficult for you to work on your own car, some of them actually make your car easier to service.

Fatalities Involving Recalled Toyota Vehicles

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reported that there have been 13 fatalities involving Toyota vehicles that were included in the recall that started last September. This brings the total to 34 people.

All but one of the deaths reported to NHTSA occurred in prior years, as far back as 1992. Most of the incidents occurred between 2003 and 2009. According to accounts filed with NHTSA, Toyota and Lexus vehicles suddenly raced forward, smashing into other cars, buildings and pedestrians. In addition to the fatalities, federal regulators said 22 people reported injuries from unintended acceleration accidents involving Toyota vehicles.

“It is normal for NHTSA to receive an increase in consumer complaints after a recall is announced ,” said Olivia Alair, a spokeswoman for the agency. “NHTSA takes every complaint seriously and reviews each one carefully. The agency is quickly gathering more data on all of these additional complaints to help guide our examination of sudden acceleration . . . as well as other safety issues.”

Toyota has not released data from its own internal complaint files on accidents, injuries or deaths related to the unintended acceleration. The automaker has declined to state how many complaints of the problem have been filed. In general databases of auto manufacturers are quite a bit larger than NHTSA’s.

This month, both Congress and NHTSA have said they are looking into whether electronic throttle control could play a role in sudden acceleration.

Toyota officials have denied that possibility, pointing to internal and external testing, as well as eight federal investigations, none of which found a throttle defect.

Mercedes and Chrysler Disagree Over Hybrid Equipment

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Under Chrysler’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, part of the reorganization has led them to sell off some of the specialized equipment from a hybrid laboratory that they had shared with Mercedes. Mercedes has put a stop to the sale saying that they own the technology, along with the stockpile of supplies, and that Chrysler has no right to it. The two auto makers, who formerly operated under the Daimler name in a joint venture, have been fighting over the equipment since Chrysler left the Troy, Michigan, facility a few months before it filed for Chapter 11 protection. Mercedes is asking the court to remove the equipment used for the development of prototype hybrid engines from the sale so that it can continue to negotiate a settlement to its dispute with the bankruptcy estate.

Honda Airbag Recall

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In November of 2008 and June 2009 Japan’s number two automaker, Honda, recalled a total of 510,00 vehicles for an airbag inflator. This week the recall has been expanded to include another 428,000 vehicles.

The driver’s airbag inflators in these vehicles may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture resulting in injury or fatality. The airbag defect has been linked to one fatality and eleven injuries in the United States. There have been no other reports, Honda said. All cars to be recalled globally are made at Honda’s U.S. and Canadian plants.

The latest recall applies to:

Owners of these vehicles will receive notification through the mail or can go to http://owners.honda.com/recalls or call (800) 999-1009; Acura owners can go to http://owners.acura.com/recalls or call (800) 382-2238.

Toyota Prius Experiences Brake Problems

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received over one hundred complaints involving the brakes on the 2010 Prius. People complained about momentary loss of braking while traveling over an uneven road surface. Four of the complaints claimed the momentary loss resulted in an accident. Toyota spokeswoman, Martha Voss, said the company had been informed of the agency’s plans to open an investigation and added that “Toyota will cooperate fully”.

Toyota’s manager in charge of quality, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, said the company had identified the problem and corrected the glitch for Priuses sold since late January. He said the company was still considering what actions to take for cars already on the road and had not ruled out a recall.

Mr. Yokoyama told reporters that the new Priuses experienced a slight unresponsiveness of the brakes that he said was easy to resolve by pressing harder on the brake pedal. The problem occurred, because the technologically advanced Prius has two braking systems, and a glitch sometimes prevented the car from transitioning smoothly between the two.