MADELEINE BRAND, host:
You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
Today, Toyota told its dealers to stop selling eight models of cars and trucks. Last week, the automaker announced a recall of 2.3 million of the vehicles because of problems with the accelerator pedal sticking. Those vehicles include the 2010 Highlander, the 2009 and '10 RAV4, Corolla and Matrix, as well as wider model year recalls on the Avalon, Camry, Tundra and Sequoia.
For more on what this means for Toyota, I'm joined by Paul Eisenstein. He's editor of the auto industry Web site, thedetroitbureau.com.
Hi, Paul.
Mr. PAUL EISENSTEIN (Editor, TheDetroitBureau.com): Hi.
BRAND: So this is not the first time we are hearing about a Toyota vehicle recall. Tell us what's been happening.
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Well, Toyota has been slammed with recalls this last year. In fact, in 2009, they recalled something like four times more vehicles than they ever have in a single year here in the United States - more than four million in total.
BRAND: So this involves a sticking accelerator and also a floor mat problem?
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Well, yeah, it - we want to separate the two. The recall that they announced last October after the fiery death of a California state trooper and his family involved floor mats that can stick the technical term is entrap the accelerator pedal and leading vehicles to go out of control. This new problem involves the accelerator pedals themselves. They can apparently stick wide open and make it very difficult to stop as well.
Some of the vehicles involved in the current recall, the new one, are also involved in the previous recall.
BRAND: So, total, how many vehicles are we talking about?
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Well, if you added up the numbers, it's somewhere north of six-and-a-half million vehicles. But, again, some of them are involved. You know, the same vehicle may be recalled for two different repairs. So if you take out the overlap, you're still talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of five million.
BRAND: And what about today's announcement? What does that mean, that dealers should stop selling these eight models?
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Well, we're all trying to figure out exactly what this means. It certainly is going to be a problem. You've got a company that sells an awful lot of cars. It actually sold more cars in retail in December than General Motors did. And now it's telling its dealers to stop selling some of the most important products in its lineup. Plus, it's shutting down a number of factories, including, you know, five factories here in North America, at least the lines that produced these models. So it's really going to throw that company and its dealers into chaos.
BRAND: There have been complaints for a number of years now, I understand, from consumers about this accelerator problem. Has Toyota been slow to acknowledge it?
Mr. EISENSTEIN: They've clearly been slow to acknowledge it. And it took that fiery death of a California trooper last year to push them into making the recall - the first recall of 3.8 million vehicles because of the floor mat problem. This newer recall, they appear to be much more sensitive to problems with accelerator sticking, so they move pretty quickly. But it appears that they've got some other problems, and now they're trying to decide just how fast they're going to have to respond to yet another series of complaints about quality and reliability.
BRAND: With the Prius, too.
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Yeah. We broke a story just before the New Year about a problem that's apparently involving the third generation Prius, which is the face of Toyota. It now appears that, at least under some conditions, people are reporting that when they're braking, if they hit a pothole or a bump, the brakes can essentially release. And this is a real problem. If you're in a tight traffic situation and your brakes suddenly let go, you may not have enough time to reapply them.
BRAND: Thanks, Paul.
Mr. EISENSTEIN: Good to be with you.
BRAND: That's Paul Eisenstein, he's the editor of the auto industry Web site, thedetroitbureau.com. And we've been talking about Toyota's announcement today that it will stop selling eight models of cars and trucks.