› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
The family of a Marine who served two tours of combat duty in Iraq only to be killed in Knoxville, Tennessee, when his Toyota Yaris suddenly sped out of control, is suing the carmaker. The new lawsuit is one of the latest cases to join the multi-district litigation involving sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus cars, which have been consolidated in a Santa Ana, California, federal court under Judge James Selna.
Safety Research & Strategies Inc. (SRS), the Massachusetts auto safety firm that has been instrumental in holding Toyota accountable for defects related to sudden unintended acceleration in its vehicles, is suing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for withholding records that could provide critical insight into the sudden-acceleration problem.
Toyota announced Wednesday it will recall about 82,000 hybrid Highlander and Lexus SUVs with faulty computer-board wiring that could cause the vehicles to lose power.
The strong Yen may feel great to Japanese consumers buying imported products or traveling to foreign destinations with a weaker currency, but it’s causing Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers a lot of pain. As the Yen continues to grow in strength against the weak dollar, Japanese exports such as Toyota and Lexus vehicles grow more expensive to the American consumer.
A California Superior Court judge has approved the $10-million settlement between Toyota Motor Corp. and members of a family that was killed when their rented Lexus ES350 sped out of control near San Diego, California, and crashed. The decision leaves Bob Baker Lexus, the company that loaned Mark Saylor and his family the doomed car while theirs had been submitted for maintenance, to fend for itself against unresolved negligence and wrongful death claims the Saylor estate has made.
Toyota has recalled another 255,000 Lexus vehicles in the United States and Canada for fuel system defects, part of a larger global recall of Toyota and Lexus models that encompasses about 1.7 million vehicles. According to Toyota, “insufficient tightening of the fuel-pressure sensor connected to certain fuel-delivery pipes” could allow the sensor to come loose and create a gas leak.
The first lawsuits filed in federal courts against Toyota will be tried as belwether cases sometime during the first quarter of 2013, Judge James Selna of U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, announced yesterday. Judge Selna asked plaintiffs’ lawyers to be prepared to select the belwether cases, which will serve as test cases to determine how the rest of the litigation will proceed.
LOS ANGELES–Prosecutors have dismissed charges of reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter against a Torrance, California, woman whose Lexus RX330 crashed on a Los Angeles highway, killing her passenger. Unmi Suk Chung, 62, blamed the accident on a mechanical malfunction, saying the vehicle suddenly sped out of control.
Toyota has announced another large U.S. recall of 740,000 vehicles with braking systems that have the potential to leak and gradually deteriorate, leading to a loss of brake performance. The recall is the latest in a series of safety-related recalls launched by Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last 18 months for defects related to sudden, unintended acceleration, braking problems, loss of steering, frame rust and deterioration, electrical components, electronic stability, and other problems.
An automotive research company has just released its list of the 2010 and 2011 models that spend the most and least time on the dealership lot waiting to be sold. Topping the list of 2010 cars spending the most time parked until sale is the Toyota Camry, the model that has most often headlined articles about sudden unintended acceleration.
