In what is quickly turning into one of the great automotive company catastrophies of all time, Toyota has recalled an addditional 1.1 million vehicles due to the potential for them to unintentionally accelerate without warning. Rental companies have pulled Toyota models from their fleets and there are indications that the planned, one week production shut down, may actually have to be extended. The situation is quickly spiraling out of control for the normally in-control Toyota.
Reuters news service is reporting that Toyota shares fell two percent in Japanese trading on the news that things are getting worse in this situation rather than better. Although the company thinks it has come to a mechanical solution to the sticking gas pedal problem, they did not have any idea how long it would take to implement or how long production would be suspended so that new models could be fitted with the fix before leaving the factory.
Just image the enormity of having to fix an entire dealership of cars before you can sell them!
GM is jumping on the disaster by offering Toyota owners incentives to switch into a GM car and we have to imagine every car salesman worth his salt if setting the hook in every person that drives onto a dealer lot in a Toyota.
The news on this story is breaking by the hour. We’ll do our best to keep you posted.
Click here to see the latest Reuters story on Toyota’s epic gas pedal fail.
