09:29, January 29, 2010
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6882416.html
Toyota's massive recalls over problem gas pedals in the US are being extended to China and Europe, the latest blow to the world's top automaker as it struggles to salvage its safety reputation.
The announcements come after the company earlier this week said it was suspending US sales and production of eight models, including the Camry, America's top-selling car, to fix faulty pedals that could stick and cause acceleration without warning.
Toyota Motor Corp also announced an additional recall of 1.09 million vehicles in the United States covering five models, the 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza, 2009-2010 Matrix, and 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe.
Toyota dealers across the US have been swamped with calls from concerned drivers but had few answers as the recalls snowballed.
A week before the sales suspension, Toyota issued a US recall for the same eight models, affecting 2.3 million vehicles. In late 2009 it recalled 4.2 million vehicles amid concerns that floor mats could bend across gas pedals, causing sudden acceleration.
Toyota has insisted the problem of sudden, uncontrolled acceleration was "rare and infrequent" and said dealers should deal with customers "on a case-by-case basis". But drivers of Toyotas and those who share the use the parts involved in the latest US recall.
"Toyota is making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible," its European arm said.
The sales suspension in the US, Toyota's biggest market, could endanger the company's fledgling earnings recovery. Toyota only returned to the black for the July-September quarter with net income of 21.8 billion yen ($241 million) after three straight losing quarters.
Investors continued to dump shares in the global auto giant yesterday. Toyota dropped 3.9 percent to 3,560 yen even as the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average gained 1.6 percent to close at 10,414.29. Toyota tumbled 4.3 percent on Wednesday.
"It is still uncertain how this recall problem will affect Toyota's profits. But investors are worried it could really pressure the company's overall earnings," said Masatoshi Sato, market analyst at Mizuho Investors Securiti stuck in floor mats.
Toyota said it will fix or replace the accelerator pedals for the recalled vehicles to avoid the risk of floor mat entrapment. The company said it will replace floor mats as well for the latest recalled vehicles.
In March of 2007, Toyota started getting reports of gas pedals being slow to rise after being depressed for acceleration. Engineers fixed the problem in the Tundra pickup early in 2008.
But troubles persisted in other models, eventually leading to last week's US recall and the plans to suspend sales and shut down of six factories while Toyota tries to fix the problems.
Analysts said the financial damage to Toyota from the recalls would depend on how long it has to shut production on key models and how badly consumer confidence is shaken as reflected in pricing of both new and used cars.
"The sales and production suspension could cost Toyota at least 50 billion yen ($553 million) in operating profit per month," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan.
Battered by a plunge in global sales brought on by the financial crisis, Toyota had been expected to post an operating loss of around 47 billion yen in the year to March 2010, before rebounding to a 599 billion yen profit in 2011, according to 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
"I am expecting 100 billion to 200 billion yen in operating profit this year, but it could end up in zero or a operating loss due to this sales and production suspension," Endo said.
Source: China Daily
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6882416.html
Toyota's massive recalls over problem gas pedals in the US are being extended to China and Europe, the latest blow to the world's top automaker as it struggles to salvage its safety reputation.
The announcements come after the company earlier this week said it was suspending US sales and production of eight models, including the Camry, America's top-selling car, to fix faulty pedals that could stick and cause acceleration without warning.
Toyota Motor Corp also announced an additional recall of 1.09 million vehicles in the United States covering five models, the 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza, 2009-2010 Matrix, and 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe.
Toyota dealers across the US have been swamped with calls from concerned drivers but had few answers as the recalls snowballed.
A week before the sales suspension, Toyota issued a US recall for the same eight models, affecting 2.3 million vehicles. In late 2009 it recalled 4.2 million vehicles amid concerns that floor mats could bend across gas pedals, causing sudden acceleration.
Toyota has insisted the problem of sudden, uncontrolled acceleration was "rare and infrequent" and said dealers should deal with customers "on a case-by-case basis". But drivers of Toyotas and those who share the use the parts involved in the latest US recall.
"Toyota is making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible," its European arm said.
The sales suspension in the US, Toyota's biggest market, could endanger the company's fledgling earnings recovery. Toyota only returned to the black for the July-September quarter with net income of 21.8 billion yen ($241 million) after three straight losing quarters.
Investors continued to dump shares in the global auto giant yesterday. Toyota dropped 3.9 percent to 3,560 yen even as the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average gained 1.6 percent to close at 10,414.29. Toyota tumbled 4.3 percent on Wednesday.
"It is still uncertain how this recall problem will affect Toyota's profits. But investors are worried it could really pressure the company's overall earnings," said Masatoshi Sato, market analyst at Mizuho Investors Securiti stuck in floor mats.
Toyota said it will fix or replace the accelerator pedals for the recalled vehicles to avoid the risk of floor mat entrapment. The company said it will replace floor mats as well for the latest recalled vehicles.
In March of 2007, Toyota started getting reports of gas pedals being slow to rise after being depressed for acceleration. Engineers fixed the problem in the Tundra pickup early in 2008.
But troubles persisted in other models, eventually leading to last week's US recall and the plans to suspend sales and shut down of six factories while Toyota tries to fix the problems.
Analysts said the financial damage to Toyota from the recalls would depend on how long it has to shut production on key models and how badly consumer confidence is shaken as reflected in pricing of both new and used cars.
"The sales and production suspension could cost Toyota at least 50 billion yen ($553 million) in operating profit per month," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan.
Battered by a plunge in global sales brought on by the financial crisis, Toyota had been expected to post an operating loss of around 47 billion yen in the year to March 2010, before rebounding to a 599 billion yen profit in 2011, according to 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
"I am expecting 100 billion to 200 billion yen in operating profit this year, but it could end up in zero or a operating loss due to this sales and production suspension," Endo said.
Source: China Daily
