Toyota Recall Lawyers: 270,000 Lexus Vehicles Recalled for Faulty Engine Component

Toyota is back in the news after being knocked out by the BP oil spill. They are trying wiggle their recall news softly in between pictures of oil soaked seagulls by releasing the recall on a national American holiday where most people are out enjoying kicking the British (but not their petroleum interests) out of the country.

Today’s recall comes after an international recall of almost 10 million cars and the largest fines ever levied on a car company by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  It was a year of congressional hearings, charges of misconduct, and one PR disaster after another.

This has prompted car companies around the world to take notice of how and when they need to recall vehicles, which is promptly and before hundreds of lawsuits are filed from personal injury and wrongful death due to the vehicle’s defect. The only international car manufacturer that hasn’t seemed to learn from the mistakes of Toyota is…well, Toyota.

Toyota Recall

Toyota started recalling 91,903 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles today in Japan over flaws in the valve springs, a crucial engine component, that could make the automobile stall while in motion. Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Paul Nolasco said recalls in overseas markets will follow soon, totaling about 270,000 vehicles globally. That includes: 138,000 vehicles in the U.S., 15,000 in Europe, 10,000 in the Middle East, 6,000 in China, 4,000 in Canada, and 8,000 in other regions.

“We apologize for inconveniencing our customers. We hope to fix the problem soon,” Nolasco said.

Analysts said today’s recall, on top of a recall last week for 17,000 Lexus hybrids after testing showed fuel can spill during a rear-end crash, did little to instill consumer confidence after Toyota President Akio Toyoda, facing shareholders last month, vowed to improve vehicle quality inspections.

“[Toyota] is not doing a good job in communicating a message about what exactly it is doing to beef up quality checks,” said Shotaro Noguchi, auto analyst with Nomura Securities Co. in Tokyo. “So it is hard for people to believe Toyota is taking the customer’s view as it is promising to do.”

Toyota said it was replacing the valve spring in the recalled vehicles, produced between July 2005 and August 2008 — Lexus models GS350, GS450h, GS460, IS350, LS460, LS600h, LS600hL and Crown models.

About 220 complaints have been reported, but no accidents or injuries have been reported because of the defect.

Toyota Lawsuits

Toyota faces more than 200 lawsuits in the U.S. tied to accidents involving defective automobiles. The lawsuits span from complaints of lower resale value of Toyota vehicles to a drop in its stock value. But not all of the lawsuits are financial. Many of them are from victims who have received serious personal injuries in car accidents or family member who have lost loved ones as a result of the defects.

The Toyota lawsuits are mostly based in California, the largest car market in North America, and have been consolidated. These lawsuits could span into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Especially if what Dimitrios Biller, a former lead attorney for Toyota, and his lawsuit against Toyota alleges. He says he walked away after only four years representing the company because of what he alleges were “criminal acts” by Toyota — specifically, withholding information the company was legally required to turn over to plaintiffs’ lawyers during litigation.

“There is a regular pattern and practice of not producing memos, minutes, reports, and e-mails,” Biller said. “These documents can be used to establish liability against Toyota in product liability and negligence cases.”

Toyota has released 70,000 pages of documents since a congressional request in January and these are available to lawyers. They are currently sifting through the stack, much like NHTSA investigators did to help determine the $16.4 million fine they levied upon Toyota in May.

Toyota Recall Lawyers

Some of the new Toyota’s you buy at the dealership have still displayed problems associated with the sudden acceleration problems connected to the original recall. There have also been multiple reports of surging accelerators even after the dealership has implemented recall fix on the vehicle and released it.

You may still may be affected by a second massive recall to fix the software and electrical problems that independent research has shown to be the real flaw causing the sudden acceleration accidents. This may come in the form of an accident or severe loss of resale value of your vehicle.

If you or someone you know have been affected by the Toyota recall, then it is important that you call an experienced defective products attorney with a successful record of defective design lawsuits. Call Phillips Webster for a consultation.

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