Toyota has agreed to pay a maximum $16.375 million (£10.69m) fine to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for failing to inform the US department for almost four months about a sticking accelerator fault in some of its cars.
However, the firm has denied any wrongdoing and said it "did not try to hide a defect to avoid dealing with a safety problem”. Toyota said it was agreeing to pay the fine to “avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation” and hoped that by paying the fine, it could begin “a new, more transparent chapter" with the NHTSA.
US transportation secretary Ray LaHood said, “By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk.
“I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly. We are continuing to investigate whether the company has lived up to all its disclosure obligations."
The fine was the maximum allowed by US law. The Detroit News has claimed that if the $16.375m cap didn’t exist, the NHTSA could have charged Toyota up to $6000 (£3900) per vehicle recalled, which would have meant a $13.8 billion (£9.013bn) fine.
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Re: Toyota pays £10m fine to US
Very clever , the US Government can't afford to bail-out GM on their own so they are raiding Toyotas' piggy bank.
Re: Toyota pays £10m fine to US
If anything it should teach them that they cant make and sell any old rubbish on the back of their reputation.
Somone in our family had an Avensis estate from new, and whilst it proved reasonably reliable save for one or two little niggles, he actually got rid of it after only 18 months because he said it was the most boring car he'd ever owned and whilst perfectly competent, he just didnt enjoy owning it. In the end he changed it for a 300c touring and he cant stop talking about how much he loves it.
Which sort of highlights Toyotas problem. Toyotas are made for people who dont really care too much about cars, just wanting cheap "reliable" no excitement transport. But if they can't trade on the back of their reliability, they havent got too much left to offer. It certainly isnt their awe inspiring design.
Re: Toyota pays £10m fine to US
Toyota will recover from this as others have,its just they had further to fall.i drove Toyota's for over twenty years and my mum still has one.totally reliable and i would buy another in the future.