Feb 03, 2010

Toyota recall: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advises owners not to drive their cars

11:03 AM

By Alan Diaz, APUpdated: 11:43 a.m. ET with LaHood's comments

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood just went nuclear in his tirade against Toyota: He is now advising owners of the eight recalled models to park them and not drive them until they can be brought into dealers to have their accelerator pedals repaired.

The Associated Press just reported:

LaHood's warning came Wednesday in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation. LaHood says his advice to owners is to "stop driving it. Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it."

Toyota's most recent recall in the United States affects 2.3 million vehicles with the potential for sticking gas pedals. LaHood told reporters earlier in the day that Toyota owners should contact their dealer immediately and "exercise caution until repairs can be made."

In addition, Transportation is probing to see if other automakers might have the same problems as Toyotas if they share similar pedal systems. And it's getting complaints about braking systems in Prius. Yesterday LaHood called Toyota weak on safety and said his own department had to send an official to Tokyo to prompt the pedal recall.

Until now, Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota had been recommending only that drivers be careful and look for symptom that their cars could have unintended acceleration -- even though Toyota stopped selling the models last week. To Drive On, this made no sense. If the cars are dangeous enough that they can't be sold, how could owners still be fine driving them?

Now, we're awaiting Toyota's response.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... eir-cars/1