The president of Toyota is to attend US Congressional hearings into the firm's handling of its recent spate of recalls. Earlier this week he said he would not appear himself, but criticism from US politicians and the Japanese transport minister has led to a change of mind.
In a statement this morning Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, said he intends a "sincere explanation" of the problems that lead to the recall over safety concerns of nearly 8.5 million vehicles worldwide. In Ireland the recalls affect 18,192 cars.
Seiji Maehara, Japan's transport minister said: "It's good that he has decided to accept (the invitation). But it's a shame there was flip-flopping on the decision."
The US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it had also issued a subpoena for internal documents Toyota had fought to keep sealed in a legal battle with a former employee who says the carmaker routinely hid evidence of safety problems.
A separate hearing by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee into whether the Japanese auto giant handled the recalls in a "timely manner" begins on Tuesday.
The recent recalls began over reported problems with "unintended acceleration", caused by sticking accelerators that Toyota attributed to either the pedal catching on floormats or becoming stuck. It affected over 6 million vehicles, including seven of its biggest selling models in Europe. Up to 34 crash deaths have been blamed on unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 2000, according to complaints tracked by US regulators.
A second recall was announced to fix software controlling the brakes on its new Prius hybrids after customers complained that in some instances the brakes did not engage immediately when the brake pedal was depressed. Meanwhile US safety regulators have also begun a preliminary investigation into complaints about steering problems in US versions of the Corolla. Toyota Ireland says this investigation has no bearing in Europe as the cars sold here feature different steering mechanisms than on US models.
According to David Shannon, managing director of Toyota Ireland, the car firm has now written to 12,000 of the 18,130 Irish customers affected by the recall over potential accelerator problems. He says the rest will receive letters next week. As of yesterday it had repaired 3,500 of the cars involved. The procedure involves fitting a small metal block - known as a shim - within the pedal mechanism. The work on each car takes approximately 20 minutes and is carried out at Toyota dealerships free of charge. He says its dealer network can carry out 1,100 repairs a day "but obviously we are governed by the responses of our customers to the letter".
It has also written to all 62 owners of the new Prius model recalling the cars for new brake software and so far 20 owners have responded and had the oftware replaced. Shannon expects the work on both recalls will be finished by the middle of March.