Toyota to pay $32.4 million in extra fines
Latest settlement brings total penalties levied by U.S. to $48.8 million
By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay the government a record $32.4 million in additional fines to settle an investigation into its handling of two recalls at the heart of its safety crisis, the Department of Transportation announced late Monday night.
The civil penalties will settle investigations into how Toyota dealt with recalls over accelerator pedals that could get trapped in floor mats and steering relay rods that could break and lead to drivers losing control.
The latest settlement, on top of a $16.4 million fine Toyota paid earlier in a related investigation, brings the total penalties levied on the company to $48.8 million. It caps a difficult year for the world's No. 1 automaker, which recalled more than 11 million vehicles globally since the fall of 2009 as it scrambled to protect its reputation for safety and reliability.
Toyota's board of directors agreed to pay the fines on Tuesday at the company's board meeting in Japan. However, that does not free Toyota from potential civil and criminal penalties in private lawsuits and other federal investigations.
It's not the fines they need to worry about. it's the civil suits to follow. Generally, if the government finds you guilty of something, when you're sued for the same thing in civil court it's a guaranteed loss.
This is a ploy by the US government to undermine the competition for the automaker they currently own (at least 1/3 of). Hopefully some of this money will be put towards a better interior on the Camaro, Corvette, and a 5 door manual transmission Cruze.
Wait a F'n minute here, the government is actually going close this investigation after recieving some "hush" money?! This is BS!!! I want this issue investigated to the fullest extent until the public knows EXACTLY how sly and sneaky (or STUPID) Toyota really is at sidestepping serious safety issues. This will only further allow them to evade the truth and resposibility for it.
But I do agree that if this fine means that if Toyota has simply purchased the end of an investigation with no resolution it stinks to high heaven.
For some reason, if the Seylor settlement is going to be disclosed, I don't see newspapers standing down when they can really raise some hell about this issue.
You see, this whole deal wasn't just about Camrys going out of control or trucks losing their steering, it was about an organized effort to cut the cost of recalls by simply ignoring the problem. Well not exactly ignoring, making an effort to control what people knew and making certain that nothing happened.
Either the people generating and disclosing stats inside Toyota are completely incompetent or they are devious.
It caps a difficult year for the world's No. 1 automaker, which recalled more than 11 million vehicles globally since the fall of 2009 as it scrambled to protect its reputation for safety and reliability.
These fines help who? Toyoda still will build other problems.
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