Manufacturing
James Lentz, Toyota President and COO of Motor Sales in the US, testifies before a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the "Response By Toyota and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to Incidents of Sudden Unintended Acceleration" on Capitol Hill in Washington February 23, 2010.
Massive recalls of popular Toyota cars and trucks still may "not totally" solve frightening problems of sudden, unintended acceleration, the company's American sales chief conceded Tuesday, a day before the Japanese president of the world's largest automaker must confront angry US lawmakers.
House members listened in rapt silence Tuesday to the tearful testimony of a woman whose car unaccountably surged to 100 mph, then they pressed US sales chief James Lentz on the company's efforts to find and fix the acceleration problems - actions many suggested were too late and too limited.
Lentz apologized repeatedly for safety defects that led to recalls of some 8.5 million Toyota cars and trucks, and he acknowledged the changes the company is making probably aren't the end of the story.
Putting remaining doubts to rest is of vital importance to millions more Toyota owners in the United States and elsewhere, who have continued to drive but with serious concerns about their cars. Toyota sales have suffered, too, and a small army of dealers showed up on Capitol Hill Tuesday, arguing that this week's high-profile hearings are unfairly targeting their company.
"We are vigilant and we continue to look for potential causes," Lentz told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
That search had better continue, a number of lawmakers said, openly questioning Toyota's insistence that the problems are mechanical, not linked to the vehicles' sophisticated electronics.
