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Toyota Backs WSJ Story

After last week an alleged NHTSA spokeswoman in Washington began saying Toyota planted the report which claims that, in most cases, the drivers are to blame for the unintended acceleration issues, the Japanese manufacturer issued a statement this week, denying having done so. However, if you look closely to the response, you'll see Toyota is not denying having found the drivers to be responsible, but only planting the story in The Wall Street Journal. In fact, towards the end of the statement cited by just-auto.com, they even say their findings match those of the unnamed source who talked with WSJ. "NHTSA has not provided its findings to Toyota, therefore we cannot confirm the report. Toyota's own vehicle evaluations have confirmed that the remedies it developed for sticking accelerator pedal and potential accelerator pedal entrapment by an unsecured or incompatible floor mat are effective.” "We have also confirmed several different causes for unintended acceleration reports including pedal entrapment by floor mats, pedal misapplication and normal vehicle functions such as engine idle up for cold start or air conditioning loads." "Toyota’s preliminary investigations involving event data recorder (EDR) data, have been consistent with findings attributed to government investigations by the Wall Street Journal.”
Last week, the story ran by WSJ was backed by Toyota spokesman Mike Michels, who said Toyota has indeed found evidence of unintended acceleration in some of the 2,000 vehicles it looked into so far. Michels also said that some of the cases under investigation pointed to "pedal misapplication," without saying how many.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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