Toyota issues formal comments on the massive economic loss settlement related to unintended acceleration

The recent holiday week was a fortunate time for Toyota to announce that it had settled litigation related to the loss of value to its automobiles due to concerns about unintended acceleration. With little media attention, and with the general public dreaming of sugar plumbs, there was little fanfare over the largest automotive related settlement in US history. Today, Toyota quietly published comments from the company’s leaders with regards to the settlement.

On its press pages, in a sidebar, Toyota offered these quotations regarding the issue, which it calls an “Economic Loss Settlement”:
From Christopher P. Reynolds, group vice president and general counsel, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A, and chief legal officer, Toyota Motor North America: “This agreement marks a significant step forward for our company, one that will enable us to put more of our energy, time and resources into Toyota’s central focus: making the best vehicles we can for our customers and doing everything we can to meet their needs. In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles. This was a difficult decision – especially since reliable scientific evidence and multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of Toyota’s electronic throttle control systems. However, we concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company, our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers.”

Toyota has agreed to address every possible scenario related to customer’s economic losses due to the concerns about unintended acceleration. In essence, the company is agreeing to pay its customers for any economic loss they may have suffered if they sold their car and didn’t get the value they might have had the issue not arisen.

For more details on the program customers can visit www.toyotaelsettlement.com or call 877-283-0507. Readers at Torque News can also read more here at this link.