Toyota’s Disastrous Leap Forward
Toyota got in trouble in 2009 when their bestselling Camry was shown to be fatally defective. A California highway patrolman’s Lexus was proven to have accelerated on its own, killing all 4 people in the car.
In 2012, Toyota finally admitted wrongdoing after a 911 call was released, proving the patrolman’s car had accelerated on its own. Toyota reluctantly agreed to pay the United States government $2.2 billion dollars because of the defective acceleration in a number of Toyota and Lexus models. Toyota was facing criminal prosecution because it had hidden documents proving the fact that the gas pedal assembly was defective. Toyota initially claimed driver error, then said the floor mats were placed wrong. Eventually, 9.3 million cars were recalled.