Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the unprecedented step of halting sales and production of eight models, including the top-selling Camry and Corolla, because their accelerator pedals can stick and cause runaway acceleration.
Toyota sent an e-mail to its roughly 1,200 U.S. dealers late Tuesday, asking them to immediately stop selling the vehicles. In addition, it told them to refrain from selling certain used versions of the same models.
At the same time, Toyota said it is halting production of the models in five assembly lines in the U.S. and Canada, effective Monday.
The news is the latest blow to Toyota's once-ironclad reputation for quality and safety, which has come under increasing fire in recent months amid rising complaints about unintended acceleration and other defects.
The eight models affected by the news represented 57 percent of Toyota's sales in the U.S. last year.
"This could be an extended issue. It is very serious," said Aaron Bragman, auto industry analyst at IHS Global Insight. He called the sales freeze, known in the industry as a stop sale, a "disaster," and pointed out that it came as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. all were improving their quality and mounting aggressive sales and marketing campaigns.
The sales freeze, which Toyota said is its largest in more than five decades of selling cars in the U.S., comes less than a week after the automaker said it would recall 2.3 million cars and trucks because of the same problem.
That recall in turn came just months after Toyota launched its largest-ever recall, of 4.3 million vehicles, because floor mats could trap the gas pedal and cause sudden acceleration.
Last year, Toyota led all manufacturers in the total number of vehicles recalled in the U.S. for the first time.
What's more, Toyota's decision to stop sales of its most important vehicles comes as the automaker struggles through a sales slump. In November, the automaker said that it expected to lose at least $2 billion in the current fiscal year.
Sales on hold Sales of the following Toyota vehicles will be suspended:
•2009-2010 RAV4
•2009-2010 Corolla
•2009-2010 Matrix
•2005-2010 Avalon
•2007-2010 Camry
•2010 Highlander
•2007-2010 Tundra
•2008-2010 Sequoia
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