Toyota Offers Over $1b Settlement For Unintended Acceleration Claims

Toyota has agreed to a settlement valued between $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, in a class action suit over its ‘unintended acceleration’ recalls in 2009.

The settlement, which relates to US consumer claims that widespread coverage of the recalls greatly diminished the resale value of affected models, is due to be considered in federal court this week.

The carmaker announced this week that the money is expected to "cover the estimated costs of the economic loss settlement and possible resolution costs of civil litigation brought in California by the District Attorney of Orange County and an investigation by a multistate group of Attorneys General stemming from previous recalls".

The figure will include cash payments to eligible customers who sold their vehicle in 2009 or 2010, a new customer support program for related vehicle components, and the fitment of a free brake-override system to approximately 3.25 million non-hybrid recalled vehicles.

The settlement amount is a record for a case of its type in the US, and is separate to the estimated US$2 billion (AU$1.93 billion) costs already associated with the earlier recalls.

This class action is in addition to two further pending actions against Toyota (set to commence in February), concerning incidents of death or injury relating to the unintended acceleration issue.

Australia

Toyota Australia confirmed in 2010 that local models were unaffected by the unintended acceleration issue, due to a unique supply of the components affected in US models.

There have still been no reports of unintended acceleration relating to Toyota models in Australia.

• Toyota | Industry News