Toyota recalls additional 1.09-million vehicles in US

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. said yesterday it will recall an additional 1.09 million vehicles in the United States over problems with floor mats – a fresh blow to the world’s top automaker as it struggles to salvage its safety reputation.

The new recall would affect five models – 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza, 2009-2010 Matrix, and 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe, Toyota said.

The announcement came just a day after Toyota said it would suspend US sales of eight models – including the Camry, America’s top-selling car – to fix faulty gas pedals that could stick and cause acceleration without warning.

Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models, affecting 2.3 million vehicles. In late 2009, Toyota recalled 4.2 million vehicles over concerns that floor mats could bend across gas pedals, causing sudden acceleration.

The sales suspension in the US – Toyota’s biggest market – could endanger the company’s fledgling earnings recovery. For the July-September quarter, Toyota posted net income of ¥21.8 billion ($241 million) after three straight losing quarters.

Investors continued to dump shares in the global auto giant Thursday. Toyota lost 1.8 percent to 3,640 yen in the morning session even though the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average gained.

Toyota tumbled 4.3 percent Wednesday.

“It is still uncertain how this recall problem will affect Toyota’s profits. But investors are worried it could really pressure the company’s overall earnings,” said Masatoshi Sato, market analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. Ltd.

Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said Toyota decided to recall more vehicles due to the risk of accelerator pedals becoming stuck in the mats. Toyota has already recalled a total of 4.26 million vehicles in the US over such problems.

Toyota said in a statement it will fix or replace the accelerator pedals for the recalled vehicles to avoid the risk of floor mat entrapment. The company said it will replace floor mats as well for the latest recalled vehicles.

In March of 2007, Toyota started getting reports of gas pedals being slow to rise after being depressed for acceleration. Engineers fixed the problem in the Tundra pickup early in 2008.

But troubles persisted in other models, eventually leading to

last week’s recall and the plans to suspend sales and shut down of

six factories while Toyota tries to fix the problems.