Toyota Halts Sales Over Safety Issue

Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the unprecedented step of suspending 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. Toyota said it also 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 represent 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 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 comes less than a week after the automaker said it would recall 2.3 million cars and trucks because of the same problem. Toyota has said it was unaware of any accidents or injuries due to the pedal problems associated with the recall but could not rule them out for sure.

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. That problem was the cause of several crashes, including some fatalities.

The automaker said it did not know when dealers could resume selling the cars and trucks because it had not yet determined a remedy to the problem, which in certain rare circumstances can cause the gas pedal to remain depressed after the driver's foot is removed.

For Toyota dealers, the news came as a shock.

"This is the mother of all stop sales, it appears," said Fritz Hitchcock, who owns Toyota three dealerships in California. He estimates that the affected models represent two-thirds to three-quarters of the new vehicle sales at his dealerships. "I'd say this was the perfect storm."

Although carmakers at times order stop sales to fix problems on individual models, neither Hitchcock nor other dealers could recall a sales freeze of this magnitude by any manufacturer.

Owners with questions can call the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.