From: Ed White on
Lawmakers: Is Toyota study a class-action prep?
Neil Roland
Automotive News -- May 24, 2010 - 12:01 am ET

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are losing hope of getting prompt and credible
answers to whether electronic defects contributed to Toyota's problem
with sudden accelerations.

Toyota Motor Corp. has squandered much of the confidence that
lawmakers might have had in the company's intention to get to the root
causes.

For months, Toyota executives had assured Congress that they had hired
the well-known Exponent engineering firm to do an independent
investigation.

But House investigators last week said they found what they considered
to be indications that Exponent really was hired to bolster Toyota's
defense against class-action suits.

A copy of Exponent's December contract shows that it was not with the
automaker directly but with the South Carolina law firm hired by
Toyota to defend against consumers' product-liability suits, said Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

The contract says that the scope of the services that Exponent is to
perform is "engineering consulting services related to class actions
filed against Toyota," said Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee.

"Exponent seems to be working for lawyers," Waxman said at a hearing
last week. "Everything they've shown us gives us no sense they've come
to any conclusions. We have no sense they're even looking at this
issue."

The president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Jim Lentz, acknowledged
possible shortcomings in the study, which has cost the company $3.3
million so far.

"I understand the perception that this is not a very transparent
process," he told Waxman's committee.

Lentz said that just days before last week's hearing, Toyota had asked
Exponent to start reporting to Steve St. Angelo, the company's chief
quality officer for North America.

But he said he isn't sure whether this signifies any change in
Exponent's contract with Toyota's law firm or the scope of services
that the consultant provides.

With lawmakers' tempers near a boiling point, they turned to federal
regulators in the hope of finding answers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has enlisted the
aid of NASA to review Toyota's electronic throttle control system.

But NHTSA chief David Strickland revealed that the government may have
trouble meeting its Aug. 31 deadline for completing the study. NHTSA
has not yet prepared a test plan to give to NASA, with which it is
meeting this week, Strickland said.

Asked by lawmakers what would happen if that deadline comes and goes,
Strickland said: "Our primary objective is to make sure we get it
right."

You can reach Neil Roland at nroland(a)crain.com.

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