#JimLentz

The production Lexus LF-NX made an appearance during a presentation given at the SAA Automotive Outlook Conference by Toyota’s CEO Jim Lentz. 

Toyota recently announced its North American leadership changes with current president and COO of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), Jim Lentz, becoming the first American CEO of TMS.

With increased pressure from Congress in the wake of Toyota’s recall crisis, Honda has announced it will include a brake override feature in all of its models by the end of 2011.

After Toyota recently debunked an ABC News report about sudden acceleration in its vehicles, the Japanese automaker has now decided to take on CNN, after the news outlet reported that Toyota knew about sudden acceleration issues as far back as 2002.

The story by CNN‘s special investigations unit reports that in a secret document Toyota admitted to electronic issues related to the throttle, even saying that in 2002, “Toyota had a sudden acceleration problem and that according to Toyota’s own technical service bulletin, the problem was electronic.”

Toyota has responded, essentially debunking the document and exposing CNN‘s faulty reporting; the “secret document” being a 2002 Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) published by Toyota and sent to all of its dealers as well as being publicly available online through several government and independent websites as well as through Toyota’s own site: https://techinfo.toyota.com. In fact, the 2002 TSB was discussed by Toyota Motor Sales USA President Jim Lentz during his appearance before the Congressional testimony looking into Toyota’s recall woes.

As for the content of the TSB, Toyota says that the issue was never sudden acceleration but rather, “a drivability issue at speeds of between 38 and 42 miles per hour at light throttle.” the TSB continues, “This condition was strictly related to a function internal to the transmission torque converter under certain throttle conditions.  It manifested as a slight rocking motion, or surge, while holding steady throttle at the specific speed window. This issue was in no way related to any kind of sustained acceleration.”

Toyota contests the misinterpretation of the word “surge” in the document, which is says has been taken out of context. Toyota’s statement says that, “The term surge has been used across the industry for many years to describe a condition where there is a very slight slow-down and speed-up perception (typically two miles per hour or less) while holding steady throttle at low to moderate speeds.” Toyota also says almost every other automaker has issued a similar TSB, with 80 such TSBs being published in the last 10 years.

It would appear as though CNN has now followed after ABC News, with horribly poor investigative journalism that puts ratings ahead of integrity, research and fact checking.

See the official Toyota release and CNNs original story after the jump:

In a prepared statement before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Toyota President Jim Lentz reiterated Toyota’s continued stand that the issue with its many recalled Toyota models is mechanical and not electronic. Lentz commented that Toyota hired Exponent, a top engineering and scientific consulting firm, to examine its electronic throttle system to see if there were any issues. Toyota gave Exponent an unlimited budget and no electronic problem was found.

Lentz also said that it is repairing recalled vehicles at 50,000 a day and has so far fixed one million vehicles.

In response to this statement during opening remarks during the hearing, Edward Markey, D-Mass., commented that the investigation was incomplete and that just six vehicles were examined and not all of them, as he would like and deems crucial.

Interestinly, congressman Phil Gingrey pointed out that while getting the facts is important, appearing impartial is also important, commenting that the government currently owns both General Motors and Chrysler and so has a vested interest in their success and the failure of competing automakers.

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Get more Toyota Recall News at the AutoGuide Toyota Recall News Hub

Read Jim Lentz’s complete testimony after the jump:

Jim Lentz, Toytoa president of U.S. sales, denied his company is covering up problems related to unintended acceleration.

Toyota has offered to test Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s Prius after he claimed the vehicle’s electronics can cause it accelerate unintentionally.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has now said it will look into electrical issues as a possible source for the unintended acceleration of Toyota products. Toyota recently recalled 2.3 million cars and trucks due to pedals that stick or are slow to return and has since announced a fix for the problem that it says is mechanical, not electronic.

In an effort to assure its customers (and its stockholders) Toyota has now officially announced details of its plan to fix potentially sticky accelerator pedals in 2.3 million recalled vehicles. Repairs to affected vehicles will begin this week.

A “fix” has been developed for the recalled vehicles that includes reinforcing the pedal mechanism to eliminate the friction that could have caused a sticking accelerator pedal. In addition, Toyota has worked with the pedal supplier to create a new pedal that will be used on newly-manufactured Toyota models.

Toyota will, however, continue as planned with the temporary closing of many of its North American plans for this week.

The accelerator pedal recall affects 2.3 million vehicles in North America, including eight models: 2009-2010 RAV4, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2007-2010 Camry, 2010 Highlander, 2007-2010 Tundra and 2008-2010 Sequoia.

No Camry, RAV4, Corolla or Highlander vehicles with VIN numbers that begin with J are affected, nor are any Lexus or Scion models.

In the event of a sticky gas pedal, Toyota advises to apply the brakes until the vehicle comes to a stop and to then turn the vehicle off. Experts also suggest that applying the brakes and then putting the vehicle into Neutral may help to slow the car.

Official release after the jump:

With 500,000 hybrids sold last year, Toyota aims to double that number by 2011. Japan’s largest automaker had announced plans to reach the one million goal early in this decade, but a report in Japan’s Nikkei suggests Toyota is now looking at very-early in this decade.

The Prius could surpass the Camry as Toyota’s best selling model in the U.S. in the next ten years says the head of Toyota’s sales department. Toyota Motor Sales boss Jim Lentz made the comments, stating that he sees the Prius gaining ground, rather than the Camry (the top selling passenger car in the U.S. for 11 of the past 12 years) shrinking.

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda has, for the first time, officially made clear that the automaker is in fact working on a joint project with Subaru to build an affordable sports car. Toyoda made the statements at the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan

Yesterday President Obama announced a new proposal being put forward to increase fuel-economy standards across the board. If enacted, the legislation would see the fleet average for passenger vehicles rise to 35.5 mpg by 2016.