Toyota suspends sales of key models for sticking accelerators; see timeline of Toyota's recall saga

The Toyota RAV4 SUV is among the eight Toyotas whose sales
were suspended today for a faulty accelerator mechanism. (photo
by Toyota)

Toyota today suspended sales of eight of its vehicles -- including many of its top sellers -- after finding that components in the accelerator mechanism could wear and stick, a devastating move for the automaker that brings allegations of unintended acceleration to the forefront of its customer relations.

Toyota dealers are temporarily prohibited from selling the models involved in a recall of 2.3 million vehicles for a known problem, meaning that someone intending to buy one of those cars will need to either wait or turn to a competitor -- and the latter would sound ever more appealing to someone who's told the car they want suffers from a safety defect.

The sale suspension cuts out the heart of the Toyota line, and includes big names like Corolla and RAV4. See the sales chart at right, organized by vehicle sales, for a sense of the hole left in the automaker's line. (No Lexus or Scion models have been suspended.)

But perhaps the most damaging for Toyota will be its reaction time, which has consistently lagged news reports throughout the months-long saga of highly publicized unintended acceleration complaints:

Aug. 28, 2009: A Lexus ES350 goes out of control and crashes, killing its four occupants. The driver said he couldn't stop the car.
Sept. 15, 2009: Toyota orders its dealers to check for problems with their floormats, saying the Lexus crash was caused by a dealer installing the wrong mat and that mat holding down the car's gas pedal.
Sept. 29, 2009: Toyota issues its biggest recall in history, of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus-brand vehicles, for the same issue. The automaker first asked owners to remove their floormats,
Nov.  25, 2009: Toyota asks owners of those 3.8 million cars to bring in their vehicles to have their gas pedals shortened to prevent pedal entrapment, then to plan to bring them in again for a new pedal.
Jan. 21, 2010: Toyota issues a separate recall for 2.3 million vehicles -- some the same as for the floormat recall, others not -- for accelerator mechanisms that could wear and stick.
Jan. 22, 2010: Cars.com publishes the fact that Toyota is continuing to sell new cars that have not been fixed under that Jan. 21 recall.
Jan. 26, 2010: Toyota halts sales of those cars after several days of media criticism.

Fading into the background of this issue -- with hundreds of alleged accidents causing numerous injuries and deaths -- is that barring some unrelated flaw with the vehicles involved, an incident of unintended acceleration can be stopped by just putting the car in neutral and then braking to a stop without the engine fighting. Consumer Reports magazine tested this on its race track and the owner of a Toyota Avalon was forced to verify it on public streets -- one little nudge of the gear selector will let you stop safely and easily.

But Toyota's handling of the issue, consistently delaying its responses to each further piece of bad news, is starting to broadcast an unpleasant image, and today anyone who wants to buy a Toyota Corolla will have their dealer explain to them why they can't.

More information: Toyota's press release