The “Top Safety Pick” is the highest safety designation awarded by the IIHS.  To qualify for the award, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of “good” in the IIHS’ front, side, rollover, and rear impact tests and be equipped with electronic stability control.  The IIHS testing was made more stringent in 2010 with the addition of the rollover test, but it did not stop the Corolla and xB from capturing their second consecutive “Top Safety Pick.” 

“’Top Safety Pick’ recognizes the vehicles that afford buyers the best overall protection in common crashes,” says IIIHS president Adrian Lund. “With more top performers, there’s no reason to buy a small car with less than stellar crash test ratings.”

The IIHS is an independent non-profit research and communications organization funded by auto insurance companies.

To earn a “good” rollover rating, a roof must be able to support the equivalent of four times the vehicle’s weight compared with the current federal standard of 1.5.  In the IIHS testing, the xB’s roof withstood a force equal to 6.8 times its vehicle weight.  The Corolla’s weight withstood 5.1 times its vehicle weight. 

All Toyota and Scion models meet or exceed the safety requirements of the federal government and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The first step is taking care of vehicles on the road today. But it also means making even safer vehicles in the future—and being more open and transparent about any safety issues that arise.

Since last June, when I took over as president of the company, I have personally placed the highest priority on improving quality, not quantity. All Toyota vehicles bear my name. When cars are damaged, it is as though I am as well. I love cars, and I take the utmost pleasure in offering vehicles that our customers love. I, more than anyone, want Toyota’s cars to be safe, and for our customers to feel safe when they drive our vehicles.

When my grandfather brought Toyota into the auto business in 1937, he created a set of principles that has always guided how we operate. We call it the Toyota Way, and its pillars are “respect for people” and “continuous improvement.” I believe in these core principles. And I am convinced that the only way for Toyota to emerge stronger from this experience is to adhere more closely to them.

Toyota continues to produce many of the best vehicles in the world. Many of the customers who are bringing their vehicles to our dealers for repair continue to tell us how much they love our cars, and I deeply appreciate their loyalty.

Yet it is clear to me that in recent years we didn’t listen as carefully as we should—or respond as quickly as we must—to our customers’ concerns. While we investigated malfunctions in good faith, we focused too narrowly on technical issues without taking full account of how our customers use our vehicles.

Since we began selling cars in the United States more than 50 years ago, Toyota has done many things right. We’ve built a strong organization with nearly 200,000 dedicated team members at our plants, dealers and suppliers. Over the past two decades, we have won more than 700 top quality awards from various independent experts, among the highest of any auto maker. We’ve also led the industry in the development of hybrids, and we are investing billions in the development of next generation environmentally friendly vehicles.

Still, I recognize that we must do better—much better—in responding to safety issues.

This is why I am taking the company back to basics. Across Toyota, we are putting our customers, and the values on which our company was founded, front and center.

We have already taken a number of concrete steps. Our dealers and team members across America and around the world are making extraordinary efforts to deal with recalled vehicles quickly and conveniently. Toyota engineers have rigorously tested our solutions. And to further validate the safety of our vehicles, we’ve asked Exponent, a world-class engineering and scientific consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive, independent analysis of our electronic throttle control system that we will make public when completed.

We are listening more closely to our customers’ concerns, gathering information faster, and responding more effectively when there’s an issue. In the U.S., we are expanding our field monitoring team and increasing our use of onboard vehicle diagnosis technology. Our commitment to move rapidly is underscored by the speed at which we recently launched recalls to address customer concerns about the Prius and Lexus HS250 antilock brake systems, which we are well on the way to completing.

More broadly, I am personally leading a company-wide effort to institute more stringent quality control. We’ve begun a top-to-bottom review of our quality control processes from design to production, sales and service. And we are assembling a group of distinguished independent safety experts to confirm that the enhanced quality controls we’re putting in place conform to best industry practices.

As an added customer confidence measure, we also will be one of the first full-line vehicle manufacturers to make advanced brake-override systems standard on all of our new models world-wide, and we will include this new feature on an expanded range of existing models as well. This advanced “Smart Pedal” braking system will automatically cut engine power when the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal are pushed simultaneously.

In short, I pledge that Toyota will set a new standard for transparency and speed of response on safety issues. We also will strive to lead on advanced safety and environmental technologies. And I will continue to personally visit our sales and manufacturing workplaces to reaffirm the Toyota commitment to excellent quality.

President Obama has urged all auto makers to act quickly and decisively when problems are identified. I look forward to speaking directly to Congress and the American people tomorrow about the decisive actions Toyota is taking to make things right for our customers by building the safest vehicles in the world.

When consumers purchase a Toyota, they are not simply purchasing a car, truck or van. They are placing their trust in our company. The past few weeks, however, have made clear that Toyota has not lived up to the high standards we set for ourselves. More important, we have not lived up to the high standards you have come to expect from us. I am deeply disappointed by that and apologize. As the president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our word and in our products.

For much of Toyota’s history, we have ensured the quality and reliability of our vehicles by placing a device called an andon cord on every production line — and empowering any team member to halt production if there’s an assembly problem. Only when the problem is resolved does the line begin to move again.

Two weeks ago, I pulled the andon cord for our company. I ordered production of eight models in five plants across North America temporarily stopped so that we could focus on fixing our customers’ vehicles that might be affected by sticking accelerator pedals. Today, Toyota team members and dealers across North America are working around the clock to repair all recalled vehicles.

But to regain the trust of American drivers and their families, more is needed. We are taking responsibility for our mistakes, learning from them and acting immediately to address the concerns of consumers and independent government regulators.

First, I have launched a top-to-bottom review of our global operations to ensure that problems of this magnitude do not happen again and that we not only meet but exceed the high safety standards that have defined our long history. As part of this, we will establish an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence in the United States, where a team of our top engineers will focus on strengthening our quality management and quality control across North America.

Second, to ensure that our quality-control operations are in line with best industry practices, we will ask a blue-ribbon safety advisory group composed of respected outside experts in quality management to independently review our operations and make sure that we have eliminated any deficiencies in our processes. The findings of these experts will be made available to the public, as will Toyota’s responses to these findings.

Third, we fully understand that we need to more aggressively investigate complaints we hear directly from consumers and move more quickly to address any safety issues we identify. That is what we are doing by addressing customer concerns about the Prius and Lexus HS250h anti-lock brake systems.

We also are putting in place steps to do a better job within Toyota of sharing important quality and safety information across our global operations. This shortcoming contributed to the current situation. With respect to sticking accelerator pedals, we failed to connect the dots between problems in Europe and problems in the United States because the European situation related primarily to right-hand-drive vehicles.

Toyota will increase its outreach to government agencies charged with protecting the safety of motorists and passengers. I have spoken with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and given him my personal assurance that lines of communications with safety agencies and regulators will be kept open, that we will communicate more frequently and that we will be more vigilant in responding to those officials on all matters.

In recent years, much has been written about what we call “the Toyota Way” — the values and principles at the heart of our company. Chief among these is our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement: going to the source of a problem and fixing it. While problems with our cars have been rare over the years, the issues that Toyota is addressing today are by far the most serious we have ever faced.

But great companies learn from their mistakes, and we know that we have to win back the trust of our customers by adhering to the very values on which that trust was first built. The hundreds of thousands of men and women at Toyota operations worldwide — including the 172,000 team members and dealers in North America — are among the best in the auto industry. Whatever problems have occurred within our company, the strength and commitment to fix them resides within our company as well.

You have my commitment that Toyota will revitalize the simple but powerful principle that has guided us for 50 years: Toyota will build the highest-quality, safest and most reliable automobiles in the world.

The writer is president of Toyota Motor Co.

Edmunds.com reviewed more than 200,000 complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over the last decade and found that Toyota ranked 17th among the top 20 automakers in the overall number of complaints per vehicle sold.

Atlanta Toyota will make an all-out effort to complete the recall campaign as quickly and conveniently for our customers as we can.

We are confident the fix will eliminate the excess friction that, in rare instances, has caused the pedals to stick, and it will enable us to address your concerns about this issue. Toyota also hopes to resume production of these models shortly.

Toyota Motor’s (TM - Analyst Report) gas-electric hybrid Prius has been judged the top-selling car in Japan. The automaker sold as many as 208,876 units of the car in 2009, which is nearly three times that model’s sales volume in 2008.

The third generation 4-door compact hybrid, Toyota Prius 2010, debuted in Japan on May 18, 2009, and has been the top-selling model every month since then. Soon after the launch, Toyota received an order of 180,000 units, exceeding the company’s target of 10,000 units in monthly sales.

Prius also overtook Honda’s (HMC - Analyst Report) new hybrid model Insight, introduced in February 2009. Insight has become the second ranked hybrid, selling 93,283 units in 2009.

The first generation Prius was introduced in 1997. In the third generation, Toyota has upgraded the 2010 model with a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine and mileage of 50 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 49 mpg on the highway. This compares with the 46 mpg of the old generation model.

Hybrid sales in Japan are on the rise since the government announced several tax breaks and incentives to spur industry growth. It constitutes about 10% of new vehicle sales in Japan. Hybrids are now tax-free in Japan, delivering savings of 150,000 yen ($1,500) for a Prius buyer. This can be another factor behind the popularity of the new Prius.

Demand for Prius has also been strong in the U.S. In the U.S. government’s $3 billion cash incentive program, Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) – aka “Cash for Clunkers” – Prius ranked seventh in the top-10 buy list, followed by Honda Accord and Honda Fit.

2. Longevity. Our customers are always telling us that they see 1980’s Toyotas on the freeway and they are looking for a car that will be there for the long haul. 80% of Toyotas sold in the last 20 years are still on the road today.

3. Innovation. New models like Venza, the third generation Prius and the redesigned 4Runner are appealing to many buyers who are looking for something fresh.

The letter, in compliance with the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and reviewed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also confirms that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured.

The Toyota finding is consistent with a recent decision by NHTSA denying a request for an additional investigation of unwanted and unintended acceleration of model year 2007 Lexus ES350 vehicles and model years 2002-2003 Lexus ES300.  After conducting an extensive technical review of the issue, including interviews with consumers who had complained of unwanted acceleration,  NHTSA concluded that “…the only defect trend related to vehicle speed control in the subject vehicles involved the potential for accelerator pedals to become trapped near the floor by out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat installations.”

This is the sixth time in the past six years that NHTSA has undertaken such an exhaustive review of allegations of unintended acceleration on Toyota and Lexus vehicles and the sixth time the agency has found no vehicle based cause for the unwanted acceleration allegations.

“The question of unintended acceleration involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been repeatedly and thoroughly investigated by NHTSA, without any finding of defect other than the risk from an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat,” said Bob Daly, TMS senior vice president.

“Toyota takes public safety seriously. We believe our vehicles are among the safest on the road. Our engineers are working hard to develop an effective remedy that can help prevent floor mat interference with the pedal.  As soon as it is ready, we will notify owners of the relevant models to bring their vehicle to a dealer for the necessary modification at no charge.” Mr. Daly added.

In the recently completed investigation, NHTSA conducted extensive testing on a Lexus ES350.  The agency reported that:

“The vehicle was fully instrumented to monitor and acquire data relating to yaw rate, speed, acceleration, deceleration, brake pedal effort, brake line hydraulic pressure, brake pad temperature, engine vacuum, brake booster vacuum, throttle plate position, and accelerator pedal position. Multiple electrical signals were introduced into the electrical system to test the robustness of the electronics against single point failures due to electrical interference. The system proved to have multiple redundancies and showed no vulnerabilities to electrical signal activities. Magnetic fields were introduced in proximity to the throttle body and accelerator pedal potentiometers and did result in an increase in engine revolutions per minute (RPM) of up to approximately 1,000 RPM, similar to a cold-idle engine RPM level. Mechanical interferences at the throttle body caused the engine to shut down.”

The Toyota letter is an interim notice to owners of a future voluntary safety recall campaign.  The following models are affected:

• 2007 – 2010 Camry

• 2005 – 2010 Avalon

• 2004 – 2009 Prius

• 2005 – 2010 Tacoma

• 2007 – 2010 Tundra

• 2007 – 2010 ES350

• 2006 – 2010 IS250 and IS350

Until Toyota develops a remedy, it is asking owners of affected Toyota and Lexus models to take out any removable driver’s floor mat and NOT replace it with any other floor mat.

The Toyota letter also informs owners of what to do if they experience accelerator pedal interference, general floor mat warnings and proper floor mat application information.  Owners who have further questions are asked to visit http://www.toyota.com/floormats or http://www.lexus.com/floormats where the owner letter in its entirety can also be viewed. The most recent NHTSA report can be viewed on these websites as well.