March 13, 2014 at 3:00 pm Toyota asks U.S. to waive recall for 206,000 vehicles David Shepardson Detroit News Washington Bureau 6 Comments Washington — Toyota Motor Corp. want federal safety officials to allow the automaker to avoid recalling 206,000 newer vehicles because they don’t meet a federal flammability standard for a seat component. In a petition filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in January and made public this week, Toyota said the company should not be forced to recall 206,271 2012–14 Camry, Avalon, Corolla, Sienna, Tundra, and Tacoma because the Japanese automaker “believes that its testing and design review of the seat heater assemblies indicates that the chance of fire or flame induced by a malfunctioning seat heater is essentially zero.” In January, Toyota said it would temporarily stop selling six models — or about 13 percent of vehicles in U.S. showrooms — because seat fabric used in some vehicles with seat warmers doesn’t meet a federal standard. Toyota spokesman John Hanson said in January that the Japanese automaker had halted the sale of 36,000 vehicles — the 2013-2014 Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, Camry, Camry Hybrid, Sienna, Tacoma and the 2014 Corolla and Tundra. But Toyota didn’t disclose in January how many vehicles it might be forced to recall. Toyota filed a petition asking the government to label the issue “inconsequential,” which would allow the vehicles to be sold without repair — and would allow the automaker to avoid a recall. Toyota said the issue was discovered during testing by the South Korean government. Toyota is in the process of coming up with a fabric that would allow the dealers to repair and then sell the vehicles. No fires or complaints related to the issue have been reported, Hansen said in January. Toyota told NHTSA it believes the rule is aimed at reducing “the deaths and injuries to motor vehicle occupants caused by vehicle fires, especially those originating in the interior of the vehicle from sources such as matches or cigarettes.’’ The noncompliant seat heater assemblies would normally not be exposed to open flame, matches or cigarettes “because it is installed within and surrounded by complying materials that meet the regulations.” Toyota also said the seat heater assembly is a very small portion of the overall weight of the soft material portions comprising the entire seat assembly — less than 1 percent. From The Detroit News: detroitnews/article/20140313/AUTO0104/303130098#ixzz2wL6qnKP7
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:16:43 +0000
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