Toyota's Troubles Could Be Accelerating

DETROIT — General Motors is recalling nearly 60,000 Saturn Aura midsize cars because the automatic transmission shift levers can show the wrong gear, and says it has known about the problem for more than two years. The problem, caused by failure of the transmission shift cable, has led to 28 crashes and four injuries but no deaths during the past seven years, GM said in a statement issued Tuesday. The Auras can roll away unexpectedly because the driver may think the car is in “Park” when it’s in another gear.

Despite the unfavorable press following an ongoing series of recalls, experts and investors agree that General Motors is far from the end of the road.

Toyota said it had agreed to pay about $1.1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit launched by US vehicle owners affected by a series of mass recalls from the Japanese automaker. Toyota did not accept any blame but agreed to compensate owners who argued that the value of about 16.3 million vehicles took a hit from dozens of deadly accidents allegedly caused by Toyota vehicles speeding out of control in 2009.

The problems seem to be piling up for the world’s largest automaker. Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) announced today that it has issued a global recall of around 6.4 million vehicles for a range of defects including faulty steering columns and issues with air-bag deployment.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government announced a US$1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday and filed a criminal charge alleging the company defrauded consumers by issuing misleading statements about safety issues in Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Attorney General Eric Holder said it is the largest financial penalty of its kind ever imposed on an auto company. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, an independent monitor will review policies, practices and procedures at the company.

The Center for Auto Safety (TCAS), a watchdog group, has accused Honda Motor Co Ltd (HMC) of not reporting airbags defects for several years. The group claimed that the automaker has particularly failed to disclose faults in the airbags manufactured by Takata, its biggest airbags supplier.

2015 saw the automobile industry recalling 51.26 million vehicles in the US, slightly above the 50.99 million recalled last year. After adjusting for double counting pertaining to recalls over the Takata air-bag issue, the total figure for 2014 was just under 51 million, further revised downward from 64 million, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). A total of 868 separate recall campaigns were witnessed in 2015 — making it a busy year for auto recalls.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday its global sales topped 2.5 million vehicles in the recent quarter, up 0.5 percent as it posted its best showing since 2005 for a second quarter. In the first half of the year, GM's sales were 4.92 million vehicles, up 1.4 percent. That is behind Volkswagen AG's first-half 2014 global sales figure of 4.97 million vehicles, up 6 percent.