Lexus Fined by NHTSA for Delayed 2010 RX Recall

Posted by Kevin on December 18th, 2012

Lexus will pay a fine of $17.4 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its delay in issuing a safety recall on the 2010 RX.

The RX recall, which was announced on June 29th of this year, addressed the possibility of unsecured or incompatible floor mats entrapping the accelerator pedal — here’s some more details on the fine from CNN:

Toyota issued a statement about the NHTSA fine, saying it did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

“We agreed to this settlement in order to avoid a time-consuming dispute and to focus fully on our shared commitment with NHTSA to keep drivers safe,” said Ray Tanguay, chief quality officer of Toyota North America, in the company’s statement.

NHTSA said that Toyota has agreed to make internal changes to their quality assurance and perform a review of safety-related issues as part of the latest settlement.

Read more about the NHTSA Fine at CNN

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    BlackDynamiteOnline
  • December 18, 2012
I wonder what the NHTSA does with all that money anyway? BD
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    Maybe they'll give the money to Detroit Big Three ... and called it a Profit .
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    Josshh26
  • December 18, 2012
$17.4 MILLION DOLLARS !?!??!?!?
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That is total BS. It isn't even worth commenting.
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    Jim
  • December 19, 2012
So.. Lexus donates $200,000 dollars for charity......but now they have a $17,400,000 fine to pay!!
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      Josshh27
    • December 19, 2012
    I KNOW its so F***Ked up!
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    Samuel
  • December 19, 2012
WTF, pretty sure BMW, MERC ect don't have anything holding down the matts, what is the purpose of that again ? in Australia all Lexus vehicles have this, but they cost 2.5X as much, e.g. Americans can buy a NEW RX for $39,999 where as in Australia it is starting at $80,000!!
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      Anthony
    • December 19, 2012
    Lexus can use the profit money they have made then ?
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    Ochiko
  • December 19, 2012
The only purpose of this is to hit Toyota/Lexus a bit because they are too good and taking too much from the market. That's all. It has nothing to do with any floor mats or anything. It is unfair but that's is what it is. Other cars are much more imperfect but there's no fines at all as far as I know. The same "unfair fight" happens in Europe.
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      F1orce
    • December 19, 2012
    Thats's exactly the point!
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    Mohammed Taha
  • December 19, 2012
Well in our defense and welfare, Toyota SHOULD HAVE done something about it a lot earlier. They started noticing the issue in 2009 and didn't do anything until mid-2010 after NHTSA exposed the issue. Yes, maybe the fine was a little extreme but Toyota should not have waited until then to start recalling vehicles. "Federal law requires all auto manufacturers to notify NHTSA within five business days of determining that a safety defect exists or that the vehicle is not in compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards and to promptly conduct a recall." Were they waiting for RX owner number 64 to report a floor mat problem so they can determine that the issue needs to be reported and all cars recalled?
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    Arno
  • December 19, 2012
Question... Did NHTSA ever care about the safety of the Ford F150???
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      Mohammed Taha
    • December 19, 2012
    Probably not. Cause it's embarrassing enough when your trucks catch fire.
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    Travis
  • December 19, 2012
Wow.... that is ALOT of money . . . .
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    Levi
  • December 19, 2012
Bullshit!
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    F1orce
  • December 19, 2012
It's all political propaganda. The entire recalls was a joint effort by GM, Ford & the U.S. government to bring Toyota down. But since that didn't happen they will settle for tens of millions of dollars..
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    james_pa
  • December 20, 2012
off topic Question.  Lexus site seems to have changed  the package options. ES 350 doesnt show Ultra luxury package option now in configurator.   RX 350 configurator does not show all the packages. Please suggest if you have any ideas on why/ where they are hiding the options?

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