Toyota tells dealers it’ll send them plans for fixing Prius brakes
Toyota sent a message to its beleaguered dealers Friday night saying they would be getting details of a plan this week to deal with brake-system problems on the 2010 Prius.
But there was no word on what that plan might be, or whether there would be a recall.
“We have communicated to our dealers that sometime next week we will provide more clarity on what our plans are for the Prius,” said Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons.
“We have several options available, and recall is one of them,” he said. “We’re at a stage where we’re deciding the best method for deployment of what the fix will be.”
Reports out of Japan on Friday indicated that a recall of 270,000 Priuses was imminent.
In this country, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had opened a formal investigation into the 2010 model Prius after getting 124 complaints from drivers of brief losses in braking power, which have been blamed in four crashes, two of which resulted in injuries.
A recall of the 2010 Priuses would add to the considerable problems facing Toyota, which last month stopped selling eight models -- including its top-selling Camrys and Corollas -- because of a sudden-acceleration problem that the company has attributed to sticking gas pedals.
Toyota said it had developed a remedy, and on Thursday resumed sales of the eight models.
