Report: Suit alleges Toyota pushed owners to stay quiet about unintended acceleration
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/government-legal/" rel="tag">Government/Legal</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/safety/" rel="tag">Safety</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/toyota/" rel="tag">Toyota</a></p><a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20101028/BUSINESS01/101028065/1014/rss13"><img vspace="4" hspace="0" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/10/toyota-emblem-with-sign-630.jpg" alt="Toyota car emblem with dealer sign" /></a><br />
<br />
Something tells us we're going to be wading through news of various <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/tag/toyota%20lawsuit">lawsuit s</a> against <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/make/toyota">Toyota</a> for a good while. According to various news sources, the Japanese automaker is now facing accusations that it clandestinely sought to buy back vehicles with unintended acceleration issues in order to hide the problem from the public. Part of the alleged buy-back deal involved having owners sign a confidentiality statement that forbade them from talking to anyone - including regulators. In addition, those who took part in the program could not sue Toyota later down the line.<br />
<br />
The lawsuit also points to internal Toyota documents that may indicate that company technicians and engineers were actually able to replicate the problem. At the heart of the suit, plaintiffs are alleging that Toyota acted negligently by failing to act on complaints of unintended acceleration for years. <br />
<br />
The lawsuit bundles together more than a dozen plaintiffs into one larger, easier to handle suit. <br />
<br />
Toyota, meanwhile, says that those who sold back their vehicles were simply asked to sign a waiver of liability - consumers weren't required to sign and the waiver didn't say anything about confidentiality. <em>Thanks for the tip, Rudy!</em><br />
<br />
[Sources: <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20101028/BUSINESS01/101028065/1014/rss13">The Detroit Free Press</a>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-28/toyota-technicians-knew-of-sudden-acceleration-documents-say.html">Bloomberg</a>, Reuters via <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101029/bs_nm/us_toyota_litigation">Yah oo News</a> | Image: Ramin Talaie/Getty]<p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/29/report-suit-alleges-toyota-pushed-owners-to-stay-quiet-about-un/">Report: Suit alleges Toyota pushed owners to stay quiet about unintended acceleration</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/29/report-suit-alleges-toyota-pushed-owners-to-stay-quiet-about-un/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19694805/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/29/report-suit-alleges-toyota-pushed-owners-to-stay-quiet-about-un/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

أكثر...