Toyota Exec: 'Come Clean,' Stop Hiding Gas Pedal Problem

Apr. 9, 2010 — -- Five days before Toyota recalled more than 2 million vehicles to fix "sticky" gas pedals, one of the automaker's top U.S. executives sent an e-mail to another Toyota official saying the company should "come clean" about problems with its gas pedals.

The Jan. 16 e-mail from VP Irv Miller was a response to an e-mail from another exec, Katsuhiko Koganei, in which Koganei urged a third Toyota official, public relations VP Mike Michels, not to "mention . . . mechanical failures of acc[elerator] pedals." The e-mails, which were among 70,000 company documents that the federal government requested from Toyota, both appear to have been part of a longer exchange between a group of executives about how to respond to an upcoming ABC News report on a sudden acceleration incident involving a Toyota.

At the time, ABC News was preparing a story about driver Kevin Haggerty, who said his Avalon had suddenly accelerated on a New Jersey highway. ABC News aired its report on Haggerty on Jan. 21 – the same day ABC announced its recall of 2.3 million cars to fix sticky gas pedals.

READ THE INTERNAL TOYOTA E-MAILS HERE

The subject line on Koganei's Jan. 16 e-mail to Michels says, "Re: Draft statement to respond to ABC News story."

"Dear Mike-san," wrote Koganei, "Thank you for your hard work while under this sunny weather . . .

"Now I talked with you on the phone, we should not mention about the mechanical failures of acc. pedal, because we have not clarified the real cause of the sticking acc pedal formally, and the remedy for the matter has not been confirmed. I talked over this matter with Ryo-san, KC Kirimoto-san, and Doi-san, and all of them are concerned about the comment with mechanical failures might raise another uneasiness of customers. (See the attached file. Red highlighted parts should be removed, I think.)"

ABC News did not obtain a copy of the "attached file" referred to in the e-mail thread, but it seems to have been sent by Michels to Koganei and other executives and titled "Post ABC release 1-15 6pm.doc."