An internal e-mail from a Toyota executive suggests Toyota knew of the dangerous defects of its accelerators before the automaker issued a recall. The e-mail was written five days before the "sticky pedal" recall was announced by Toyota and the contents suggest some in the company were opposed of withholding information from the public.
In an e-mail dated January 16, 2010, a high level executive at Toyota wrote that the company must come clean, the time to hide the truth is over, and the company is not protecting its customers by keeping a defect from going public. The e-mail further stressed that there was a mechanical defect with the accelerator pedal on certain models and the executive hoped the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could work with the company to keep it from going out of business.
The e-mail was basically dismissed by the recipient, the communication leader for all Toyota sales in the United States. He responded that the company would not disclose the information until it discovered the cause of the defect and he did not want to raise further uneasiness in customers. The e-mail was among the 70,000 pages of papers turned over to the federal government who is currently investigating Toyota and its recent massive recalls.
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