Toyota Says 65% of Recall Repairs Are Completed

DETROIT — Toyota said that the rate of complaints about sudden acceleration had fallen 80 percent since April and that dealers had repaired 3.7 million of the six million vehicles in the United States covered by its two biggest recalls, reported The New York Times.

The completed repairs to date represent 65 percent of those needed under the recalls, which were begun in November and January. The total number of repairs made is about five million, including 1.3 million vehicles that are covered by both recalls.

Of 2.3 million vehicles recalled for potentially sticking accelerator pedals, more than 80 percent have been repaired, while 58 percent of 5.4 million vehicles recalled to fix a flaw that could cause the pedal to become stuck beneath the floor mat have been fixed, the company said. For an average recall, 72 percent of repairs are made within 18 months, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Toyota has made significant progress in recent months to help ensure that our customers can have complete confidence in the quality, safety and reliability of their vehicles, and our latest initiatives build on those accomplishments,” Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’s chief quality officer for North America, said in a conference call with reporters.

St. Angelo said he now had “a direct line to Akio Toyoda on safety issues,” referring to the company’s president, as a result of executives’ efforts to identify and respond to quality problems more quickly.

Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide since November to resolve the problems. After the recalls were announced, regulators were flooded with complaints from drivers who said their Toyota or Lexus accelerated suddenly, or from family members of crash victims claiming a defect was responsible.

Toyota said it was still receiving about 150 reports of sudden acceleration each week, mostly through a customer-service hotline. That compared with about 800 each week six months ago.