Auto Recalls Grow
National News
by
Jay Gray
last edited on
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
There was some good news for the sputtering U.S. auto industry Tuesday. New numbers show an upward trend in sales with Ford leading the pack for the first time in more than a decade.
But not all of the news is good, Congress continued Tuesday to question Toyota and government officials about problems with sticking accelerators. All of this comes as even more recalls were announced. On a day when the numbers were good the news again was not.
"We will not rest until these cars are safe," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Lawmakers continue to press Toyota over problems with sticking accelerators again questioning executives from the automaker on Tuesday. And at one point during a heated discussion telling transportation secretary Ray LaHood he is now charged with, quote, "cleaning it up."
"The Toyota recall situation is very serious and we are treating it very seriously," said LaHood.
Even as it's apparently getting worse. Toyota is recalling another 1.6 million vehicles to repair potentially leaky oil hoses. Executives say the latest recall is a maintenance issue and not a safety problem.
General Motors is also recalling more than a million compact cars because of a power steering problem. The U.S. models affected are the 2005-2010 Cobalt and the 2007-2010 Pontiac G5.
Even though the weather has not cooperated across much of the country auto sales actually showed a strong increase in February. On Tuesday, Ford announced a 43-percent jump over the same month last year. Hyundai was up 23 percent, GM 11.5 percent, and Chrysler 0.5 percent.
"These numbers are very good compared to last year but last year was a raving disaster," said George Magliano, Director of Automotive Research at Global Insight.
A disaster that continues for Toyota. On the heels of all of the problems, and bad publicity, sales dropped 8.7 percent. Trying to stop that slide dealers have announced a new buyer incentive program.
"They'll beef up their sales this year with all the money they're spending and try to protect their turf, but longer term they'll have issues," Magliano said.
Looking to hold-on to their increased market share, U.S. automakers are expected to announce a new round of rebates and zero-percent financing as well.