Poll shows 60% of Americans believe Toyota cars are safe as Senate probes safety
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
The Senate got its chance to probe Toyota Motor Corp.’s safety problems Tuesday, the third congressional hearing that came as the latest poll shows that three of every five Americans believe the Japanese company’s vehicles are safe.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation opened its hearing Tuesday morning, with senators raising many of the same questions that two separate House panels dealt with last week.
Lawmakers want to know whether Toyota, which has issued 10 million recall notices worldwide, has fixed the sudden acceleration problems that has plagued its vehicles. They also want to know whether U.S. regulators did all they could in their dealings with Toyota.
Three Toyota executives and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are among those scheduled to testify.
In his opening statement, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) quoted statistics on the recalls and noted that safety problems crossed corporate lines. “I decided to read these numbers,” he said, to show that safety concerns are “not a Toyota problem. It is an industry problem.”
According to a USA Today/Gallup survey of 2,021 adults, 60% of Americans said they believe Toyota’s vehicles are safe and 61% said they have not lost confidence in the automaker.
Current Toyota owners are even more positive about the company’s cars -- 74% said they have not lost confidence in Toyota vehicles and 82% said they think the company’s cars are safe to ride in, the poll found. Only 14% said they thought the cars were unsafe.
While 17% of prospective buyers said they would no longer consider a Toyota vehicle, 53% said they would, the poll found.
The poll, conducted Feb. 27-28, has a three-percentage-point margin of error.
-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal
RELATED STORY:
Senate panel faults NHTSA response to Toyota safety issues
