because owners of recalled toyota models are venting their frustrations through cnn i-reports, look at this. without a vehicle, especially here in southern california, you re pretty much paralyzed. you re immobile. there s nothing you really can do, so it s tough. it s tough to decide whether get work done, get school done, or take care of this problem that can possibly do you damage by getting you into a car accident. we just haven t found the time of day into which we can just go into the dealer. i find myself asking, do they really know all along? did they find out later and actually do the research that was indeed a problem? this incident, as bad as it is, i hope is capitalized on by american companies to promote their products, because i think they re probably just as good. great comments from our i-reporters. we really appreciate our
alerting their customers and providing the fix for free. beyond that, well, don, you re on your own. okay. so what if let s say someone has an accident in one of these vehicles. could they be sued? would the damage be covered by the auto insurance? reporter: well, this is where it gets a little more complicated. i talked to the insurance information institute yesterday. they said that auto insurers will cover consumers in the event of an accident in one of these recalled vehicles. typically then the insurer then goes and seeks reimbursement from toyota. however, our sources also say that consumers could be sued and successfully by people injured in accidents in which the toyota glitch played a role, particularly if the consumer didn t fix the problem. so how can you be held responsible for an accident? well, one, toyota if toyota can reasonably establish that it sent a recall notice to the customer and the customer did not get the car fixed and that the accident could be linked
want to call it that, will affect the resale and leasing value of these cars, consumers will look elsewhere, and it s very expensive to draw the consumers back. because it s always cheaper to keep the existing customer. hold on, you were talking about the value of the car, there s something else i wanted to talk about. but let s get to peter right now. the problem keeps growing, the latest developments there. the transportation secretary says he feels toyota didn t act quickly enough and there are those who say they kept quiet about this problem, especially the brake problem. how does this latest brake problem, the latest revelation look like to consumers? i don t think it looks very good. and i think it s a problem that s going to cause people a lot of concern. i mean, toyota tried to put people s minds at ease saying we ve had a fix for the cars at the factory since january, but the flip side is, wait a minute, doesn t that mean you were investigating this for a while and you kne
a moment of crisis. that s how toyota s top man describes his company s current situation. in his first news conference since massive recalls began to grow two weeks ago, auto the automaker s president says i m sorry, but he insists there s no cover-up and toyota will make it right. translator: the current problem is a huge problem and it is a critical situation. we as a company must unite and work to regain the trust from our customers. and i believe that is also my responsibility. he says his company is cooperating with u.s. investigators looking into possible brake problems on the new prius hybrids. that brake system is also in the new lexus hybrids as well. neither has been recalled. much, much more on the company. the recalls and the fixes. in about 30 minutes here on cnn we ll be talking about an automotive analyst and with our very own peter valdez depainia with cnnmoney.com.
company of record. this is the company that japan aligns its identity to. products that are made in japan, what they want, to pop into your head, is a quality product. whether it be toyota, honda, nissan, sony, panasonic, any of these companies, you want to think of quality. so, if the biggest of these companies has something like this happen to it, there is concern that it s going to have a spillover effect to the other companies, and generally for the made-in-japan brand. so, there is that concern. there is something else that s happening in the blogosphere that we find interesting, some people are starting to wonder is some of the criticism we re hearing from around the united states, might be from glee on the part of american companies and specifically the american automakers that finally the world s largest automaker, a japanese automaker, might now be slipping and it might be an american company that might regain that number one spot, don? ah, very interesting, thank