(RTTNews) -  Further, Toyota said its corrective ABS software programming will resolve the problem. The company will begin notifying owners through its dealers today, and dealers will begin conducting the corrective reprogramming on February 10. The reprogramming is expected to take approximately 40 minutes per vehicle.

According to Toyoda, the company's dealers will inform customers who have purchased the Prius model in question over the next few days. He urged the owners to take their vehicles into the dealers for a repair to correct the problem.

In addition to the Prius, Toyota is currently preparing remedies for the other three models. The company will suspend sales of those three models, or suspend deliveries to customers in the case of completed purchases, until the preparation of solutions.

"I will take charge personally of a coordinated effort by everyone at Toyota, at our dealers, and at our suppliers to regain the confidence of our customers. And I assure you we will devote ourselves—heart and soul—to that effort," Toyoda added.

Toyoda had said in a press conference held on February 5 that the Committee headed by him will conduct various improvement initiatives on the quality of the company's products. Toyota will once again inspect every process - quality in design, quality in production, quality in sales and quality in service - while verifying the causes that led to the recalls. The company intends to enhance its customer information research offices to improve regional information collection.

Further, Toyota plans to establish an "Automotive Center of Quality Excellence" in key regions to develop quality-management professionals. The company will also seek confirmation and evaluation from outside experts of its newly improved quality-control management, based on the above improvements.
For the recently closed third quarter, Toyota reported net income of 153.2 billion yen, compared to a loss of 164.7 billion yen in the year-ago quarter. Sales totaled 5.3 trillion yen in the quarter, up 10.2% from 4.8 trillion yen in the same period last year.

However, Toyota's January sales have dropped 8.7% year-over-year to 98,796 vehicles on a daily selling rate basis.

On the NYSE, TM closed Monday's trading at $72.85, down $1.86 or 2.49%, on a volume of 3.64 million shares.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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