Toyota dealers resumed selling vehicles Thursday that were pulled from the sales lot to address sudden-acceleration problems as the automaker said lost sales and a series of related recalls would cost $2 billion.
That recall price tag would be one of the most expensive in automotive history, said auto information company Edmunds. com.
Also, the state Assembly reacted to Toyota Motor Corp.'s safety recalls and its decision to shutter the state's last auto manufacturing plant by voting Thursday to stop buying Toyota cars for use by lawmakers when they're in Sacramento. The Assembly Rules Committee voted to resume a 2003 policy of buying only U.S.-made cars for its 130-vehicle fleet.
Toyota stopped sales of eight models -- including its top-selling Camry and Corolla -- on Jan. 26, saying the gas pedals could get stuck and cause runaway acceleration. The automaker also shut down production of the vehicles for a week while it examined how to fix the problem, which it attributed to wear on the pedal system.
"We now have more than enough parts at dealers to take care of the flow of repairs. Dealers may sell a new car if the repair is made," said Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman. "There is no single point in time when the stop sale would be lifted. It will be car by car."
Repairs of new vehicles won't hamper Toyota's ability to get Toyota owners back on the road, he said.
After a shopper at Longo Toyota in El Monte purchased a 2010 Corolla on Wednesday, Longo made the fix and delivered the car, said Tom Rudnai, Longo's general manager.
But unless there's buyer interest, Longo doesn't plan to fix its inventory until customer repairs are completed, he said.
Sales resumed as Toyota detailed its financial results in a conference call early Thursday in Tokyo. The call came before the announcement by U.S. transportation safety officials that they had opened an investigation into whether the 2010 Prius hybrid suffers from a momentary loss of braking capability when the car goes over a rough road surface or pothole. Japanese transportation officials are also looking at the problem.
The Prius problems and the size of Toyota's recall and repair expenses sent Toyota stock plunging again Thursday, dropping $1.71, or 2.3%, to $71.78. It has fallen 22% since the company's large recall to fix a sticky gas pedal that could cause unintended acceleration.
