Toyota Motor Sales Usa Inc

The nation's seemingly supercharged economy has been good to car makers and very good to their luxury-vehicle units. And it was especially good to Lexus, Toyota's high-end marque, in the first quarter of 1999. Coming off a year in which it posted a 60% U.S. sales increase, Torrance-based Lexus ended the first quarter with a 42.5% hike in sales. The gain was driven by the division's two hot-selling sport-utility models.

Toyota's U.S. television advertising for 1992 will include shots of workers inside the company's Georgetown, Ky., assembly plant to show the largest Japanese auto maker is a good U.S. citizen. The Toyota ad introduced Wednesday would be the first national television ad by a Japanese auto maker showing its U.S. workers. The spot is part of a campaign that also includes ads for Toyota's new cars and trucks, with a spotlight on an all-new Camry, the company's most popular car.

The Justice Department has told Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales of America Inc. that it plans to file suit to force the recall of more than 3.6 million vehicles, Toyota officials said. If negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency collapse and Toyota is forced into a recall, it would be one of the largest in history.

Charging that Toyota USA has failed to notify car owners of an alleged "brake pulsation" defect on its 1983-1986 Camry models, a Los Angeles public interest law firm announced Wednesday that it is suing the auto giant in a nationwide class-action lawsuit.