Toyota Class Action Suits Filed for Vehicle Owners and Stockholders

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Vehicle owners and stockholders are filing class action lawsuits in the wake of a series of massive Toyota recalls, suing the Japanese automaker for the lost value of both stocks and the vehicles themselves. The company also faces a number of Toyota injury lawsuits filed by individuals who have suffered a severe personal injury or death in an accident caused by problems with the accelerator or brakes.

New Toyota class action lawsuits were filed recently on behalf of all Toyota hybrid owners in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, and on behalf of California owners of recalled Prius and Lexus hybrids in Los Angeles County California Superior Court on Friday. Both Toyota class action suits were filed due to the latest Toyota recall of 2010 Prius and Lexus HS250h models over brake problems. In addition, a lawsuit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of all Toyota stockholders.

The Toyota stockholder lawsuit alleges that the company’s stocks dropped 20% because of the recalls, and charges Toyota executives with deceiving investors about the health of the brand when they knew that there were acceleration and brake problems. It names the company’s top executives, as well as the company itself, as defendants in the suit.

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The two lawsuits filed on behalf of vehicle owners allege that the company long knew about problems with the Toyota hybrids’ brake systems but did not warn consumers. It charges Toyota with breach of warranty, product liability, negligence, and violating California fair business practice laws.

Earlier this week Toyota recalled more than 437,000 of the 2010 gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles because the brakes ceased to work for a moment due to a software glitch. About 150,000 of the recalled vehicles were in the hands of U.S. owners.

The Toyota hybrid recall followed several waves of recalls over sudden acceleration problems in a number of leading Toyota vehicle lines.

In September 2009, a Lexus and Toyota recall was issued for 3.8 million vehicles that contained certain all-weather floor mats, which Toyota indicated could get stuck under the gas pedals, causing unintended acceleration. In January, Toyota issued another recall for 2.3 million Toyota vehicles, including 600,000 that were not subject to the prior floor mat recall due to an actual mechanical problem that was causing some gas pedals to stick. Shortly after, the company stopped production and sales on eight of its most popular vehicles, including the Corolla, Camry, and Tundra. The company has also announced it is recalling nearly 2 million vehicles in Europe and almost 80,000 in China.

The Toyota accelerator pedal recalls have resulted in more than 60 lawsuits, including over a dozen wrongful death and personal injury claims.


123 Comments


  1. cheryl

    My pontiac vibe has been at the dealers for three weeks because it was giving its self gas well I was driving it going up past 70 km without touching the gas peddle.it had already gone in for the two recalls.They have been trying part after part.Saying it might be compututer now.I told them I’m to affraid to drive the car without something in writting saying the problem is solved.They said they can’t do that.


  2. Thom

    I saw on the news 9-15-2010 that Toyota has requested a California Federal court judge to dismiss the lawsuits regarding the acceleration claims. They base their claim on lack of evidence by the plaintiffs. Toyota has a right to vigorously defend their company however, their attitude toward consumers is blatant and non-caring. This is all about their profits.


  3. Thom

    According to media reports the Federal government fined Toyota millions of dollars; where is the money? Since federal employees and their employer failed to notify and protect consumers agianst the delliberate and blatant act of Toyota, should we pursue class action against those agencies?
    Toyota owners have lost their lives, been injured and loss thousands of dollars and we should be able to retrieve our losses from those responsible.


  4. John

    I have concerns about the 2007 Toyota Camry LE that I own.
    Starting a 35MPH your ears will start to hurt if the rear windows are rolled down. Toyota says crack a front window and it will go away. It does not. I’m afraid to drive 70 and roll them down in fear it will pop an ear drum.

    I feel Toyota should refund part of the purchase price because you cannot drive the car with the windows rolled down. I say a refund of $4800.00 but that would be up to you or someone else for every Toyota Camry owner and a letter from Toyota sent to every 2007 Toyota Camry owner stating that driving the car with the windows down may cause damage to your ears.

    I have spoken with Toyota about this, they say until they are forced to do something about it, they will do nothing. I guess they do not care if people go deaf.

    I think you should take the 2007 Toyota Camry for a drive with the rear windows rolled down and then start a class action suit against them for all Camry owners.


  5. Thom

    I just read an article on the internet posted on the MSNBC site. This article dicusses the potential results of a Toyota settlement or the case in which plaintiffs win a class action against Toyota for depreciation of their vehicles. I am disappointed that legal experts predict that a settlement could result in plaintiffs receiving 300-1000 dollars for thier depreciation loss. What about the deceptive acts? Toyota executives should be prosecuted and ordered to take back vehicles that were sold after they became aware of their defects but failed to notify consumers who purchased their product.


  6. lew

    i purchased my 2006 toyota avalon in january of 2010. it has been the subject of many recalls and now another one. i can’t trade it as i will suffer from the loss of value. i purchased it with only 31000 miles and figured,it was a TOYOTA i don’t know if toyota will begiving discounts on future purchases or should i just bite the bullet and get rid of this JINX.


  7. Onel

    I own a 2005 toyota corolla sport with 74,000 miles on it. i bought it in to the dealership because it was eating up coolant. they told me i had a crack in the engine block and there was nothing they could do, so i would have to have it replaced for $4,000. They told me to call toyota directly because this was not a common thing. after numerous phone calls and stories that didnt match up they are not going to help me and they are saying that this is not part of the recall they are having on the ecm. they made this assumption that the bad ecm did not cause this without even looking at the car. they then proceded to tell me if i had gotten the car serviced everytime through toyota so the car had a track record of it being taken care of they could of helped me. now what person always goes to the dealership for every oil change or service.


  8. Rollin

    I bought a 2009 Pontiac Vibe GT last year and it has accelerated on my wife while she was driving the car,but she was able to control it. A few days ago she and i were in the car going down a mountain and the car accelerated and I couldn’t stop it with the brakes. I had to put it in neutral and turn the key off before i could get it to stop, if another car had been in front of me i would have hit them and we could all have been killed or hurt really bad. I had to get the dealer to toll the vehicle. They are telling me they can’t find anything wrong with the car, but we know better than that.We have contacted GM and Pontiac and they act like they don’t want to do anything about it. I am afraid to drive the car again, it could kill someone if they don’t do something about it. I wish they would buy the car back and let us try and find something else to drive.


  9. Jill

    I owned a 2004 Camry. I took my daughter to school one morning and was on the way home and woke up in the hospital. What happened is still undetermined. I was air lifted to a hospital and with my sever head injury, could not remember the accident.They had to recessitate me and I was in ICU.I still have scares and a death grip on the steering wheel, wherever I go and dont go anywhere alone. There were no signs of brake marks. There was a slight cuve and a tree! I have always assumed that someone had to have ran me off, because it was at 730 in the morning and I am a good driver and have a good record. Not knowing has bothered me.


  10. Gerry

    We just had a major oil line failure on a 2006 Toyota Avalon V6 engine. The oil line is rubber in some places and it does not stand the test of time. The line breaks and the oil sprays all over your engine and undercarriage. We had the car towed to a repair shop and they immediately knew what was wrong with it because they fix them all the time. Since the oil line is hard to reach the repairs run about $350 plus towing to replace a $13 part! While we were having the car repaired another Totyota rolled into the adjacent bay with the same problem. This begs for a class action lawsuit.


  11. tom

    i bought a 2000 tacoma prerunner used…we have 93000 on it and all was trouble free until the engine seized up right before christmas…no warning and yes we do change are oil regularly…contacted two attorneys and they wont take case …they said they arent handling 2000 year models….i think it was a oil sludge problem or crankshaft failure and cam shaft problem but who knows dont have the money to get it changed…if anyone knows of a class action suit let me know


  12. christopher

    I own a 2009 tacoma 4×4.I’ve had 5 accurances of unexpected accelleration.I’ve taken it to the dealer 4 times complaining about the problem.Each time they tested it they said theres nothing wrong with it.I went through all the recalls but the problem still excists.I even went through the arbitration procedure and they said theres nothing wrong with my truck and no further action will be tacken by toyota.I asked them to replace the ecm and they refuse to.Toyota doesnt care if I get hurt.I asked them to buy it back from me and they insulted me with a really low offer.I’m getting screwed and it seems like theres nothing I can do about it.I’ll never buy another toyota vehicle after this.Sign me up for the class action lawsuit.


  13. Marie

    I just had a major engine blow up, on a 2007 Toyota Avalon V6 engine. when I brought my car and asked about the engine tapping they said it was normal. I brought my car with 5,000 miles on it. toyota rebuilt my car and it is running, but the problem is that I paid 30,000 or more for this car and now at 38 thousand miles I have a rebulit engine. I should be entitled to have Toyota give me a new car. Not to mention the value. Toyota had the car towed to their repair shop and they immediately knew what was wrong with it because they fix them all the time. While we were having the car repaired another Totyota rolled into the adjacent bay with the same problem. This begs for a class action lawsuit. I would love my money back. but I still owe 17,000 on a lemon.
    What happen to the lemon law? I want to give this one back and get a complete refund. They make like its better then before, I said “you sold me a lemon/ used car at a new car price. anything for a dollar.:(


  14. Larry

    I have a 2001 Toy Rav 4 which had a defective ECM module which caused a 2nd gear transmission failure and automatic shift delay of several seconds which nearly caused an accident. Toy advised dealers in 2006, however never told customers. Repair can cost several thousand dollars. Recall offered however Toyota makes it unnecessarily difficult to obtain refund.


  15. Thom

    I haven’t posted in a while but I have bad news and good news. I took my 2010 Toyota Camry to the service department two weeks ago and learned that parts had to be ordered for an additional Toyota defect. The good news is, I decided to take a loss and I traded the Toyota for a GM product. I promise all of you that I will NEVER buy a toyota product again. I will ride a mule before I buy toyota.


  16. susan

    i used to love toyota.started out with a 77 cilica.no problems.then i bought a 97 cilica.it caught on fire sitting in my driveway,there was a short in the wiring that connected the passenger airbag in the dash.it melted the passenger dash into the floorboard,cracked the windshield,deployed the airbag,smoked the entire enterior,and threw the whole electrical system off.a total loss.just paid it off and canceled the full coverage too.then i bought a 04 rav 4.124,000 miles and i kept smelling gas at the rear of the car.no oil leaking,no gas leak.using oil for some reason.going down 95,it blew a piston completely through the bottom of the motor.,and caught on fire.both times i contacted toyota,to be told there was nothing they could do for me.once again,i had just paid the car off,and lowered the insurance.i am finished with toyota.they do not back their products anymore,and a six year old car should not be catching on fire.they are getting sorryer sorryer about taking care of their problems and sending out recalls.cars cost too much to become total losses after only six years.


  17. J. McCormack

    2005 Avalon Limited:
    Problem: Front timing cover leak
    First told it was a rack and pinion leak. We ponted out they told us it leaked a year ago and we had it repaired. Then they said: Oh sorry, It is a timing cover leak. Seems like they do not know what if anything is leaking. Toyota has a recall on the hose leaking,but not this problem, although they have a bulletin on it. However the leaking front of the timing cover is not on recall. My first question, what is really leaking if anything. Secondly, with all the same problem listed by Avalon owners, why is there not a class action law suit. Obviously there is a big design flaw when Toyota has to lift out the engine and transmission to do a $50.00 repair, raising the repair cost to well over $2000.00 . Lets get started on it.


  18. James

    I intermittantly lose brakes on my 2010 Toyota Prius. I have taken to Toyota numerous times only to be told they get no error code. So, they refuse to do anything. I have had (2) accidents already and they still are not offering to replace car. The second accident gave me a wittness to problem. When in body shop that Toyota refered me to, repairman lost brakes and couldn’t get them back. This was on a Friday that he tried everything to get brakes back. At end of day he left in repair bay and was going to call Toyota to come look at it Monday. He came in Monday morning to move car out of way. To his suprise the car had brakes again. This is my only car and Toyota insists there is nothing wrong with it. I’ve had a couple other problems with car that point to an electronic system failure. After I paid for this car, the finance manager insisted that I needed the extended waranty because they have problems with electronic systems.


  19. Amanda

    My 97 toyota avalon burnt to the ground.. While I was driving down the road it began to smok under the hood I looked to make sure it wasnt running hot.. I made it off the bypass to the nearest store. Where a man saw that my car was flaming up.. I got out and called the fire dept and watched my car along with everything Imy son and I owned.. Im not sure what caused the fire.. Thats why I am posting u.. I dont know if this has happened to anyone or what I could or should do about this…


  20. Roosevelt

    My 2003 Toyota Corolla was accelerating on its on. Me and my wife at Burger King
    drive through line.and my Toyota Corolla accelerated on and hit a hole and pole, and gave me a whip lash. This Corolla did this numbers of times.with a defect accelerator pedal.

    Roosevelt Smith


  21. robert

    i would like to be part of the class action lawsuit againt toyota


  22. Mary

    Duped and manipulated by dishonest salesman and cheated out of more than $7000. because of NO DISCLOSURE about charges. Parker Toyota in Coeur d’Alene Idaho should be ashamed. My advise is steer clear of this trap. Don’t go near them without a lawyer.


  23. Dana

    My daughter bought me a 2011 Toyota RAV4 I drove for 10 months , I have had the regular maintenance and oil changes ,car ran great made no noise and two weeks ago after waiting at a like on exit ramp I went to go forward and didn’t realize the car had stopped running and was totally locked up , I had local garage verify this .I contacted the dealership in NC and ask what I should do and they said if I could get the car towed in they would really like to take a look and find out what is going on “ Becouse this doesnt happen “I live in Salem Va. So went thru the trouble of getting it towed and told by several mechanics that they would figure out exactly what happened and would let us know. Two days later we get a phone call they have no idea what happened but it’s definitely the engine and it’s locked up and it would be to costly for them to find out what happened,But for about 8000 they would be willing to put a new motor in.I’m on disability and still owe almost 9000 on this car, I have no idea what to do. We got this car because we had heard such great things about Toyota .my opinion of Toyota I guess I should keep to myself ,becouse as the saying goes if you can’t say anything nice ,don’t say anything at all


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