BREAKING - Toyota Motor Corp Quality Updates:

As always Common Cents is your one-stop shop to get all of

your latest fast-breaking Toyota Quality Updates.  As everyone knows Toyota builds the world's most dependable and highest quality automobiles that are never subject to recall nor ever have any quality issues.

Toyota Corolla 

Toyota Motor Corp. and U.S. regulators are looking into possible steering problems in the company's popular Corolla compact, the latest quality issue to surface in the wake of two recalls that covered millions of vehicles and forced Toyota to halt U.S. sales of eight models. The news came as the company's president, Akio Toyoda, said in Tokyo that he won't testify before Congress at hearings next week and left vague his plans to visit the U.S., the company's single largest market. The Corolla investigation could start as early as Thursday, said a U.S. Transportation Department official. The inquiry will cover about 500,000 model-year 2009 and 2010 Corollas, officials said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 163 complaints about the steering in Corollas from those model years, according to the safety agency's Web site. DOT officials said last week the agency was reviewing customer complaints of steering problems in Corollas. The opening of a "preliminary investigation" represents a significant next step in determining whether a safety defect exists. The agency opens about 100 such investigations a year.  Read more here and here.

Lexus

As bad as the safety scandal engulfing Toyota has become, its Lexus luxury division has gotten off pretty lightly. But that's beginning to change. The accident that sparked the wave of scrutiny of the Japanese automaker involved a Lexus, the ES350. It was the loaner car from a dealer that killed a California highway patrolman and his family last August. Toyota believes the accident was caused by floor mats jamming under the pedals -- and it was one of several Toyota models in the first recall to modify the pedals.  Now another Lexus model is getting swept up: It's Lexus' first small hybrid car, the HS250h. Toyota noted yesterday that company President Akio Toyoda singled out the model and its Japanese counterpart, the Sai, in saying that recall preparations are about to begin. It is caught up in another recall, this one also involving the popular Prius. In both HS250h and Prius, the brakes can momentarily cut out after the car hits a bump or pothole.

PREVIOUS TOYOTA QUALITY UPDATES:

• Toyota STOPS sales of Camrys and 7 other recalled models
• PRIUS:   Brake problems with Toyota's hybrid
• Toyota recalls 3.8 million cars on floor mat issue  
• Tragedy Aug. 28 was at least the fifth fatal crash in the U.S. over the last two year
• So far 102 reports, 13 crashes, 5 deaths and 17 injuries...  
• NY Times: President of Toyota apologizes 
• Toyota Recalls 97,500 Corollas and Scions for brake malfunction 
• Toyota Recalls 688,314 Sedans over defective parts   
• Toyota Recalls 259,119 Camrys in China
• Toyota Recalls 2006 - 2007 Yaris Models  
• Toyota to Recall more than 1.35 million cars worldwide
• Toyota Recalls 214,500 Lexus vehicles in USA 
• Toyota Recalls 58,000 cars in Canada
• Toyota Recalls 533,000 Pickup Trucks and SUVs due to 11 accidents and 6 injuries 
• Toyota California Plant that manufactures Corolla and Tacoma to close in March
• Millions of Toyota &and Lexus vehicles w/ throttle control problems
• Feds launch probe on 2000 - 2001 Toyota Tundras
• Toyota Sales:  DOWN 16.1% in September