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Toyota's Corolla and Matrix Face U.S. Safety Probe
DETROIT—Federal regulators have opened an initial investigation into Toyota Motor Corp.'s Corolla and Matrix compact passenger cars for randomly stalling while on the road, the latest in a string of safety issues faced by the Japanese auto maker.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Agency is probing 26 customer complaints alleging their vehicles stalled while driving, sometimes on the highway or in intersections, the agency said in a document published last week. Many drivers also had trouble restarting their vehicles, and at times the stalling would reoccur, the agency said.
The latest investigation, which covers 387,000 of the 2006 Corolla and Matrix models sold in the U.S., was opened by federal safety regulators in November and is in the initial stage to determine whether a deeper investigation is warranted. Toyota officials were unavailable for immediate comment.
The probe into the Corolla and Matrix vehicles focuses on the electronic control module—the computer system that operates many of the vehicle's systems—as well as a company bulletin issued in 2007 to remedy harsh shifting in the models.
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