Now the large Japanese based car maker is having brake issues with the darling of their fleet, the Prius. The anti lock brake system seems to be lagging a bit and Toyota is deciding how to inform customers about the issue.

These design problems are part of a series of problems that Toyota has been having lately and the actions taken by Toyota are not swift. Unless Toyota gets their act together, they very well may lose some of the precious market share that they have acquired over the years.

A recall is not yet in the works but the transport minister of Japan is requesting it and may very well order an investigation as the problems continue to mount.

The actual problem with the Prius is when the car moves on a bumpy or slippery surface, a driver can feel a pause in the braking when the vehicle switches between the traditional hydraulic brakes and the electronically operated braking system, he said.

The brakes start to work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal, but the driver may momentarily feel they aren’t working, he said. Fixing that included a software programming change.

Prius owners are sure to be concerned over this latest development with the car maker but Toyota is still a profitable entity as Toyota reported Thursday a $1.7 billion profit for the October-December quarter, citing healthy sales of its green models including the Prius, and predicted it would return to profit for the fiscal year through March.

Hopefully this is just another blip on the radar screen and Toyota can handle this issue quickly and cleanly

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 8:02 am and is filed under World Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.