Toyota halts sales of top sellers

Heated seats pose a fire risk, automaker says, but it does not plan a recall.

Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the unusual step of halting sales of vehicles with heated seats across its lineup, including top-selling cars such as the Camry and Corolla.

A portion of the seats, the automaker said, were manufactured with materials that do not meet U.S. standards for fire safety.

The temporary sales stop includes all new Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, Camry, Camry Hybrid, Corolla, Sienna, Tacoma and Tundra vehicles with seat heaters, the Japanese automaker said.

The automaker issued a statement Thursday saying it was preparing a “modification” for all affected cars in dealer inventory, including 2013 and 2014 models. Toyota has no reports of fires or injuries and does not plan a recall, said John Hanson, a company spokesman. But it can’t sell the cars in the sales pipeline until they are retrofitted, according to federal regulations.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the standards for f lame-retardant materials, will decide whether Toyota should issue a recall.

“We have filed the report; it is up to them to decide

where they want to take it,” Hanson said.

The agency probably will also review whether Toyota’s fabric supplier provided materials to other automakers.

“It seems others would use the same supplier, and I expect NHTSA will move on this,” said Carl Tobias, an automotive product liability expert at the University of Richmond School of Law.

NHTSA said it is waiting for technical details. The agency has a range of options, including a recall, but could also rule that the violation was inconsequential and not a safety threat.

This is the second time that Toyota has halted sales of a large segment of its lineup for a safety issue.

Four years ago, the company briefly stopped sales of eight models — including the Camry and Corolla — saying the gas pedals could get stuck and cause runaway acceleration. The automaker also shut down production of the vehicles for a week while it examined how to fix the problem, which it attributed to wear on the pedal system.

Toyota said it learned of the seat problem from South Korean safety regulators, who had tested a seat on a U.S.-built Camry hybrid. All of the affected vehicles are made in the U.S.

Toyota didn’t say what percentage of the vehicles come equipped with seat heaters, but the action includes some of its biggest sellers. The automaker sold more than 408,000 Camrys last year, making it the bestselling passenger car in the U.S., along with 300,000 Corollas. Auto information company Kelley Blue Book said that all Avalons are sold with heated seats, as well as about half the Sienna minivans and about 40% of the Tundra trucks. But for many for the remaining models, the figure was in the 5% to 10% range.

The problem might be more than a minor compliance issue.

“This is an issue that, if not addressed properly, could be hazardous,” said Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for consulting firm AutoPacific Inc.

Sullivan said the automaker needs to give consumers more information about the problem and look at making the same fix in any vehicles already sold that don’t meet the safety standard.

Halting sales, Sullivan said, is “a big deal.”

“It is also a big deal to repair all these vehicles,” he said. “It will be expensive.”