LOS ANGELES — Toyota Motor Corp., moving to put years of legal problems behind it, has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle dozens of lawsuits relating to sudden acceleration.
The proposed deal, filed Wednesday in federal court, would be among the largest ever paid out by an automaker. It applies to numerous suits claiming economic damages caused by safety defects in the automaker’s vehicles, but does not cover dozens of personal injury and wrongful-death suits that are still pending around the nation.
The suits were filed over the last three years by Toyota and Lexus owners who claimed that the value of their vehicles had been hurt by the potential for defects, including floor mats that could cause the vehicles to surge out of control.
In addition, Toyota said it is close to settling suits filed by the Orange County, Calif., district attorney and a coalition of state attorneys general who had accused the automaker of deceptive business practices. The costs of those agreements would be included in a $1.1 billion charge the Japanese automaker said it will take against earnings to cover the actions.
“We concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company, our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers," Christopher Reynolds, Toyota’s chief counsel in the U.S., said in a statement.
Toyota’s lengthy history of sudden acceleration was the subject of a series of Los Angeles Times articles in 2009, after a horrific crash outside San Diego that took the life of an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and his family.
Under terms of the agreement, which has not yet been approved in court, Toyota would install brake override systems in numerous models and provide cash payments from a $250 million fund to owners whose vehicles cannot be modified to incorporate that safety measure.
In addition, the automaker plans to offer extended repair coverage on throttle systems in 16 million vehicles and offer cash payments from a separate $250 million fund to Toyota and Lexus owners who sold their vehicles or turned them in at the end of a lease in 2009 or 2010. The total value of the settlement could reach $1.4 billion, according to Steve Berman, the lead plaintiff attorney in the case.
The lawsuits, filed over the last several years, had been seeking class certification.
News of the agreement comes scarcely a week after Toyota agreed to pay a record $17.35 million fine to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report a potential floor mat defect in a Lexus SUV.
