万花筒 2010-02-03&02-05 丰田"召回门"（在线收听）

Until just days ago, Toyota may enjoy one of the best reputations in the car business with sales to match. Now the company has a huge problem on its hands, potentially dangerous accelerator problems, and recall of millions of vehicles. Tonight, Toyota is scrambling to fix the problem and contain the damage. NBC's George Lewis reports.

Its image is like this that Toyota drifts, a brand new Camery flipped over in a ditch in Louisville, Kentucky after the driver Todd Allen said it accelerated suddenly and went out of control. He's in a hospital intensive care unit.

"When they went to stop, it just accelerated and just flew off the cliff."

Toyota ran four page ads in Sunday newspaper saying "sticking accelerator pedals have occurred in some of our vehicles. We believe we are close to announcing an effective remedy." For Rhonda Talbot that remedy can't come soon enough. She's had her Toyota Camery a year now and says she's been in seven accidents.

I have my foot on the brake and coming into slow stop but for some reason the car then lurchs forward.So for the time being, she's leaving her Toyota in the driveway.

The experts say that if you get into a situation like Rhonda's, the best thing to do is stop on the brake with both feet, shift the car into neutral, then try to steer out of the way of traffic and come to a stop and finally turn off the ignition.

NBC's Ian Williams reports from Tokyo that Toyota is feeling the heat.

There have been no cars recalled here in Japan but that has been damage, damage to the pride and reputation of a company widely regarded as a national icon. Toyota built that repution on the quality of its cars and the news from the US has shocked many people here. The question: whether Toyota sacrifices quality in a rush to become the world's biggest car maker?

A crisis management expert says Toyota it doesn't just have a quality control problem, it has a transparency problem.

Customers have right to wonder if the cars are safe because Toyota has not been as forthcoming as they should have been in telling the customers what's going on.

This as the horror stories about Toyota's acceleration problems are also accelerating.

George Lewis, NBC News, Los Angeles.