Fine Levied Against Lexus for RX Recall

Yeesh. It seems that fate is still intends to make Toyota pay for that screw up with the floor mats earlier this year. If you thought the recall was the end of it… you thought wrong.

The NHTSA has levied a $17.4 million fine against Toyota. Interestingly, the fine isn’t for the damages caused by the defective mats. This time they’re being fined for their delay in issuing a recall.

Toyota was aware of the issue at least a year before they actually issued a recall, so they’re not completely off the hook here. There’ve been 63 alleged instances of the floor mats screwing up. Whether those were all true or not is unclear, but there was obviously a problem that they were overlooking. To date they’ve paid $48.8 million to fix the pedal and steering issues in the 2010 RX. This additional $17 million is like adding insult to injury.