Toyota Drivers Say Car Maker Must Face Substandard Parts Class Action

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A Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit should not be dismissed, according to vehicle owners who say their Priuses were manufactured with substandard materials.

The Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit alleges that various models of vehicles, including the Prius, Camry, Land Cruiser, and Lexus, were manufactured with substandard metals because the supplier, Kobe Steel, lied in documents.

Further, allege the class action plaintiffs, Toyota failed to conduct tests to ensure the quality of the materials, leading to incorporation of the substandard product into vehicles manufactured in the car makers’ Tsutsumi factory in Japan.

“In October 2017, Kobe publicly admitted that, ‘for more than a decade, it falsified data and failed to perform mandatory quality checks relating to many of its steel, aluminum, and copper products, which were certified and sold as having critical properties, such as levels of tensile strength or amounts of thickness, that they did not have (the ‘Substandard Metals’),” notes the plaintiffs’ motion in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit that defective metal was incorporated into “key areas” of various models of Toyota vehicles, including the body panels, frames and drive trains.

Toyota pointed out in court pleadings that the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit plaintiffs did not claim that their vehicles, a 2015 and 2016 Prius, had malfunctioned because of the allegedly substandard materials.

The plaintiffs in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit countered by arguing that they are reasonably certain that the incorporation of the substandard materials will undoubtedly lead to problems at some point, so they do not need to establish that there has already been damage to their vehicles.

Further, the plaintiffs say that Toyota and Kobe Steel should not be allowed to get away with the alleged wrongdoing.

“In light of widespread and admitted wrongdoing, neither Toyota nor Kobe should benefit from continued concealment in seeking dismissal of this case,” states the motion in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit.

Further, allege the plaintiffs in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit, the car maker is in breach of various warranties because it allegedly failed to catch the defective metal being used in the manufacture of cars from the Tsutsumi factory.

“Plaintiffs specifically allege that Toyota expressly warranted against ‘defects in materials or workmanship,’ in its basic warranty, hybrid system warranty, powertrain warranty, restraint system warranty, corrosion perforation warranty, and emission defect warranty,” points out the plaintiffs’ pleading in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit.

According to the plaintiffs in the Toyota, Kobe Steel substandard parts class action lawsuit, they would also not have purchased their Priuses had they known they were constructed with allegedly defective metals. The plaintiffs claim that they suffered economic damages as a result.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jack Fitzgerald, Trevor M. Flynn, and Melanie Persinger of The Law Office of Jack Fitzgerald PC.

The Toyota, Kobe Steel Substandard Parts Class Action Lawsuit is Alejandro Nava, et al. v. Kobe Steel Ltd., et al., Case No. 3:18-cv-01423-VC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.