Toyota may cut 2010 sales forecast

Toyota's unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles with faulty accelerators is taking a serious toll on sales. Declining figures may force the world's largest automaker to cut its 2010 sales forecasts.

In the first public comments from executives at Toyota's head office, the company says there has been a larger-than-usual impact from its recent recall.

US auto sales for January are due later on Tuesday. The numbers are expected to show a sharp drop after the vehicle manufacturer pulled eight of its most popular models from showrooms last week, following a series of crashes linked to unintended acceleration.

Shinichi Sasaki, Toyota Executive Vice president, said, "The numbers for January haven't come out yet but since we announced the recall, from what I've heard, customer orders have fallen."

Although Toyota says the occurrence of such problems is rare, public confidence has been shaken by continuous media coverage of the saga. This includes numerous airings of the harrowing details from a Lexus crash, blamed on a stuck accelerator, that killed four Americans last year.

College student Haruni Tanaka, said, "Since Toyota is a company that you could say represents Japan, there will definitely be some ripples."

On Monday, the world's largest automaker detailed its plans to fix the faulty pedals with a small metal shim, or spacer, to prevent them from jamming.

On top of a separate recall for slippery floor mats also linked to unintended acceleration, nearly 5 million vehicles worldwide are being recalled.

Toyota said it restarted production of the eight models -- including its popular Camry, Corolla, and Rav4 automobiles -- on Monday. The resumption comes after an unprecedented one-week shutdown at six plants in the US and Canada.

It's estimated that the costs for the massive pullback and assembly line stoppage now look to approach roughly 100 to 200 billion Japanese yen.