More bad news for Toyota

On Saturday, I noted that a growing number of complaints over steering problems with Toyota Corolla vehicles has sparked a federal investigation. Today the Wall Street Journal Blog has published two separate stories on this. The first one states that the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has obtained a document from a Toyota executive which notes that Toytoa saved money by lobbying federal officials to limit recalls tied to sudden-acceleration complaints, characterizing the lobbying effort as a key company achievement in 2009. That story is available here. The second one states that Toyota has received subpoenas from a U.S. federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting documents related to sudden unintended acceleration and the braking system of its Prius hybrid. That story is available here.