Car owners launch claims on Toyota

Wednesday March 10th 2010

The benefits of having a car value protector have been highlighted in the US as Toyota owners begin suing the corporation, claiming safety recalls have slashed the worth of their vehicles.

Dozens of group lawsuits may cost Toyota at least £2 billion in compensation payouts, although this estimate excludes the possibility of having to pay out tens of millions for each potential injury or wrongful death case.

But the massive number of cases of individual Toyota owners (six million or more) making claims because their cars have lost their value could be much more expensive for the Japanese firm.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Tom Baker said such claims "are more scary for Toyota than the cases where people actually got injured".

He said: "A super-big injury case would be $20 million but you could have millions of individual car owners who could (each) be owed $1,000. If I were Toyota, I'd be more worried about those cases."

Copyright © Press Association 2010

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