Toyota sales halt deals blow to earnings, image

NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota's suspension of U.S. sales on an unprecedented scale to fix faulty gas pedals deals a blow to the automaker's reputation for quality and came amid intense pressure from the Obama administration.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced late Tuesday it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles.

Toyota also is suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning next week. It gave no date on when production could restart.

The Obama administration said it pressed Toyota to protect consumers who own vehicles under recall and to stop building new cars with the problem.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told WGN Radio in Chicago that "the reason Toyota decided to do the recall and to stop manufacturing was because we asked them to."

LaHood said the department urged the company to act and credited Toyota for going "a step above" by stopping production.