Toyota Sending New Pedals to Factories

Toyota is sending new gas pedal systems to car factories rather than dealerships who want the parts to take care of millions of customers whose pedals may stick, the Associated Press has learned.

Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons confirms information in a company e-mail obtained by the AP that says parts were shipped to factories. Lyons says that's how the company normally distributes parts.

But some dealers say they should get the parts first because they now have no way to fix the pedals on any of the 4.2 million recalled vehicles affecting eight U.S. models.

Toyota has halted production and sales of the models, including the best-selling Camry sedan.

Lyons said Toyota did not send the parts to dealers because it has not decided whether to have the systems in the recalled vehicles repaired or replaced.

Toyota Answers Questions about Gas Pedal Recall

The company on Thursday presented a remedy to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it is awaiting a decision before proceeding.

"We're not ready to launch this program yet," Lyons said, adding that letters must be sent to customers whose vehicles were recalled and service technicians must be trained on whatever solution the company ultimately decides.

He said he did not know if any parts had been shipped from factories to parts depots, which is the next step in the process, but dealerships don't have them.

With the gas pedal problem shaking his company to the core, Toyota's chairman Akiyo Toyoda said today he's deeply sorry but he offered no explanation -- even as millions of customers demanded one, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

In fact during a week of harrowing accounts of accidents and deaths tied to Toyota's product, Reynolds reports the corporation all but walled itself off from the news media, preferring to e-mail customers and dealers with incremental bits of information that basically added up to "patience please."

"It seems like there was too much delay since people started hearing about this problem and when something was actually done," said Joe Wiesenfelder of Cars.com.

Can Toyota recover from the hit its image is taking?

"They probably will," says Paul Ingrassia, author of "Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster." "They are the leading of hybrid technology, but this will hurt them for a while. It will that ta them a while to regain consumer confidence," Ingrassia told "Early Show Saturday Edition" co-anchor Chris Wragge.

What went wrong?

Toyota "just tried to get too big too fast," Ingrassia said. "And this problem is not sudden. The gas pedal problem is sudden, but for a few years now, reports have been building of Toyota's quality issues. In 2005, they actually recalled more cars in America than they sold. And they just expanded very quickly. They made it a goal to overtake General Motors as the No. 1 car company in the world and they've done it, but they're paying the price."

Now, it's GM that's trying to lure dissatisfied Toyota owners and potential customers, with special incentives at Toyota battles the gas pedal woes.

In addition to stopping sales and production of eight models, Consumer Reports is no longer recommending them, rental car companies no longer rent them, used car dealers are pulling them off their lots and competitors report an upswing in interest, Reynolds reports.

Engineers and other workers were up all night Thursday getting the process ready, he said.

The company has said its highest priority is fixing the pedals for existing customers.

"Nothing is more important to Toyota than doing the right thing for our customers - and restoring their confidence in the safety of our vehicles," Toyota said in a statement.

But dealers and customers were unhappy with the delays in getting parts.

Earl Stewart, owner of a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Fla., said his service technicians might not know the details of how to fix the gas pedal systems, but they know to install new ones, and the parts should have gone to dealers rather than factories.

"That's absolutely stupid," he said. "It makes no sense at all."

He said Toyota may be trying to save money by using a less-expensive repair on the millions of vehicles that already have been sold, and using the new parts to restart factories that have been closed while it irons out the problem.

"That just doesn't wash well with the customers out there driving these vehicles," he said. "I think at this point you throw cost to the wind and do everything you can to rebuild your brand and your image."

Toyota owners were both confused about what to do with their cars and angry that they didn't have any answers on when a fix would be available.

"I've got a $30,000 vehicle and they don't know how to fix it," said Johnathan Jones, a 30-year-old salesman from Fort Mitchell, Ala., who said he won't put his 10-year-old twins in his 2009 Toyota Tundra. "To me, it's a big safety hazard with my children."

The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is launching an investigation into the problems with Toyota's accelerator pedal systems. It has scheduled a Feb. 4 hearing entitled, "Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?"

Read more about the Toyota recall at CBSNews.com:

Toyota Recall Costing the Automaker Dearly
House Schedules Hearing on Toyota
Toyota Part-Maker Gets Unwanted Spotlight
Toyota Took Short Cuts in Drive to Top
Toyota's Massive Recall Snowballs
Toyota Recall Not Result of Simple Glitch
GM Tries to Lure Wary Toyota Owners