On the heels of Toyota’s Sudden Acceleration Recalls, Toyota Motor Corp. has come under for braking issues for the Toyota Prius, Toyotas favorite hybrid car. According to Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary, Transportation officials will begin an inquiry after written reports were incurred that the Japanese administration has broached an inquiry regarding brake malfunction complaints, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Contained in a charge filed with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): My 2010 Toyota Prius has a serious braking problem, the car lunges forward after (I) apply my brakes over a bumpy surface. This is very unexpected and luckily no one was in front of me otherwise I would have hit them. This already happened several times, took my car to the dealer and no solution, I dont know what to do with a brand new (car) like this. There are many complaints with similar descriptions around problems when encountering even minor bumps and potholes with the 2010 Prius.

This latest problem is in addition to Toyotas recall of 3,800,000 cars in Nov. 2009 to mend accelerator pedals plus computer software to address what has been reported as sudden acceleration troubles, which was followed by the most recent sudden acceleration recall on January 21, ‘10 when Toyota proclaimed a recall for 2,300,000 autos. According to a USA article titled “100 Toyota drivers filed complaints before recall”, there were over 100 charges registered prior to Toyota taking action.

Recently, Ray LaHood made statements which question Toyotas follow through on the sudden acceleration topic. According to Secretary LaHood, “Today, Toyota is apparently taking the right steps to address these safety issues. Unfortunately it took much effort to get to this point.” During a Congressional hearing on Feb. 3, 2010, the Transportation Secretary pronounced that possessors of recalled Toyotas should stop operating using them until the cars are fixed.

And now Toyota written documents, which the company is attempting to preserve from the public may bespeak a potential cover up. A past Toyota lawyer, Dimitrios Biller, as part of his legal action against Toyota has proclaimed that Toyota has hid safety evidence during rollover lawsuits. In Dec., Biller gave notice Toyota that he would render a full copy of the documents he controlled to the LA Times. Toyota responded by requesting a California arbitrator to prevent Biller from rendering them to anyone. If Toyota holds nothing to cover up in the rollover suits and has presented another attorney the exact written documents that Biller holds, as it has evoked, what does Toyota have to hide?

These on-going series of events, the Prius braking issue in addition to the former lawyer insinuating that Toyota hid documents, in addition to the Transportation Secretarys statements concerning Toyotas handling of the sudden acceleration recall are contributing to a bunch of heat on Toyota, questioning the car makers credibility. Will Toyota be able to regenerate its reputation?