Suit: Carmaker's delays endangered Lexus, Toyota owners

A Nassau County man is suing Toyota on behalf of Lexus and Toyota owners who, he claims, are endangered and their cars devalued by the alleged delayed response by Toyota to thousands of customer complaints about unintended acceleration and other issues.

The suit by Steven Boughner, filed last week in State Supreme Court in Mineola, claims "Drivers and passengers of Toyota vehicles, including Lexus vehicles, have died and suffered serious injuries and property damage. All owners and lessees of Toyota-made vehicles have suffered economic damage to their property."

Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons in Torrance, Calif., declined to comment on the suit, citing company policy. But he said Boughner's car, a Lexus LS 460, is not included in any of the pending recalls and has a completely different accelerator pedal design than those in the recalled vehicles.

The court complaint says Boughner leased the LS 460 in September with a projected residual value at lease end of $34,035. Without giving an estimate, the complaint says Boughner "believes" the value of his car will be less when his lease ends.

It is not specified in the complaint how that would cause him a financial loss. Jack Gillis, author of "The Car Book" and a spokesman in Washington for the Consumer Federation of America, said that, normally, the leasing company - Toyota Motor Credit in this case - and not the consumer takes the loss if the actual resale value is less than projected.

Gillis said there could be a loss, however, for a consumer who had hoped to sell the vehicle at lease end for a price higher than the residual value. "It could have gone up in value and he could make a profit," said Gillis.

Robin Eckard, spokeswoman in California for The Kelley Blue Book, a popular source of automotive resale values, said that, based on prices at auctions and transactions at dealerships, it has lowered the value of recalled Toyota brand models by 3 percent since early February but, "We have not downgraded the values of any Lexus any more than by typical depreciation."

Through an assistant at his office in Great Neck, Boughner referred questions to the Manhattan law firm handling the case, where the attorney who can answer questions about it was said to be unavailable Thursday. Boughner is identified in court papers only as a Nassau resident; voter registration records list one person with that name, living in Greenvale.

The complaint seeks "class action" status to represent all New Yorkers who purchased or leased a Toyota since 2000. It gives no estimate of how many vehicle owners would be included, but State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo estimated Wednesday that more than 500,000 of Toyota's recalled vehicles are owned by state residents.

The suit notes among other things the recall in September of some Toyota and Lexus vehicles for possible entrapment of accelerators beneath floor mats; the temporary halt in January of sales of eight Toyota models following the recall of 2.3 million vehicles for sticky accelerator pedals; and the recall Feb. 8 of 2010 Prius Hybrids for potentially faulty brakes. It seeks unspecified monetary damages for loss of value of their vehicles and reimbursement for attendant costs such as obtaining replacement vehicles until theirs are repaired.