Toyota Motor Corporation said it had appealed an Australian federal court decision ordering it to compensate customers who purchased faulty Toyota vehicles, following a class action case brought against its Australian subsidiary.
According to the ruling, hundreds of thousands of Australian customers who purchased faulty Toyotas can apply for compensation from this week, with pay outs potentially totalling AUD2.7bn (US$1.9bn) based on an average payment of AUD10,500 per vehicle, according to local reports. Payments will now be delayed pending the appeal process.
The federal court in April found Toyota had misled customers in its sales and marketing of vehicles with faulty diesel particulate filters which caused a more than 17% drop in residual values at the time of sale. The class action affected 264,000 Hilux, Fortuner and Prado vehicles sold in the country between October 2015 and April 2020.
Toyota Australia said it had lodged an appeal with the court on 10 June “challenging the factual and legal basis for the award of damages”. The company argued “many of the class-action plaintiffs did not experience issues associated with the faulty filters, such as substantial white smoke or a reduction in engine power”.
