TOKYO — Toyota cruised back to profit in the latest quarter as the world’s top carmaker cut costs and hitched a ride on the global auto-sales recovery while fighting to salvage its reputation for quality.
But the automaker’s top executive and analysts said Toyota is still far from a full recovery while another potential blow to its image looms after U.S. federal authorities launched a fresh investigation into a steering recall.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that January-March profits totaled $1.2 billion, compared with an $8.4 billion loss the year before.
Quarterly revenue jumped to $57 billion from $35.1 billion a year earlier, when purchases of cars and other vehicles were slumping amid the global financial crisis.
Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid and Camry sedan, is forecasting even better results for the fiscal year through March 2011, projecting annual profits to rise 48 percent to $3.3 billion.
Whether the world’s biggest automaker can continue its recovery rests in part on salvaging its reputation after recalling more than 8 million cars worldwide for faulty gas pedals, a braking-software glitch, faulty floor mats and other defects. The company faces more than 300 state and federal lawsuits in the U.S. from claims of unintended acceleration.
On Monday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is carrying out a new investigation into Toyota to see whether it stalled on a recall for a steering defect in 2005 in the U.S. It had carried out recalls for similar problems in Japan in 2004.
