TOKYO — Toyota Motor, taking a conservative approach as it does in many things, is estimating the cost of recalling millions of vehicles to correct floor mats and gas pedals connected with incidents on unintended acceleration at $2 billion, including nearly $1 billion in lost vehicle sales.
The stock market is a bit less sanguine, trimming the company's market value by $30 billion or more over the past two weeks as Toyota's stock price has plummeted with increasingly dismal headlines.
Curiously, the automaker chose this moment to hike its annual sales forecast, confidently predicting a profit of $880 million versus its earlier projection of a $2.2 billion loss for the fiscal year. Last year, Toyota posted a $4.8 billion loss.
Toyota now expects to sell 7.18 million vehicles in 2010, compared with its earlier forecast of 7.03 million.
Inside Line says: We're not sure where all that optimism is coming from. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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