today ray lahoud spoke before a house appropriations subcommittee on transportation and spouted out a powerful piece of advice to toyota drivers, but then he clarified his statement. >> if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to toyota dealers. they believe they have the fix for it. so what i said in there was obviously a misstatement. what i meant to say and what i thought i said was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dler and they'll fix it. >> lahoud's initial statement came during a hearing to determine whether toyota responded fast enough and if the fix, a new reenforcement part, will solve the problem. toyota's most recent recall affects more than 2 million vehicles with the potential for sticking gas pedals. toyota announced a fix earlier this week, a steel shim to be installed on to the existing accelerator. meanwhile, federal safety officials have widened the investigation to see if the same problem could exist for other automakers. the government is also investigating complaints about the electronic systems associated w

secretary of transportation ray lahoud said today and has said in the past that they had to make a tripapan and talk with officials there and use some persuasion to get toyota to take these issues seriously.Ñi live from capitol hill tonight, i'm tracie potts. >> this story is getting bigger every day. >>> today at least one dealership in the metro area received the new part to fix the accelerator pedal. technicians started learning how to install the steel shim to the gas pedal. the repair takes about 30 minutes. they're hoping toyota can send more parts daily. toyota owners who are driving the recalled vehicles are encouraged to call dealerships ahead of time to make sure there are enough parts to accommodate demand. >>> there are new details tonight about the woman that allegedly hit and killed two men on the side of the road in prince george's county.xd investigators there think she was under the influence of alcohol. one of the victims was ray lacayo. he was exchanging information with a second victim, a man named justo rosario jr. on monday night after a fender-bender. as for the d

ray lahoud says the company was slow to realize safety problems that led to the recall of millions of vehicles. lahoud says toyota was "a little safety deaf" and that federal safety officials needed to "wake them up" to the seriously of the pedal problems. toyota's executive vice president apologized for the issue and said it should have been dealt with sooner. drivers of eight models of toyotas have experienced unwanted acceleration from gas pedals that stick. repair parts are on the way, but analysts wonder what can be done to repair the company's image. >> the image is stuck to toyota for a long time and it's like velc velcro. it will be there for a long period of time. >>> meanwhile, toyota reports its sales were down 8.7% in january compared to january of the previous year. ford says its sales were up 35% and that their u.s. market share is also up. general motors reports sales gains of 23%. the company says its chevy, bui buick, gmv and cadillac brands have seen increases for four months in a r. >>> some of the military's top brass to congress it's time to allow gays to serve op

ray lahoud later said he misspoke, that drivers should take their vehicles to the dealership if they'reerned. tracie potts joins us now from capitol hill with the latest on this ongoing saga. >> that was a shocker as we were listening to him testify today. he literally said stopÑi drivin those cars, park them. but as you mentioned, he went back and corrected it. his office corrected it almost right away, that you should take the cars in and get them fixed. now, the other big issue that toyota is dealing with right now is the fact that there is a new problem out there. we have heard reports more than 100 reports according to toyota's pr department itself of problems with the 2010 toyota ius. the popular hybrid that toyota makes. apparently, brake problems in that car. now, toyota says they're checking the problem out at this point. we haven't heard from the government. but, of course, this comes on the heels of just -- it's reall been just a few days ago now that we first got word from toyota about this problem with its accelerator. the good news with that is dealerships are now startg t