WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – The spiraling crisis at Toyota Motor Corp deepened on Tuesday as the automaker said it would recall thousands of Camry sedans as well as nearly half a million new Prius and other hybrid cars to fix steering and braking problems.

U.S. regulators also said they are reviewing dozens of complaints about potential steering problems in newer Toyota Corollas.

News of the recalls, the latest in a string of embarrassing Toyota product problems that have affected more than 8.5 million vehicles globally, came as a U.S. congressional committee postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday to examine the recalls and Toyota’s response to reports of safety problems with top-selling cars.

In a document sent to U.S. dealers on Tuesday and obtained by Reuters, Toyota said the 2010 Camrys equipped with a 4-cylinder engine might have a shorter-than-required power steering pressure hose in the engine compartment.

DETROIT (Reuters) – A consumer advocate set to testify this week in a congressional probe of safety issues at Toyota Motor Corp said on Sunday the automaker had skirted a full investigation of unintended acceleration in its vehicles and faced a risk of growing recalls.

“I suspect that we are going to see a series of recalls appear over a period of time here, certainly over the next year, and they are going to address varying issues and varying vehicles,” said Sean Kane, founder of the Safety Research & Strategies Inc, a consumer safety group.

A 180-page report the group published on its website Friday found that Toyota had yet to fully identify the causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles that have led to its largest ever recall.

The report found Toyota had limited the scope of earlier probes into unintended acceleration, blamed media attention for driving up the number of complaints and then resorted to the least expensive remedy by recalling floormats.

DETROIT, Feb 7 (Reuters) – A consumer advocate set to testify this week in a congressional probe of safety issues at Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said on Sunday the automaker had skirted a full investigation of unintended acceleration in its vehicles and faced a risk of growing recalls.

“I suspect that we are going to see a series of recalls appear over a period of time here, certainly over the next year, and they are going to address varying issues and varying vehicles,” said Sean Kane, founder of the Safety Research & Strategies Inc, a consumer safety group.

A 180-page report the group published on its website Friday found that Toyota had yet to fully identify the causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles that have led to its largest ever recall.

The report found Toyota had limited the scope of earlier probes into unintended acceleration, blamed media attention for driving up the number of complaints and then resorted to the least expensive remedy by recalling floormats.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Chrysler is in talks to take back a Sterling Heights, Michigan, assembly plant that it had abandoned in bankruptcy, a move that could save about 1,200 jobs once expected to be eliminated by the end of 2010.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy in June under the management control of Fiat, has been offered a tax break from the Sterling Heights City Council if it keeps the plant open, and has until February 16 to reach a deal to take it back, Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said on Wednesday.

As part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy restructuring last year, the plant was placed with OldCarco LLC, the shell company that represents the assets of Chrysler that remain in bankruptcy and were not bought by Fiat.

The plant, which makes the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger sedan, employs approximately 1,200 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union.

DETROIT, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Chrysler is in talks to take back a Sterling Heights, Michigan, assembly plant that it had abandoned in bankruptcy, a move that could save about 1,200 jobs once expected to be eliminated by the end of 2010.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy in June under the management control of Fiat <FIA.MI>, has been offered a tax break from the Sterling Heights City Council if it keeps the plant open, and has until Feb. 16 to reach a deal to take it back, Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said on Wednesday.

As part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy restructuring last year, the plant was placed with OldCarco LLC, the shell company that represents the assets of Chrysler that remain in bankruptcy and were not bought by Fiat.

The plant, which makes the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger sedan, employs approximately 1,200 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union.

DETROIT, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Auto parts maker ArvinMeritor Inc <ARM.N> posted a narrower quarterly loss and forecast flat sales for the current quarter, as auto production recovered from a sharp downturn and sweeping cost cuts paid off.

ArvinMeritor said it is on track to refinance its revolving credit facility by the middle of this year and would continue with the process of divesting its light vehicle business throughout 2010.

The company, which achieved its targeted cost savings of $195 million over the past year, is benefiting from the restructuring actions as auto sales rebound from its worst downturn since the recession of the early 1980s.

ArvinMeritor has been trying to cut its ties to the volatile light-vehicle market and focus on commercial vehicle parts over the past year as the industry downturn deepened, saddling automakers and parts suppliers with mounting losses.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp’s massive recall and sales halt of its best-selling vehicles will overshadow an expected industry increase in U.S. auto sales for January over the deeply depressed month a year ago.

Toyota is expected to post a sharp drop in sales after it shut down sales of its most popular vehicles in the last week of January, including North American-built Camrys and Corollas, amid its recall of 2.3 million vehicles tied to faulty accelerator pedals.

Analysts expect Toyota’s woes to result in sales and market share increases by its largest competitors in the U.S. market including General Motors Co, while it remains unclear how deeply the sales shutdown will run into the February sales period for Toyota, No. 2 in U.S. auto sales behind GM.

Toyota said on Monday it has found the remedy to fix potentially sticky accelerator pedals in the recalled vehicles, but it is expected to take some time to complete repairs.

DETROIT, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> detailed plans on Monday to fix nearly 4.5 million vehicles equipped with faulty accelerators in North America and Europe as lawsuits landed claiming the world’s largest automaker had endangered drivers by ignoring signs of trouble.

Toyota, scrambling to contain the fallout from the sweeping recall on its finances and reputation, said it would restart production of eight models on Feb. 8 after a planned one-week shutdown at six plants in the United States and Canada.

The automaker also began shipping a new part to its U.S. dealers that can be used to repair accelerator pedals at risk of staying stuck when depressed.

The first round of repairs is expected to cost Toyota at least $250 million in warranty fees in the United States alone. Some Toyota dealerships said they would stay open around the clock to speed customer repairs and stem the damage from a crisis that has sent the automaker’s January sales tumbling.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> started shipping parts on Monday to U.S. dealers who were prepared to stay open late to fix vehicles that are affected by the most damaging recall in the automaker’s history.

Toyota’s U.S. sales chief Jim Lentz offered penance and apology in a series of television interviews on Monday as the carmaker sought to keep consumers confident in the brand long known for quality and reliability.

Most of the 2.3 million vehicles recalled for having accelerators that could stick, and another 120,000 on dealer lots will have a metal part installed that Toyota told dealers was a “shim” or “spacer.”

“The beauty of the fix is that it doesn’t take much time,” spokesman Mike Michels said, adding that many of Toyota’s 1,200 U.S. dealerships will stay open around-the-clock.