US President Barack Obama, speaking in the wake of Toyota's recall debacle, said all carmakers in future must come forward immediately with safety concerns and work quickly to repair problems, dpa reported.
In an interview with Bloomberg and Business Week magazine that was on news stands Friday, Obama said it was not yet clear whether Japan's Toyota Motor Corp had acted with enough force to allay the public's fears.
"Every automaker has an obligation when public safety is a concern, to come forward quickly and decisively when problems are identified. We don't yet know whether that happened with Toyota," Obama told the magazine.
"That's going to be investigated. And my hope is that, moving forward, all automakers recognize that their brands are at stake when it comes to safety issues," Obama said.
Toyota has been forced to recall more than 8 million vehicles worldwide since last month due to sticking accelerator pedals in a series of models and faulty brakes in its best-selling Prius hybrid.
The recalls have been a public relations nightmare for Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, which has long had a strong reputation for quality and reliability.
But aside from safety fears, the carmaker's woes have some US state officials worried about the impact that a sales decline could have on US jobs. Toyota builds many of its models for the US market in North America and has manufacturing plants in seven US states.
Despite the recalls, Obama said he expected Toyota to come through its "recent glitch."
After Toyota, Obama says carmakers must act quickly on safety
