Cleofe Saylor, husband Mark, daughter Mahala and her brother Chris Lastrella (photo inset)

The families of Cleofe and Mark Saylor, their daughter Mahala, and Cleofe’s brother Chris Lastrella, are suing Toyota for their deaths last August.

The Saylors and Lastrella died after the Lexus they borrowed accelerated out of control and crashed off of a highway in San Diego County.

The lawsuit names several divisions of Toyota North America, Toyota Japan, and El Cajon Luxury Cars, the dealership where the Saylors borrowed the Lexus. The lawsuit claims that, by not inspecting the vehicle for defects, Toyota and the dealership could have prevented the deaths of the Saylor-Lastrella family.

The lawsuit does not specify a monetary amount, but demands a jury trial.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s sales fell another 9% over the past month, due in large parts to the recalls involving faulty accelerators and brake systems.

To win back customers, Toyota announced incentives for the month of March. Incentives include five-year interest-free loans, monthly leases as low as $179 a month, and 2 years worth of free maintenance.

To make recall-related repairs more convenient, Toyota is working with state attorney generals to extend services such as pick-ups, drop-offs and shuttle service for its customers.

In Fremont, California, the Fremont Toyota dealership says it and other dealerships already started the extra services since the beginning of the recall.

“We want to make sure that Toyota customers know that Toyota is a good product, its dependable,” said Mike Weldon, Service Manager for Fremont Toyota.

He added, “Yes, Toyota has been there to support us. They’ve given us assistance in personnel through the process, so we appreciate that. It just makes our jobs a little bit easier.

Since Toyota’s recalls, more car companies have also announced recalls. Today, Nissan recalled over half a million large vehicles for faulty brake pedal pins and inaccurate fuel gauges. The models include the 2008 to 2010 Titan, Armada, Quest, and Infinity QX-56.

General Motors also announced a recall on the 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, the 2007 to 2010 Pontiac G-5, the 2007-2010 Pontiac Pursuit and Pontiac G-4 over power steering problems.

GM says they will send instructions to customers as soon as they come up with a remedy.

With all these recalls, Ford has emerged as last month’s winner seeing a 43 % jump in sales, surpassing GM in monthly sales for the first time in 12 years. Balitang America