The New York Times reports:

Under pressure from the California Air Resources Board, Toyota said on Tuesday that it was extending the warranty/VSC nationwide on automatic transmissions and electronic control modules on almost one quarter of a million 2001–3 RAV4s and offering to reimburse owners who had already paid for repairs.

Toyota previously refused to help consumers whose vehicles were out of the normal power train warranty (five years or 60,000 miles) when their transmissions were damaged, apparently by a malfunctioning electronic control module.

Toyota has already begun informing dealers of the new policy and will be sending owners a letter soon, said Brian Lyons, a Toyota spokesman.

He said the new policy would cover the transmission and the electronic control module for 10 years or 150,000 miles (whichever comes first) from the time the vehicle was new. He said about 235,500 vehicles were affected.

With the proper proof, he said, owners who previously paid for repairs will be reimbursed even if they no longer own the vehicle, were not the original owners or the repairs were not performed by a dealership.

The Air Resources Board got involved because under California law the agency can force an automaker to extend warranties/VSC or make repairs if the board decides a defect could contribute to air pollution or an emissions-related part causes the failure of another part. That was the case with the RAV4.

While the board cannot force an automaker to offer an extended warranty/VSC or make repairs outside California, automakers have often chosen to do so.

Mr. Lyons said Toyota had been aware of many complaints and decided that covering vehicles nationwide was proper. “That is us being more attentive to the voice of our customers,” he said.

Toyota has known about the RAV4 problem for at least four years. In March 2006, Toyota sent dealers a technical service bulletin telling them that some consumers might complain about harsh shifting. It also said improvements had been made to the computer module “manufacturing process to reduce the possibility of this condition occurring.”

Toyota told the dealers it might be necessary to change the computer module, which would be covered under the federal emissions warranty of eight years and 80,000 miles. If that did not work, the transmission was probably damaged and would need to be replaced. But the transmission would only be covered under the five/60,000 warranty.

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