Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Chicago radio station WGN that the government asked Toyota to stop selling the vehicles.
LaHood said, "The reason Toyota decided to do the recall and to stop manufacturing was because we asked them to."
A Toyota spokesman, Mike Michels, said Tuesday the automaker expects to have a remedy in "weeks, not months."
Officials said NHTSA first contacted Toyota Friday, after seeing news reports of Toyota's plans to continue selling defective vehicles.
It wasn't until around noon on Tuesday that Toyota informed safety regulators it would halt sales.
Under Chapter 301 of the Motor Safety Code, Toyota can't continue to sell the defective vehicles unless it has a remedy.
The Detroit News has learned that NHTSA is also investigating whether the defective pedals in the Toyota recall, made by Elkhart, Ind.-based auto supplier CTS Corp., are on any other automaker's vehicles. CTS didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
The NHTSA's Strickland declined to discuss the chain of events in detail.
"At this point, you need to talk to Toyota about those decisions," he said. "We'll be continuing to work with Toyota and having conversations."
Strickland said in taking the action "Toyota was complying with the law."
"They consulted with the agency. We informed them of the obligations, and they complied," he said.
Last Thursday, Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles after two recent incidents in New Jersey and Texas were under investigation by NHTSA, making the decision to recall the vehicles without figuring out how to fix the problem.
But Toyota had a legal requirement to stop selling the models. It isn't clear why Toyota continued to sell the models for another five days.
Toyota faces further questions because similar pedals that are at issue in the United States are on some vehicles in Europe. The automaker hasn't decided what it will do in Europe. Beginning in December 2008, Toyota received complaints in Europe about the sticky accelerator pedals on its Aygo and Yaris vehicles.
From The Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100127/AUTO01/1270400/1148/rss25#ixzz0eCUYQV3S