Toyota casts doubt on man's speeding Prius claim

Toyota cited "inconsistencies" Monday in the story of a man who called police for help saying his Prius vehicle was speeding uncontrollably down a California highway.

The story made national headlines last week after a local television station capture images of the blue 2008 Prius being towed away and the car's owner spoke to reporters about his harrowing experience.

The case added fuel to criticism that Toyota has failed to address potential electronic problems with its vehicles and that the mechanical fixes it is installing on more than eight million vehicles recalled worldwide due to problems with sudden acceleration.

"While our analysis is not finalized, Toyota believes there are significant inconsistencies between the account of the event of March 8 and the findings of this investigation," Toyota spokesman Mike Michaels told reporters.

"We're not calling him a liar and we're not judging what he did or did not do," Michaels said.

However, an analysis of the vehicle found that there were no problems with the car's brake override system which should have shut the engine throttle down if James Sikes had applied sufficient pressure to the brakes.

An analysis of the vehicle also found that the brakes became overheated after they were repeatedly tapped lightly while the accelerator was also depressed, Toyota said.

Federal safety regulators said earlier Monday that their analysis of the vehicle had failed to find any problems which could have caused the Prius to speed out of control.