That is nearly as many vehicles as was sold by all automakers in the United States in 2009.
In his first public comment since the latest recalls, Toyota's chief executive, Akio Toyoda apologized for the situation. "I am deeply sorry," he said in a brief interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr. Toyoda told the Japanese television network NKH that he could not answer specific questions about the recall because an investigation was under way.
"We're extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy," Mr. Toyoda said, according to a translation provided by NHK. "We plan to establish the facts and give an explanation that will restore confidence as soon as possible."
"Truly, we think of our customers as a priority and we guarantee their safety," Mr. Toyoda said. He was seen driving off in a black Audi, according to ABC News.
In Washington on Friday, the Congressional inquiries into Toyota's problems with accelerator pedals on its vehicles widened, when a second House committee said it would hold hearings into whether the situation endangered public safety.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it tentatively planned a hearing next Thursday into the question, "Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public At Risk?" This past week, the committee gained attention for a tense session in which the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, was questioned about the federal banking bailout.
The oversight panel's hearing is in addition to a session, scheduled later in February, by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Consumer Reports magazine said Friday that it was temporarily suspending its recommendations on eight Toyota vehicles, as well as the Pontiac Vibe, which shares components with the Toyota Matrix. The magazine advised shoppers to wait for Toyota to devise repairs before buying its cars.
Toyota has stopped selling eight models involved in one of its two recalls, and plans to temporarily cease production of vehicles affected by the recalls at plants in the United States and Canada next week, although production of models not involved in the recalls will continue.
In the United States, about 2.3 million cars are affected by the accelerator pedal could wear down and become difficult to depress, slow to spring back or get stuck partly depressed. And some 5 million cars have a design flaw that could cause the gas pedal to become trapped under the floor mat.
Jake Fisher, a senior automotive engineer with Consumer Reports, said the situation was the most serious Toyota had faced in its half-century in the United States.
"There's been some cracks in the armor, but I don't think we've ever seen anything to this magnitude," Mr. Fisher said. "We've never seen multiple production lines shut down. If you go to a Toyota dealer right now, they can't sell you a Camry, they can't sell you a Corolla or a Highlander."
With the involvement of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Toyota faced the most publicized investigation in the industry since problems with Firestone tires on Ford Explorers and other vehicles early last decade.
The committee announced that it would hold a hearing on Feb. 25 to examine consumer complaints about sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.
In letters to the company and to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the committee's chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, asked to see documentation from Toyota and the agency on when they first learned about potential safety defects, as well as actions they had taken to investigate and resolve them.
The committee also asked for data on the agency's investigation of consumer complaints and Toyota's response to the complaints. "Like many consumers, I am concerned by the seriousness and scope of Toyota's recent recall announcements," Mr. Waxman said in a statement.
Toyota said it welcomed the opportunity to appear before the committee and pledged its full cooperation. "Helping ensure the safety of our customers and restoring confidence in Toyota are very important to our company," said a spokeswoman, Martha Voss.
The chairman of the committee's panel on oversight and investigations, Bart Stupak, a Democrat of Michigan, said meetings between the committee's staff and Toyota on Wednesday had been helpful, but he said the lawmakers continued to have questions about the Toyota recalls.
The committee said sudden unintended acceleration in all Toyota vehicles had resulted in 19 deaths in the United States over the last decade. That is nearly twice the number of deaths associated with similar events in cars built by all other automakers combined.
The company that makes the pedals, the CTS Corporation, has already started shipping replacements to Toyota plants, and Toyota said on Thursday that it was working with the manufacturer to develop and test modifications for existing vehicles.
In Europe, the models in the recall include the Aygo, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis, and RAV4. In China, the recall includes about 75,000 RAV4 sport utility vehicles made in 2009-10, the Chinese government's product safety watchdog said on its Web site.
In addition, the Ford Motor Company said Thursday that it had stopped production of some commercial vehicles in China because they used the same accelerator pedals built by CTS, based in Elkhart, Ind., the supplier whose products led to Toyota's recent recall.
Over the last three decades, Toyota has risen to become the world's biggest carmaker and second-biggest in the United States, in part because of the loyalty of its buyers, who became evangelists for the automaker's vehicles. "A lot of Toyota buyers never set foot in a competitor's dealership," Mr. Fisher said.
The company's image was also helped within the business community by its management philosophy, which stressed continuous improvement and a production system that allowed workers to slow or stop the assembly line if problems arose.
Kevin L. Meyer, president of the Factory Strategies Group in Morro Bay, Calif., who has studied the company for more than 15 years, said he became concerned in 2007 when Toyota recalled its Lexus ES 350 and Toyota Camry for sudden unintended acceleration, but did not seem to follow up with other vehicles.
In this case, he said it was not clear to him and other students of Toyota whether the company's latest efforts were in line with its operating philosophies, or simply a bid at damage control.
"I think that's the big debate right now," Mr. Meyer said. "Is Toyota going back to its roots and protecting consumers because it is the right thing to do? Or are they doing it because of legal considerations?"
John Paul MacDuffie, a management professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said the public reaction to the recalls demonstrated that Toyota had to take major steps to address the problem — "the corporate equivalent of stopping the line," he said.
"Reputations take a long time to build up and they can be damaged quickly," he added. "Right now it's all very chaotic, and it looks pretty bad."
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