U.S. auto sales numbers for January are expected to show a sharp drop for Toyota. The company pulled eight of its most popular models from showrooms last week following a series of crashes linked to stuck accelerator pedals.

In the first public comment from an executive at Toyota's head office, the company's executive in charge of quality control said there had been a bigger-than-usual impact from the recall.

[Shinichi Sasaki, Executive Vice President]:
"The sales forecast is something we're extremely worried about…the numbers for January haven't come out yet, but since we've announced the recall, from what I've heard customer orders have fallen."

Although Toyota says the occurrence of such problems is rare, public confidence has been shaken by continuous coverage of the saga. Almost five million vehicles worldwide are being recalled.

The automaker detailed its plans on Monday to fix the faulty pedals with a small metal shim, or spacer, to prevent them from sticking.

Toyota said it would restart production on February 8th of the eight models including its popular Camry, Corolla and RAV4 models. In an unprecedented move, six plants in the United States and Canada were shut down last week.

Analysts estimated the costs for the recall and the shutdown at roughly one to two billion U.S. dollars.

Toyota also faces a growing number of lawsuits claiming it and its U.S. supplier CTS Corp endangered drivers by not acting sooner to fix the problems with faulty accelerator pedals.

Lawsuits announced on Monday in the U.S. claimed Toyota had ignored signs of trouble with some of its top-selling models. The charges are part of what is expected to be a wave of litigation against the automaker for claims ranging from losses on car resale values to injury and death.

Analysts and dealers said it would take months for the automaker to fix all of the vehicles.