TOKYO (AP) — Toyota cruised back to profit in the latest quarter as the world's top carmaker cut costs and hitched a ride on the global auto sales recovery while fighting to salvage its reputation for quality.

But the automaker's top executive and analysts alike said Toyota is still far from a full recovery while another potential blow to its image looms after US federal authorities launched a fresh investigation into a steering recall.

Toyota Motor Corp. said yesterday that January-March profit totalled 112 billion yen ($1.2 billion) compared with a 766 billion yen loss the year before.

Quarterly revenue jumped to 5.28 trillion yen ($57 billion) from 3.54 trillion yen a year earlier, when purchases of cars and other vehicles were slumping amid the global financial crisis.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid and Camry sedan, is forecasting even better results for the fiscal year through March 2011, projecting annual profit to rise 48 percent to 310 billion yen ($3.3 billion).

Whether the world's biggest automaker can continue its recovery rests in part on salvaging its reputation after recalling more than eight million cars worldwide for faulty gas pedals, a braking software glitch, faulty floor mats and other defects. The company faces more than 300 state and federal lawsuits in the US alone from claims of unintended acceleration.

On Monday, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is carrying out a new investigation into Toyota to see whether it had stalled on a recall for a steering defect in 2005 in the US. It had carried out recalls for similar problems in Japan in 2004.

Toyota has already paid a maximum fine of $16.4 million for dallying on a recall for acceleration problems, and NHTSA could slap it with a fine of up to that amount again over the steering issue.

"There's still a long way to go before a full recovery," said author Masaaki Sato, who has written books on the history of Toyota. "It barely managed to return to the black."