Following last month’s recall of 2.3 million U.S. vehicles for a pedal flaw, Toyota Motor Corp. is confident in its fix but faces long term fallout…
By Militza Richard
Toyota Motor Corp. has announced it is making “field remedy” kits to fix the flawed accelerator pedals that led to the recall of 2.3 million U.S. vehicles. The kits are already being shipped and should be delivered to dealerships starting late this week. The company has also stopped production at its factories to focus on the problem.
The recall included eight of Toyota’s most popular models, the top-selling Camry and Corolla cars; Avalon sedans; Matrix hatchbacks; Highlander, RAV4 and Sequoia sport-utility vehicles; and Tundra pickups, and led to the suspension of U.S. sales and assembly.
"We've studied the events of unintended acceleration and we're quite clear that it's come down to two different issues," Toyota Motor Corp U.S. chief Jim Lentz said Monday on "The Today Show" on NBC.
"One is the entrapment of the mat and the pedal. And we have announced a recall on that late last year. The sticking pedal issue that we've just announced and put a stop on some of our vehicles, we're confident that we have a fix for that. And between those two things, this will be under control."
Toyota is making steel plates in Japan that will be used to fill a gap in the pedals and prevent the risk of sticking said John Hanson, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. unit CTS Corp which made the original pedals. The plates will relieve friction that can develop in some pedals as a result of wear and tear and condensation and allow the pedals to spring back without sticking, he said.
“We have very high confidence in the durability of the field remedy, that it’s as good as the factory remedy,” Hanson said. “The kits are being produced in large quantities, and dealers may start getting them as early as Friday.”
Since dealers will receive the repair kits before customers get recall notices by mail, the company will be fixing the recalled models as customers bring their vehicles in. “Some of our dealers have said they’ll stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get this done,” he said.
While Toyota is confident in the repairs, the damage to the company’s reputation has already been done. Additionally, recalls and sales stoppages are estimated to cost the company around $1 billion.
In both recall issues, Toyota has called back 5.4 million vehicles in the United States. Another 1.8 million have been recalled due to the sticking accelerators in Europe and 75,000 in China.
For more information on the recall, please visit www.toyota.com/recall/
For more information on the estimated cost of the recall take a look a the Wall Street Journal’s feature Toyota Faces Fallout Over Recall.
Edited by Kevin Doyle