Written by Noah Darnell
It is somehow ironic that the Toyota Motor Corp’s motto “Moving Forward” has to be used as a damage control device instead of a high-tech boast, but after the recent fleet-wide recall of over half of its current models, the company, famous for its reliable and low-maintenance cars, is going to great lengths to get its sales – and image – back to normal.
Following a slew of cases of “unintended acceleration” in new Toyota cars, the corporate headquarters based in Toyota City, Japan, issued a statement last September saying that it would issue a safety recall for a staggering 4.2 million vehicles in the U.S. The initial recall cited an issue with the accelerator pedal that could cause it to become lodged into the floor mat.
Furthermore, on Jan. 21, the Japanese automaker announced that it would be recalling 2.3 million additional vehicles to correct a slightly different problem: a mechanical flaw separate from the initial floor mat problem that could cause the accelerator pedal to jam wide open. In its official statement posted on its web site, Toyota said, “In rare cases, the gas pedal mechanism wears down, causing the accelerator to become harder to press, slower to return [to a neutral position] or, in some cases, stuck.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, the gas pedal flaw has resulted in over 815 separate accidents and 19 fatalities as of Feb. 1, 2010. Regardless of the numbers, Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota’s U.S. sales, said that Toyota is vigorously investigating the situation.
“The number of deaths, number of accidents, whether it’s one or whether it’s 2,000, doesn’t really make a difference,” Lentz said. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive.”
In an effort that was quickly applauded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Toyota Motor Corp. is maintaining a state of transparency regarding the recall situation to the major news agencies covering the story saying that the “responsibility for this in the end is ours” even though the problem lies with the mechanical equipment supplied by a single parts manufacturer, CTS Corporation, which produces the pedal assembly. The CTS Corp. also makes pedals for some Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Ford vehicles, but the company said the pedals made for those manufacturers do not have the same design.
A spokesman for Toyota, John Hanson, said the company is unaware of any accidents or injuries due directly to the mechanical malfunction of the gas pedal, but he could not rule it out for sure. He said the recall “came together very quickly” in order to address the problem before it caused any accidents or injuries.
For a short time in late January, Toyota completely froze the sales of the Camry sedan, its top-selling vehicle, and seven of its car and truck models until the problem could be corrected. Because of the freeze, Toyota’s sales in the U.S. fell 16 percent. In contrast, domestic car manufacturers General Motors and Ford Motor Company posted a dramatic rise in sales of 14 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Furthermore, Reuters is reporting that industry analysts have estimated that Toyota will be shouldering $250 million in warranty costs to cover the recalls.
The malfunction has since been isolated, and Toyota has announced that its authorized dealers will be receiving parts to fix the problem by the first week in February.
Searcy’s own Orr Toyota on Poplar Street is one of the dealerships ready to handle the recall. Randy Doughty of their service
