Toyota South Africa has announced a recall service campaign to correct potentially-faulty accelerator pedal mechanisms in 52 546 cars, including Corolla, Auris and Verso models. However, CAR technical editor Jake Venter stresses that consumers need not be alarmed by the recall, because the number of claimed “sticking throttle incidents” in North America are, although not insignificant, relatively minor compared with the number of vehicles sold in that massive market.
Toyota has begun to contact owners of Corollas (built between February 2007 and January 2010), Aurises (June 2006 to January 2010) and Versos (October 2008 to January 2010) in South Africa Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland to schedule the correction of the mechanisms in question. The Prospecton-based company described the procedure as “a pro-active precaution… based on the fact that the mechanisms are similar in operation to those which have proven faulty in other regions”.
TMC has admitted that in severe circumstances, accelerator pedals have become harder to depress, slow to return to idle or have, in a handful of cases, become stuck in a partially-depressed position. The problem apparently relates to the operation between the mechanism’s friction shoe that provides pedal feel and ensures pedal stability, and the adjoining surface. But even though Toyota SA believes the problem has not surfaced to the same effect in the hot and dry climate of South Africa and has vowed to “study a small number of requests from received from concerned owners to understand whether the problem has indeed surfaced locally”, the corrective action will be rolled out nationally.
The corrective action will take the form of a small precision-cut steel plate that will be placed in the assembly to alleviate the friction between the friction shoe and adjoining surface. This will prevent the problem from surfacing in vehicles equipped with this steel bar for the life of the vehicle. No owner will be required to pay, regardless of the state of his or her service plan, warranty or the ownership status of the vehicle, for the procedure.
Owners will be given the opportunity to contact their nearest Toyota dealer at their convenience and schedule a time for the insertion of the steel bar. Repairs will start from February 23 and should take less than an hour, unless a dealer is experiencing very high levels of service calls. Concerned customers can phone the Customer Contact Centre on 0800-139-111 for up to date information on the recall service campaign.
“We would like to apologise in advance to our customers for the uncertainty and inconvenience that this process may have caused. We believe the action of fitting the accelerator pedal component with a safeguard mechanism is in line with our commitment to customer safety and satisfaction,” said Toyota SA president Dr Johan van Zyl, who added that the campaign was a preventative measure… and that customers should experience no difference between the pedal feel and operation before or after the service action.
With relation to locally produced Corolla models, Toyota has already implemented the corrective action in all vehicles in current production. That means that no newly sold Corolla from this date onwards would require the corrective action. This also applies to the Auris and Verso models that TSAM imports from Europe, where the vehicles currently in production have received the necessary upgrades.
Meanwhile, Toyota SA has also recalled new generation Prius models (delivered August 2009 to February 2010) for a software upgrade to the electronic brake system. This action involves 216 vehicles and will address the delayed brake feel on slippery surfaces that has been experienced elsewhere in the world. Toyota is in the process of contacting each Prius owner to inform him or her of the upgrade and schedule a convenient appointment time at his or her closest dealer.
CAR ‘s Jake Venter comments that the recent spate of Toyota recalls is a typical example of “how governments and the media manage to create a storm in a teacup”. He acknowledges that there appears to be problems with the t accelerator pedal mechanisms on some Toyota models, but adds “the number of examples that have actually been affected out of the more than 5 500 000 that are being recalled must be extremely low.
“In the USA, recalls are controlled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration (NHTSA). At present, the number of different safety defect recalls amongst all makes run at about 600 a year, nearly two a day! They have recently revealed that in the last ten years 19 people have died as a result of stuck throttles in Toyotas. This is such an incredibly low percentage of the number of Toyotas on the roads in the USA that I can’t be bothered to take out my calculator and do the sum. Statistically speaking, an otherwise healthy person has a much bigger chance of dying in his or her sleep before the next sunrise!
“When it comes to the brakes on the Prius, not many people know that Ford is at present offering a ‘customer satisfaction program’ software update on some 2010 Ford and Mercury hybrids because ‘while the vehicles maintain full braking capacity, customers may initially perceive the condition as a loss of brakes’, to quote from Ford’s press release.
“Why has the American media picked on Toyota? Can it be because the Japanese manufacturer has outsold American manufacturers for the past few years? Or because they’ve been perceived as being too technically perfect by always winning customer satisfaction indices with their premium brand? Or perhaps it’s just because the media thrives on sensation.?” Venter concluded.
“This (global recall) will be a major setback for the world’s biggest car-maker and will certainly dent confidence levels amongst its loyal customers. However, Toyota’s display of good corporate citizenship will ensure that it will bounce back. Having had first-hand experience of Toyota I am comfortable to predict that with the company’s deeply-embedded DNA value system, it will overcome this massive crisis and emerge once again as the yardstick for manufacturing excellence,” CAR Used Car expert Meyer Benjamin is quoted as saying in the March 2010 issue of the magazine.