Red Deer Toyota should begin work within days on vehicles affected by a massive recall related to faulty accelerators.
“We expect to start receiving modification parts over the weekend,” said Russ Joseph, the local dealership’s general manager.
Red Deer Toyota will extend its operating hours to deal with vehicles brought in, he said.
The modification work, which involves the installation of a stainless steel spacer onto the accelerator pedal assembly, will take less than an hour, said Joseph.
Toyota announced the recall on Jan. 21. It applies to some 270,000 Toyota vehicles in Canada: 2009-10 RAV4 crossovers, 2009-10 Corollas, 2009-10 Matrix hatchbacks, 2005-10 Avalons, 2007-10 Camrys, 2010 Highlander crossovers, 2007-10 Tundra pickups and 2008-10 Sequoia SUVs.
Joseph said the RAV4, Camry and Tundra have been Red Deer Toyota’s three biggest sellers.
He said the number of local vehicles requiring the modification is under 1,000.
Red Deer Toyota will send letters to affected customers, asking them to contact the dealership so that an appointment can be made, said Joseph. Some will also be called directly.
“I think the vast majority of our customer base will likely wait to get this done until they’re doing other servicing,” he said.
But anyone concerned about the safety of their vehicle can arrange to come in sooner.
Joseph said he received no complaints about accelerator problems prior to the recall. Media coverage of the issue prompted a flood of inquiries, he said, but most customers were understanding of the situation.
“There is an inspection process that we’ve done on several vehicles where customers were concerned about them,” he said, adding that no problems related to the accelerator issue have been detected.
Joseph said the recall resulted from reports that some accelerator pedals were slow to return to their rest position. The vehicles experiencing such problems have tended to be older and with high kilometres, and located in areas of higher humidity that promotes the buildup of condensation on the accelerator pivot point.
In addition to modifying vehicles brought into the dealership by owners, Red Deer Toyota will be installing the spacer on new cars and trucks awaiting delivery to customers, said Joseph.
“We never stopped selling (vehicles), we just stopped delivering them.”
He estimated that it could take 30 to 45 days to work through all the vehicles requiring the modification.
“Our bottleneck will be how quickly we get enough parts to get these done.”
Joseph said large, safety-related recalls are not uncommon in the auto industry. In Toyota’s case, he thinks the intense media attention reflects the company’s reputation for quality and the fact it took the “unprecedented” action of stopping production and sales of the vehicles affected.
“I think that drew attention to this. I’m not saying it’s unwarranted attention, I just think it was so unusual an action.”
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com