Toyota Europe said on Thursday 26 reports have so far been recorded since its accelerator pedal mechanism sticking problem surfaced but conceded the number of affected vehicles might be higher as a report could include details of more than one car from local distributors.
The Japanese automaker has so far had to recall a staggering six million vehicles in North America and China and has been forced to stop selling – and making – eight models in North America including some versions of the top-selling Camry. Some reports have suggested a further 2m cars in Europe could also be affected.
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“We have no reports of any accidents, we have had a number of reports of incidents,” a Toyota spokesman told just-auto from the automaker’s European HQ in Brussels. “We have 26 such reports, but a report is provided by local distributors and might include more than one car so the number might be higher.
“We are as impatient as our customers. We would like to clearly understand the full picture of this issue in Europe.”
The spokesman said no decision had yet been taken on any necessary action, although he insisted the company wanted to do this, “the sooner the better. We understand the situation is confusing and worrying.”
There appears to be no change in advertising policy while further details of the problem are analysed and no precise vehicles have been specified.
US reports said the Aygo and Yaris had been the subjec of complaints in Europe but a Toyota UK spokeswoman said only: “There is quite a lot of investigation to find out exactly which vehicles, so that will take some time to drill down. What we have said [is] to reiterate there have been no reported accidents and very few cases reported.”
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America said yesterday (27 January) it had been working with Indiana-based component company CTS on a revised design to remedy the accelerator pedal problem.
Toyota added it would start a recall in Europe, with customers potentially affected notified directly but insisted it had no plans to stop production – it has plants in the UK, France, Poland and the Czech Republic. Toyota in Europe had made a ‘quality improvement measure’ change to the pedal mechanism on all models.
That did not mean necessarily that any model would be included in a recall.
