Toyota Motor Sales USA (TMS) chief Bob Carter has said the problem with heated seats that has forced the company to halt sales of several vehicle models in the US would weigh on the automaker’s February sales but he predicted the negative effect would be minor.
Talking to Reuters at the Chicago Auto Show, he said the sales halt – which was announced late last month and remains in place – affected about 30,000 vehicles at dealers and would have a “very minor impact” on the company’s February USsales.
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Carter did not rule out the possibility that the sales stop could be escalated to a recall, saying the issue was in the hands of the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The stop sale order, which includes some top-selling Camry and Corolla models, was triggered after Toyota learned that some of the fabrics used in the heated seats were not as flame resistant as required by law.
“It’s a small percent of our current inventories,” Carter said. “Those cars will start being repaired this week and it will take us a couple of weeks to get all the parts available.”
Asked if he knew how many of the affected vehicles were in customer hands, Carter said: “I don’t know that right now.”
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By GlobalDataCarter told Reuters Toyota, which began exporting US-made vehicles in 1988 and sent 130,000 of those vehicles overseas last year, expected to export a similar number in 2014.
