Toyota New Zealand's head does not believe the image of New Zealand's most popular car brand will be tarnished, despite the biggest-ever recall action by the Japanese giant spreading to this country, with up to 60 Avensis wagons affected.An accelerator pr
Toyota New Zealand's head does not believe the image of New Zealand's most popular car brand will be tarnished, despite the biggest-ever recall action by the Japanese giant spreading to this country, with up to 60 Avensis wagons affected.
An accelerator problem is costing Toyota an estimated $NZ100 million a day in the US, where production of affected vehicles has been halted, and fired speculation there that Toyota's carefully cultivated image as a trustworthy make has been permanently damaged.
But Toyota New Zealand executive director Alistair Davis does not believe that is going to be the case.
In an interview with Yahoo!Xtra website today, he said he had no concern about New Zealanders being turned off their favourite brand.
"It's not what's said so much in the media in the short term but what the customer experiences in the long term, as to whether the company stands by its products or doesn't, that builds you a customer reputation."
The decision to stop producing, and selling, affected vehicles in the US was a positive, he said.
"I think the sales stoppage has been an incredibly positive thing – it says, 'we are concerned enough to stop sales to fix the problem'.
"I think the concept of actually dealing with the problem, rather than trying to hide the problem, is giving customers confidence. We have been working flat out trying to find what this issue is. We've found it – we're now fixing it," Mr Davis said.
New Zealand became involved in the recall yesterday. The Avensis wagons, popular with fleets, are among the 220,000 cars built in the UK and Europe since November 2008 thought affected by the fault.
The affected cars here are 60 current model Avensis station wagons from Toyota's plant in Derbyshire.
Speaking from Toyota New Zealand's Palmerston North headquarters, Mr Davis said his company was still clarifying what needed to be done. It was awaiting instruction from Toyota. Affected owners would be contacted directly.
The issue revolved around a fault that caused accelerator pedals to stick due to condensation that builds up in the pedal assembly, leading to unintended acceleration.
"We have had no issues here, but in Europe they have had 26 incidents, but no accidents."
The risk to drivers was minimal, he said.
"The chances of it happening are so slim, it's highly unlikely. But we are trying to verify that at the moment."
The majority of new Toyotas sold here are sourced from Japan, Thailand and Australia, and there is no suggestion they are implicated.
The faulty components are from a US supplier, CTS, and at most recent count are installed in 4.2 million vehicles worldwide – 2.3 million of them in the US, where the brand has stopped production and suspended sales of affected vehicles.
Toyota has led the New Zealand new car market for more than a decade and continued that dominance in 2009, though the downturn in sales saw its annual tally fall by 28.9% on its 2008 count.
