180,000 UK Toyota drivers face wait for defect repairs

Published on Thursday 4 February 2010 17:20

TOYOTA drivers in the UK will have to wait until next week before repairs to defective accelerator pedals can be made, the company said today.

• The Toyota Yarris is amongst the seven models affected

New parts needed to rectify the problem – which could affect more than 180,000 cars in Britain – are currently being shipped from Japan to dealers across the country.

But it will take days for them to arrive, with the first repairs expected to be made on February 10.

A spokesman for the company today apologised to customers for any concern, saying that they were working as fast as they could to fix the pedal but adding that it was "still not fast enough".

To speed up the process, Toyota have fast-tracked a request to find names and addresses of owners through the DVLA.

It is expected that the information will be available within two days, allowing the car firm to write to all affected customers by the end of the week.

In all, some 180,865 vehicles in the UK are in the process of being recalled as safety concerns continue to dog the car-maker.

A fault has caused the accelerator pedal to stick in seven models – the iQ, Aygo, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Avensis and Verso.

The problem has been linked to 26 accidents in Europe although none have been recorded in the UK, a Toyota spokeswoman said.

To make matters worse for the beleaguered car firm, a separate problem affecting the brakes in its ground-breaking Prius hybrid models has been identified by customers in both the US and Japan.

Toyoya executive Hiroyuki Yokoyama said a decision whether or not to recall the model has yet to be made, but a UK spokesman said the problem was one of comfort rather than safety and that, in the UK at least, there would be no Prius recall.

The concerns come as the Japanese firm posted pre-tax profits of 1.56 billion in the last quarter of 2009, compared to a pre-tax loss of 1.95 billion for the same period a year earlier.

But the firm's share price was hit this week as a direct result of the current problems.

US Transport secretary Ray LaHood caused jitters in Wall Street when he told a Congressional hearing: "My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it."

He later retracted the comment but not before Toyota's share price tumbled.

Scott Brownlee, spokesman for Toyota in the UK, today emphasised that the occurrence of the problem with the accelerator pedal was very rare.

Across Europe 1.8 million cars are being recalled, despite only 26 reports of a problem, according to the spokesman.

Mr Brownlee said: "The chance of it happening is extremely small but to prove we are taking it seriously we are fixing every single one of them."

He added: "We recognise it is a concern and we are very sorry we are causing people concern."

As to the timeframe for repairs, Mr Brownlee said: "It is still not fast enough, but we are doing it as fast as we can."

Anyone with concerns about the accelerator pedal safety of their Toyota model should call the firm's UK helpline on 0800 138 8744, the spokesman said.

While awaiting from Japan the small metal pieces needed to rectify the problem, the car firm has stopped delivering new vehicles of the selected models to British customers.

They will not be released until they have been fitted with a new part – a process that is estimated will take just 30 minutes to fix.

In comments released yesterday, Miguel Fonseca, managing director of

Toyota GB, sought to allay the concerns of Toyota drivers.

He said: "Toyota can reassure its customers that its cars remain safe to drive. Safety is our prime concern and that is why we have set up the recall programme to ensure our customers continue to benefit from the highest standards of safety, quality and service."