Toyota faces further backlash from recall crisis
The backlash against Toyota’s car recall crisis is building across the world after the marque has been ordered by Japan’s Ministry of Transportation to investigate a rash of consumer complaints about braking problems.
The world’s leading car marque is currently in the midst of a recall crisis aimed at fixing incidents of unintended acceleration in some of its vehicles. Since last autumn, Toyota has recalled 8.1 million vehicles worldwide — more cars than it sold last year.
It has now set up a dedicated website to provide customers with the latest information surrounding the recall of vehicles affected by faulty accelerator pedals, and consumers known to drive the affected models are being contacted to.
Toyota says its massive vehicle recall could cost it up to $2bn (£1.25bn) in lost output and sales. It has identified eight models as potentially at risk, but stresses that very few are actually faulty.
Yesterday Toyota used YouTube to deliver a message by Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s US marketing, to reassure consumers over concerns surrounding the safety of its cars.
The move follows the launch of a pan-European recall campaign to ensure all customers knew how to get the pedal issue resolved.
The cars affected range from 2005 to 2010 models and include the Aygo, Iq, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis and Rav4 sub-brands. No Lexus models and no other Toyota models are affected.
Rival marques Honda, Peugeot and Citroen, have also had to recall thousands of models due to similar faults.
