Toyota Recall: Campaign Expands to Europe, Pedal Fix Found

Toyota’s recall nightmare continues, as the company’s European operation announced that it, too, is recalling eight of its most popular vehicles to replace defective gas pedals. The European recall alone could affect up to 1.8 million vehicles.

“We understand that the current situation is creating concerns, and we deeply regret it,” Toyota Europe CEO Tadashi Arashima said in a statement. “We would also like to reassure customers: The potential accelerator pedal issue only occurs in very rare circumstances. The announced action is a preventive measure aimed to guarantee the highest safety standards to all customers.”

As with the U.S. recall, only Toyota-brand vehicles are affected, not Lexus, as they use different gas pedals. Unlike the U.S., though, Toyota will not halt production of its European vehicles because the company says it has already begun replacing the faulty pedals with new, redesigned units. Toyota says only a limited number of incidents of unintended acceleration have been reported in Europe and that none of them has resulted in a crash, as far as the company knows.

The latest recall affects eight Toyota Europe models, including the Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, iQ, Rav4, Verso, and Yaris. The recall only applies to those vehicles built between 2005 and January 2010 and all of the vehicles in question, except the Corolla, are built in either Europe or Turkey.

Meanwhile, Toyota officials confirmed to The Detroit News today that the company has come up with a fix for the defective pedals in addition to replacing them. As a source from CTS Corp., the company that made the defective pedals, revealed a few days ago, it would take more than a year to manufacture enough replacement pedals to fix all 4 million-plus recalled vehicles. Now, Toyota says it has come up with a “modified pedal” that will use a “selective spacer” to repair the faulty gas pedals rather than replace all of them.

In a statement, Toyota said it is “working closely with our pedal supplier CTS on a revised design that effectively remedies the problem. These pedals are now in full production at CTS to support Toyota’s needs. At the same time, we continue to work with CTS to test effective pedal modifications for existing vehicles on the road that will be available to our customers as quickly as possible.”

Source: Automotive News Europe