Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) today announced the vehicles to be included in its recall service campaign to correct the accelerator mechanism in these cars.

Toyota South Africa list affected vehicles

The list of affected vehicles is the result of an exhaustive technical study which covered all Toyota vehicles on sale in South Africa. The affected passenger vehicle models are:

Toyota Corolla (February 2007 to January 2010) – 45 040 vehicles

Toyota Auris (June 2006 to January 2010) – 6 665 vehicles

Toyota Verso (October 2008 to January 2010) – 841 vehicles

This equates to a total of 52 546 Toyota vehicles that will form part of this campaign.

Recall service campaign – Corolla, Auris and Verso

The Corolla, Auris and Verso will be recalled as part of a service campaign to correct a potentially faulty accelerator pedal mechanism. This is done as a pro-active precaution and is based on the fact that the mechanism is similar in operation to those which have proven faulty in other regions.

In these regions the mechanisms, in severe circumstances, have deteriorated and become harder to depress, slow to return to idle or have, in just a handful of cases, become stuck in a partially depressed position.

In more detail the problem relates to the operation between the mechanism’s friction shoe that provides pedal feel and ensures pedal stability, and the adjoining surface.

The corrective action will take the form of a small precision-cut steel plate that will be placed in the assembly to alleviate the friction between the friction shoe and adjoining surface. This will prevent the problem from surfacing in vehicles equipped with this steel bar for the life of the vehicle.

Toyota will start contacting customers of the affected vehicles immediately. All Toyota dealers in South Africa and the countries that TSAM serve will be involved. These include Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Reasons for the recall service action in South Africa

Toyota South Africa Motors chose to participate in this worldwide recall service action as a precautionary measure. The action will take place despite the fact that the problem has not surfaced to the same effect in the hot and dry climate of South Africa.

Toyota South Africa has, since the first announcement of its participation, received a small number of requests from concerned owners and will study each individual instance to understand whether the problem has indeed surfaced locally.

“We would like to apologise to all Toyota vehicle owners for the uncertainty and inconvenience that this process may have caused. We value the trust and confidence that Toyota owners have put in our brand over the past five decades and we will do everything in our power to honour that,” says Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of TSAM.

Actions taken

Toyota South Africa Motors and its nationwide dealer network will immediately start contacting owners of the identified vehicles to inform them of the recall service action. Owners will be given the opportunity to contacttheir nearest Toyota dealer at their convenience and schedule a time for the insertion of the steel bar. Repairs will start from 23 February 2010.

The corrective action should take less than an hour, but could take longer if the dealer is experiencing very high levels of service calls. It is important to note that the full cost of the corrective process will be borne by Toyota and that no owner will be required to pay, regardless of the state of his or her service plan, warranty or the ownership status of the vehicle.

As further support to the campaign concerned customers can visit www.toyota.co.za or phone theCustomer Contact Centre on 0800-139-111 for up to date information on the recall service campaign.