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The effects of Toyota's recall
Toyota cars sit on the sales lot at a dealership in Oakland, Calif.
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TESS VIGELAND: We hope you're not stuck in gridlock listening to the broadcast, but if you are on the way to grandma's house and you're driving a Toyota, traffic may be the least of your problems. That recall we mentioned includes certain models of the Camry, the Avalon, the Prius, Tacoma, Tundra and the Lexus. Seems the gas pedal can get stuck in the floor mat. The government is attributing at least five deaths to the problem. And today Toyota announced it's going to replace the accelerator on all of the recalled vehicles.
Marketplace's Jeremy Hobson tells us what that means for customers, dealers and for Toyota.
Jeremy Hobson: Toyota isn't saying what it expects to pay for the fix, which involves installing a smaller gas pedal or changing the shape of the floor.
The auto-industry tracking firm Edmunds.com says the price tag could reach $200 million. Philip Reed is Edmund's senior consumer advice editor.
Philip Reed: This is definitely a significant recall. Not as much in numbers, as it is in the perception of the public of the reliability and safety of Toyota.
Reed says while a recall like this won't help Toyota dealers sell cars, it's not all bad for them.
Reed: It actually brings people into the dealership, which dealers are always in favor of.
He says many customers coming in for a fix might decide to pay for an oil change or a tune up while they're around. And then there will be those who don't fix the problem at all.
Dave Sedgwick: There's always a percentage of people that don't bother or don't hear about it.
Dave Sedgwick is automotive editor for the Detroit Daily Press. He says it's likely most will hear about it, since Toyota is sending out letters to affected customers. Sedgwick says what's less clear is how this will affect Toyota's reputation.
Sedgwick: What everyone immediately thought of when they heard about unintended acceleration was Audi back in the 1980s. There were a number of serious accidents, some fatal. And it practically drove Audi out of the U.S. market.
Sedgwick says that won't happen to Toyota, as long as this remains, in his words, "a floor mat issue."
In New York, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
About the author
Jeremy Hobson is host of Marketplace Morning Report, where he looks at business news from a global perspective to prepare listeners for the day ahead. Follow Jeremy on Twitter @jeremyhobson
I have great difficulty believing that this is just a "floormat" issue. The California highway patrolman who lost control and crashed at 112 mph was with his family and they had time to call 911 before they died. It is difficult to imagine that he did not reach down and manually attempt to pull the accelerator pedal up while his wife held the steering wheel. I would have done that and he certainly would have been trained to have the presence of mind to do it also. 112 mph is not just a "stuck pedal". He was not going 112 mph originally to get "stuck". "Floormat" has to be a whitewash.
According to CNN, owners should check their car manuals...if they have a push button start, they may find their's is designed to shut the engine off if pushed and held. This may be a solution, but it should be tested in an empty parking lot at slow speeds.
I used to have a Lexus that the pedal would get stuck in the floor mat too. It was scary enough that I took the mats out completely. I'm assuming the Dealers will get the recall work done before they resell any of these cars. I know that there are a lot of orphaned Toyota's out there too (see: http://www.repofinder.com ) that need the recall done before some guy buys one then drives it through the back of his garage. Always get a Carfax and check for warranty work before you buy.
