Heeding two recalls: Area Toyota owners try to sort through pair of safety issues

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

Two recent recalls of millions of Toyota models, one prompted by a safety issue caused by interior carpeting and another due to sticky accelerators, have sparked confusion and panic among Valley Toyota drivers - and have the owners of local dealerships looking for any way to calm their concerns.

Toyota announced last week it was recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the United States to fix the sticking accelerator problem. Earlier this week, the company said it was suspending U.S. sales and production of eight models to fix the problem. The announcements came just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration. That problem was the cause of several crashes, including some fatalities.

According to Robert Cartelli, owner of Toyota of Greenfield, each dealership is taking its own approach to dealing with the onslaught of calls from concerned car owners, and the real problem is that many drivers don't know which of the two recalls their vehicle falls under.

"Right now I have two Toyota specialists who are doing nothing but handling calls and taking customer information down," Cartelli said. "The confusion lies in whether they are included in the gas pedal recall, which requires cutting off the carpet around the gas pedal, or the separate accelerator problem, which is at this point just being called a sticking accelerator. People need to know that those are two completely different recalls."

Cartelli said once the specialists have collected a given driver's information and vehicle identification number, they can easily determine which of the recalls, if any, the model is affected by.

Using that information, Cartelli said, the dealership can then either order the parts necessary to fix the initial gas pedal problem, or put the motorist on a waiting list for the future repair of the sticking accelerator, the solution to which he said the company is still working on.

"(Customers) should know that if something were to happen with the accelerator, they should take their car out of gear, pull over to the side of the road, shut it off, call the dealership, and we will send them an alternative means of transportation free of charge," Cartelli said.

About 30 percent of Cartelli's inventory has been affected by the recalls, and while he said the announcements have had a negative impact on overall sales, he is finding that many customers buying affected models are willing to wait until after the necessary repairs have been made to make their purchase.

"One of the things I have to commend Toyota for is that they have been very proactive about jumping on this and immediately addressing the problem. This recall wasn't a mandate from the federal government, this is something Toyota chose to do, and chose to do the right way," Cartelli said.

The other area dealer is Lia Toyota on King Street in Northampton. A representative there declined comment Thursday.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it's closing in on solutions to the gas pedal system problem, but it still had no details on when drivers would see repairs. The recall has now spread to more than 2.4 million vehicles on three continents.

Toyota dealers in the United States have been swamped with calls from concerned owners but had few answers as the recalls snowballed. Elkhart, Ind.-based CTS Corp., which made the parts, is cranking out redesigned gas pedal assemblies that fix the problem, which is caused by condensation around an arm attached to the pedal and springs that send the pedal back to the idle position.

Toyota engineers are developing ways to repair the pedal systems in existing cars and trucks, said spokesman Brian Lyons.

House lawmakers, meanwhile, said they intend to hold a Feb. 25 hearing to review the complaints of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. "Like many consumers, I am concerned by the seriousness and scope of Toyota's recent recall announcements," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com