Toyota Recall: Toyota “Safety Deaf” – fix in Europe next week

The Toyota fix for the sticking accelerator problem arrives in Europe next week

US Transportation Secretary has called Toyota “Safety Deaf” over the sticky throttle recall, and parts for the fix will arrive in Europe next week.

We realise that the whole Toyota Recall mess is a huge headache for Toyota. And we had a degree of sympathy with the Japanese car maker. After all, no company plans on making a faulty product – certainly not a company the size of Toyota. But the sympathy we had is starting to evaporate.

The sticky throttle problem seems to have been around for much longer than was first thought. And it seems that Toyota has actually been very slow to respond. Until pushed.

When the issues first became big in the US a couple of weeks ago it appeared that Toyota had done the decent thing, acknowledged the problem and worked flat out to find a solution. But it seems that may not be the case after all.

The Detroit Free Press is quoting the US Transportation Secretary – Ray LaHood – as saying that Toyota is a “little safety deaf” and it took an NHTSA delegation flying to Japan in December to remind Toyota of their responsibilities and obligations. LaHood is quoted as saying:

Since questions were first raised about possible safety defects, we have been pushing Toyota to take measures to protect consumers. While Toyota is taking responsible action now, it unfortunately took an enormous effort to get to this point. We’re not finished with Toyota and are continuing to review possible defects and monitor the implementation of the recalls.

Which is not great news for Toyota who are already suffering from a loss of confidence in their products by customers and a huge drop in their share price.

But at least we now know that the parts needed for the fix will start arriving in UK and Europen dealerships next week. But why next week? It appears the parts are already arriving in the US, so why are we a week behind?

Is it a case of ‘He who shouts loudest’?