Page 161 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

had to be the top priority. The two key contact points with cus-
tomers were at the dealerships and through calls to Toyota Motor
Sales’s customer service center.

Dealers Step Up
One key aspect of the sticky pedal recall that is often overlooked
is the Herculean efforts of Toyota dealers to bring in customer
vehicles and get them repaired as soon as the reinforcement bars
became available. Toyota’s North American dealers played a huge
role in managing the complex logistics and helping customers
feel that the company still cared about them. As the front line
for most customers, the dealers were acutely aware of just how
frightened many customers were. It was not uncommon for cus-
tomers to refuse to drive their vehicles (LaHood’s comments cer-
tainly didn’t help in this regard) to the dealers for the fix to be
installed—illustrating how far out of proportion the whole story
had gotten. In these cases, many dealers sent tow trucks out to
pick up the vehicles, a service that Toyota eventually offered to all
customers who wanted it. One dealer in Virginia was said to have
sent a flatbed truck to Florida to pick up a customer’s Camry.
Several dealers told us that, on a limited basis, they bought back
cars from customers who were simply too frightened to continue
driving them, even with the pedals repaired—one recalled buy-
ing back a car from an elderly couple where the woman was get-
ting physically ill over the stress of worrying that her car would
take off on its own. Tellingly, many of those customers bought a
different Toyota model. While these customers were concerned,
they weren’t giving up on Toyota entirely. Almost all dealers ex-
tended their service hours, with many of them staying open 24
hours a day during the first week of the recall. Bob Carter praised

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