the exclusive toyota recall

Toyota | simonie | April 27, 2010 at 4:55 pm

The VSC system helps control a loss of traction in turns as a result of front or rear wheel slippage during cornering.

“Toyota’s objective is to provide a high level of safety and quality, while meeting or surpassing governmental regulations. Our engineers have conducted tests to confirm the VSC performance issue raised by Consumer Reports, and we are confident this VSC software update addresses the concern,” said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota chief quality officer for North America.

All Lexus dealers will have the VSC software update by the end of April. Once the software update is available at dealerships, vehicle owners are encouraged to bring their 2010 GX 460 to a dealer at their earliest convenience for the update at no cost. The update should take approximately one hour depending on the dealers’ work schedule.

“From the moment we heard about this issue, Lexus and our dealers acted quickly to resolve the situation. Our dealers will now personally reach out to customers to set up appointments to make this modification. Lexus has always been about providing exemplary customer satisfaction and this will be another opportunity to demonstrate that,” said Mark Templin, Lexus group vice president and general manager.

Starting in early May, Lexus will begin mailing letters to GX 460 owners included in this recall. Lexus will provide a courtesy vehicle to anyone who has purchased a 2010 GX 460 and has concerns about driving it until the recall work has been completed.

Toyota USA on Friday announced a voluntary recall of 600,000 Sienna 2WD minivans. The number in the recall rose to 870,000 as the number one carmaker in the world added 270,000 more in Canada adding another blow to its dealerships. The spare tire may simply fall from the car.

The problem with this recall is not in anyway associated with a floor mat or speed acceleration. This time the recall seems to be a milder problem compared to the acceleration issue that mounted in a massive Toyota recall in the past month severely damaging carmaker’s image. Yet it can still be very dangerous for other drivers on the road.

This time the issue is with a spare tire. Toyota says that if the Sienna 2WD is driven in cold areas of North America the salt on the rods may cause corrosion of the cable that carries Sienna’s spare tire. The worst scenario that can happen is very dangerous. If the cable, which holds the spare tire, fails because of corrosion, the spare wheel may separate from the car and fall on the road.

Now imagine if this happens on a highway where cars run at a speed of 65 to 70 miles per hour. This will create a very serious highway safety issue for the other cars that follow Senna Minivan. If the spare tire separates from the 2WD Sienna minivan it will create a very high likelihood of a crash for the following cars. Even if the following vehicle’s driver manages to stop, the danger of the cars hitting this driver is very high.

If you bought your Toyota Sienna minivan between 1998 and 2010 this recall may affect you. It particularly affects those drivers who drove their minivans in cold climate areas where salt is used to combat ice and freezing on roads and highways.

Toyota says the company is now working to find a solution for this problem. While it is working on a “remedy,” Toyota says the dealerships will send the Sienna minivan drivers notices to bring their minivans to a nearby dealership for a “preliminary inspection.”

In the past several months Toyota’s image has been seriously tarnished and damaged because of the recalls. Within the past few months Toyota has recalled nearly 8 million cars worldwide. The recent blow to Toyota’s image came from Consumers Report that don’t buy Lexus GX 460. The carmaker moved very quickly and temporarily stopped the sale of GX 460. Yesterday Toyota said its engineers were able to duplicate the problem warning that Consumer Reports issued. The company agreed the luxury SUV has problems with handling.

If your Sienna minivan is affected Toyota says the owners of the affected minivans can have their cars included even in the states that are not included in this latest recall. The drivers of Toyota Sienna can call (800) 331-4331 to receive more information from the company.