DETROIT (AP) - Responding to two recalls and facing the prospect
of another one, Toyota dealers across the country were repairing
thousands of cars Saturday, the first weekend day that many drivers
had a chance to take action.
Although many dealers expected a long line of customers, most
drivers seemed far from panicked.
Delwyn Wright, a 51-year-old truck driver, had heard about
Toyota's troubles on the news but got the accelerator on his wife's
Camry fixed Saturday after it was suggested by a dealer in
Columbia, S.C., where Wright had taken the car for an oil change.
"We ain't never had no problem with it," Wright said.
Toyota recalled 2.3 million cars in eight models, including the
top-selling Camry, on Jan. 21 and stopped selling the vehicles five
days later because the gas pedals can get stuck in a depressed
position. But it took until the past week for Toyota to mail parts
to dealers and train technicians, making this the first weekend
many Toyota owners could seek repairs.
At the same time, dealers are repairing 5 million Toyotas from
an earlier recall because their floor mats could jam the pedals,
causing unintended acceleration. And the possibility of another
recall looms - this time, for the company's celebrated Prius
hybrid.
Even so, at Manhattan Toyota, a dealership on the borough's West
Side, there were more potential Toyota buyers in the showroom on
Saturday than car owners waiting for their gas pedal to be
modified. A giant sign in the window read: "We have 200 cars not
affected by the recall."
Sales manager Chris Mignano said the dealership started doing
the pedal modifications on Friday, completing work on about 30 cars
by Saturday morning. Six extra technicians were hired to handle the
repairs.
Mignano said every customer who called has been given an
appointment and a quick primer on how to stop their vehicle - apply
the brakes and put the car in neutral - if a problem should occur.
One customer, Margot Hammond, called the repair "very easy - no
problems."
Rob Gregory of Rochester Toyota in Rochester, Minn., had a
steady stream of customers needing gas pedal repairs Saturday, but
lines were never more than three or four cars long. He said it took
technicians about 15 minutes to install a steel shim in the gas
pedal assembly to stop the pedal from staying down.
Even though the fix is quick and simple, dealers say they're
confident that the repair will stop the gas pedal problems.
"I've been with Toyota 20 years, I feel confident with
Toyota," said Bruce Winokur, general sales manager at Toyota
Center in Columbia, S.C. "As long as I've been with them,
everything they've done in the past with issues, they have done the
right way."
Regulators aren't so sure. The U.S. Department of Transportation
is reviewing whether Toyotas and other vehicles may have a wider
problem of electronic interference causing acceleration and other
unintended actions.
The government is also investigating more than 100 reports that
the brakes on the 2010 Prius hybrid appeared to fail momentarily
when the car is driving on bumpy roads. Toyota blames a software
glitch and says it has already fixed vehicles in production. But
it's still deciding how to handle repairs on 270,000 Priuses that
were sold in the U.S. and Japan starting last year. The company
could announce a full-fledged safety recall or simply ask owners to
bring their vehicles in for repairs, since the brakes aren't
failing completely.
In a letter to U.S. dealers Friday, Toyota said it will announce
its plan for the Prius in the coming days. It also told dealers
that a new, 60-second television ad will begin airing Sunday that
admits Toyota hasn't been living up to its reputation for quality
and safety. The ad says the company is working hard to repair the
recalled vehicles and restore trust.
Toyota needs to win over people such as Laura Benin, 34, from
the New York borough of Queens.
She owns a 2009 silver Toyota Corolla. It was her first car, and
she chose it because she wanted something reliable. After hearing
of the recall she was frustrated that her dealer didn't seem to
know how to handle it. And almost two weeks went by "before I got
any kind of communication from Toyota," she said.
"If I had to do it over again, I would not be looking at a
Toyota," she said.
Still, there are plenty of customers like Mike Chuba, a
53-year-old chemical engineer from Wrightstown, N.J., who doesn't
seem upset. He hasn't had accelerator problems on his 2009 Camry
and doesn't plan to get his car repaired until the end of February,
at his next scheduled oil change.
"It runs extremely well. I've had no problems with it and it's
good value for the money," he said. "I plan to drive it until it
falls apart."
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Associated Press Writers Deborah Yao in Philadelphia, Briana
Bierschbach in Rochester, Minn., Verena Dobnik in New York and Page
Ivey in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)