Two Toyota owners tell PADDY COMYNhow they are no longer happy to drive their cars
STEPHEN FARRELL from Tullyallen, Co Louth, bought a Toyota Yaris for his wife and children, having previously owned one of the brand’s RAV4s. “My image before I owned a Toyota was of reliability and safety, and that didn’t change with the RAV4, which was great.”
Farrell first read about the recall in the newspapers. He has yet to receive notification that his 2006 Yaris is to be recalled but he reckons it is likely.
Toyota Ireland yesterday added a feature to its website where owners can use their registration number to see if their car is part of the recall.
“Personally, I feel let down as an owner. You buy a Toyota for reliability and safety. I am concerned about my wife and eldest daughter driving the car now. I have asked my wife not to have my daughter do her driving lessons in the car because I dont think she has the experience if anything goes wrong.”
The uncertainty has changed his perception of the brand.
“I think I have lost faith in Toyota now. I was under the impression that this came to light in late 2009 and then I heard on the radio that they had problems 13 months ago. If they knew about it 13 months ago, why did I not know about it? There are so many people driving Toyota cars, and this shows complacency. I can understand a company making mistakes but the way they have gone about it is bad. Their slogan of ‘the best built cars in the world’ has gone down the pan, as far as I’m concerned.”
For Anne McEvoy from Co Limerick, three incidents in her 2009 Toyota Corolla have left her frightened to drive her car, despite the throttle body being replaced by Toyota.
Her car, a Corolla 1.4-litre petrol saloon, is a version that Toyota says is not affected by the recall due to a faulty throttle, yet McEvoy experienced her first problem with the accelerator in August 2009 while passing through a village. This was followed by a second instance of the car speeding up a week later, but the third incident, on September 23rd, was the most frightening.
“We were coming home, five miles out of the city, and the car took off at a bad bend. I would have being doing about 40-50km/h and the revs went up over the 6,500. There was an articulated truck behind me and nothing in front of me. I kept into the ditch and managed to get it stopped. Then I blanked out with fright.”
After returning the car to the dealer and following discourse with Toyota in Dublin, a repair was carried out on the car.
“Toyota changed the throttle body and I didn’t have any problems since, but I am terrified now. I have no faith or trust in that car.”
Having been a Toyota owner before, without incident, Anne now feels very differently. “I have no faith in that car now. I am terrified it is going to happen to me again. I think we could have had a tragic accident and I think it has been handled very badly. I felt there was a lack of communication between Toyota and my local dealer.”
Toyota Ireland says: “It is our conclusion that this car has no defect. This concern was caused by an improper extra floating driver’s floor mat installed on top of the existing retained mat. The dealer replaced the throttle body as a precaution, so we instructed the dealer to return the part to Toyota Ireland. We carried out a 3,000km test which found absolutely no fault with the throttle body. It is important to note that 1.4 Corolla petrol are not part of the recall campaign.
