Toyota dealers have been instructed not to give out press interviews since Toyota made its momentous announcement on January 26 about halting sales pending a fix to the alleged stuck-accelerator problem. But here at Consumer Reports Auto Test Center we are regular Toyota customers, as well as members of the press, as we purchase vehicles regularly to test. So certified mechanic, and head of our squad of technicians, John Ibbotson called a local dealer to discover what customers are being told and what they should expect.
The dealer’s service rep said that customers would be asked to leave their contact information and that as soon as Toyota had decided how to proceed, when new parts or service procedures were ready, customers would be notified. Meanwhile, there wasn’t much he could offer. If customers were worried about their car, they could bring it in and the service people would inspect the accelerator to see that it was moving freely, and if necessary clean and dry and lubricate the moving parts, but that was about all they could do for now.
Beyond that, what happens next is purely speculative. The dealer’s service rep had heard the same rumors we had. That there were two throttle-linkage suppliers and that the suspicion had fallen on one of them, CTS, but not the other, Denso. But it’s not yet clear that this mechanism is really at the heart of the problem or not, or whether the parts made by the two suppliers are interchangeable, even supposing it is.
So far, then, our local Toyota dealer is as much in the dark as the rest of us are, and hoping Toyota finds a solution soon.
For more information on the Toyota recalls, see our unintended acceleration guide.
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