At a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, Toyota said it has received directives from Toyota Motor Corporation's to carry out a reassurance check on three of the model. Chandrasheker Thampy, the Managing Director TNL, apologised for the panic, concern and inconvenience the news of the global recall had caused their customers.
"The company is making a reassurance call to inform its customers that there is no cause to panic as the problem is very much not likely to occur with Toyota models in the country.
The three models are Toyota RAV4, Toyota Avensis 2.0 and a few sub models of the corollas.
TMC has been making recalls of some of its car model with faulty accelerator pedal which makes the brakes falter on slippery or frozen roads.
"This reassurance recall is a means of checking for any possibility of the defect being faced in other parts of the world, but we doubt we will be having any," said Michael Ade-Ojo, the company's chairman in Nigeria.
No extra charge
Mr. Ade-Ojo said the exercises will also be free of charge for cars bought from the accredited dealers, while "Toyota brands imported into the country through other means will also be attended to after we have attended to our own but it would be with a fee," he said.
Mr. Thampy explained that the problem is synonymous with the cold region where they have to put on the car heater during winter leading to a wear and tear on the sliding surface of the accelerator.
In the last week of January this year, TMC announced its intention to recall certain models of Toyota vehicles in American, European and Chinese markets in order to inspect and fix a likely problem that would have arisen.
Mr. Ade-Ojo said the lateness in addressing the issue was due to the fact that they believe there will be no occurrence of the problem, but TMC wants the company to be doubly sure that is why the check is going to take place.
Mr. Ade - Ojo further said that the company had not met to discuss the recall with the government since the beginning of the recall process all over the world.
This is contrary to the response from the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in an earlier story in NEXT that it had a meeting with the minister of state for Commerce and Industry, Humphrey Abbah, and all automobile importers and assemblers in Nigeria, and part of the outcome was that the Toyota cars that are being recalled were not in Nigeria yet.
