With Toyota stopping sales for recall, is yours safe to drive?

With Toyota's stunning decision yesterday to stop sales of eight models, is it safe to drive your car?

That's something a lot of Toyota drivers should be asking themselves today. If thousands of cars , including best-sellers Corolla and Camry, can't be sold because of fears the accelerator could stick, then why is it safe to keep driving millions of cars on the road that also could become runaways?

So far, Toyota is standing pat, saying it's just fine to keep driving your Toyota -- even if under recall -- as long as it's not experiencing telltale signs that it could be susceptible to a sticking accelerator. Of course, just a couple of days ago Toyota was insisting that it was just fine to sell new cars that were subject to a recall. Look how fast that message changed:

"As part of the recall, we are obliged to suspend sales until there is a remedy ... but the advice for customers remains the same," Toyota spokesman Mike Michels tells Drive On. While Toyota's recall was voluntary, Toyota says it's following government protocols that require it to stop selling cars unless it has an immediate remedy, and it doesn't. It can't fix the part that can wear and cause unintended acceleration in all the cars right away.

If you own a Toyota that's under recall, pay careful attention to whether the accelerator pedal action seems rough or is sluggish in returning to the idle position, he says.

Only then, if you experience this, "They should not operate the vehicle anymore ," Michels says. He insists that "recalls happen all the time where owners continue to drive their cars."

But few recalls can cause a problem as sensational as ones that have killed some Toyota or Lexus drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has already shown that drivers of a runaway Toyota or Lexus may be unable to stop the car by stomping on the brake pedal, become confused in trying to shift into neutral or contend with stop-start buttons that take three seconds of continuous pushing to shut off.

Toyota had already ordered drivers of many models to remove floor mats that could jam under accelerator pedals. The latest problem reversed Toyota's previous denials that accelerator pedals could jam open on their own, and a permanent fix could be a long time in coming.
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Scott Florin
Sales SugarLoaf Ford Winona
507-313-1506

Ford's next Explorer will get better gas mileage

Ford is going ahead with a new version of what was once one of its highest-flying models, the Explorer. The well-known SUV will become a crossover that gets at least 25% better gas mileage than the stagnant model it replaces, Cars.com's Kicking Tires blog is reporting.



Ford will hire or transfer 1,200 workers to its Chicago plant to help assemble the new unibody Explorer, effectively doubling the employees there. The cars currently built there — the Taurus and Lincoln MKS — combined for more than 60,000 sales in 2009 to the current Explorer's 52,190, and Ford clearly expects headier days for its once-iconic SUV.


Ford has been retooling the plant — part of a $180 million investment in both the Chicago Assembly Plant and Ford's Chicago Heights, Ill., stamping plant — for some time to accommodate the new Explorer, which goes on sale the fourth quarter of this year.

Ford spokesman Jay Ward wouldn't confirm or deny most of the details, except to reiterate that the Explorer will move to a unibody platform and offer significantly better gas mileage than before.



The new Explorer will share its platform with the Taurus and MKS, but it will offer a turbocharged four-cylinder EcoBoost engine, a source tells Cars.com. Ford will also offer the "big V-6" from the Taurus and MKS, according to a source.
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Scott Florin
Sales SugarLoaf Ford Winona
507-313-1506

Toyotas Reputation for Quality was gone Long ago !

Toyota HALTS Sales and Production of 8 models !

read on........

Tony Van Alphen
Business Reporter
Toyota says it is halting the production and sale of eight recalled models – including its three most popular vehicles in Canada – so it can catch up to accelerator pedal repairs.
The auto giant revealed late Tuesday that it had instructed dealers across the country to halt sales of models already part of a wider recall of 270,000 vehicles that the company announced last week to resolve possible problems with sticking accelerator pedals.

"We are stopping sales and production so we can meet the needs of current Toyota owners of these affected models," Toyota Canada Inc. spokeswoman Sandy DiFelice said.

The company said it needs the accelerator pedals that it normally would use on the assembly line to meet the demand for repairs on cars in the recall list, including the Corolla compact, RAV4 sport utility, Matrix crossover, Avalon and Camry cars, Highlander and Sequoia sport utes and the Tundra truck.

As a result, Toyota will idle output of the Corolla and Matrix in Cambridge and the RAV4 sport utility vehicle in nearby Woodstock during the week of Feb. 1

The company did not indicate when it would renew sales of the affected models.



Toyota's announcement is the latest to dent the company's stellar reputation in the industry for quality and durability built over the past two decades.

A Toyota official could not confirm if the production stoppage would lead to any worker layoffs or if the company would employ them in other duties during that week.

The Cambridge plant employs about 4,000 workers who also build Lexus RX350 crossovers in addition to the Corolla and Matrix.

The Woodstock operation has a workforce of 1,000 but is scheduled to expand to about 1,800 in March.

The Corolla is the second-best selling car in Canada while the RAV4 and the Matrix are second and third in sales for the company.

Toyota also halted sales of the eight models in the United States and curbed production at assembly plants in Kentucky, Indiana and Texas.

In a statement, Toyota disclosed that it had investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in some models without the presence of floor mats.

"There is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partly depressed position or return slowly to the idle position," the company added.

The company announced the 270,000-vehicle recall last week, affecting various model years in Canada and the United States. The recall south of the border involves 2.3 million vehicles.

Late last year, the company sent letters to owners of 209,000 cars and trucks so it could make changes to avoid any chance of runaway acceleration.

It started the "safety improvement campaign'' for various Toyota and Lexus models after a probe by Transport Canada.

It came after Toyota posted an "alert" on its website in September that asked customers to remove driver's side floor mats from seven models until the company found remedies because of the possibility they could cause accelerators to get stuck.

In the U.S., Toyota recalled 4.2 million vehicles last November in response to concerns about the pedals becoming stuck because of floor mats.

"The sticking accelerator pedal recall is separate from the ongoing campaigns involving certain Toyota and Lexus vehicles to reduce the risk of pedal entrapment by incorrect or out of place accessory floor mats," the company noted in its statement Tuesday.

"The safety of customers and restoring confidence in Toyota vehicles is our first priority."

The pedal recall and sales suspensions affect the 2009-2010 RAV4 models, 2009-2010 Corollas, 2009-2010 Matrixes, 2005-2010 Avalons, 2007-2010 Camrys, 2010 Highlanders, 2007-2010 Tundras and 2008-2010 Sequoias.

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Scott Florin
Sales
SugarLoaf Ford Winona
507-313-1506