Toyota Update: CTS Blames Toyota, Already-Produced Vehicle Retrofitting Could Take Years
Supplier CTS, who produced the gas pedals now under recall from Toyota, tells Automotive News [sub] that it “built parts to the automaker’s specifications and says it has no knowledge that its parts were responsible for any accidents or injuries.” Sources at CTS tell AN that although they are working on a fix with Toyota and that new pedals have been tested and are shipping to Toyota plants, “this is their recall.” That would seem to contradict the facts of the case, as Denso, Toyota’s gas pedal supplier for Japanese-built models, has not been involved in the recall. According to Inside Line, the issue with pedal return damping that has plagued CTS-supplied, US-built Toyotas has not turned up in Denso-produced gas pedals.
Accordingly, analysts tell AN [sub] that publicly-traded dealer groups could lose up to $1.5m gross profit per week because of the recall. Matt Nemer of Wells Fargo Securities says groups like AutoNation, Penske and Group1 could see per-share losses of 2 cents per week, putting downward pressure on their stock prices. Already Group1, which is one of the most import-dependent of the bunch, has seen its stock slide over 6 percent.
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Do European/Japanese Toyotas get Denso while their N. American counterparts get CTS? If so, CTS is to blame and looks like they're about to lose a big contract. Either that or European/Japanese drivers are less litigious and unlike N. American drivers, they know how to stop a car under UIA circumstances.
On Edmunds.com (Update #8), a Toyota spokesman said: a) the fix is made and pedals are shipping, b) TMC is working with the supplier to develop a field repair ... This means TMC prefer to fix the pedals rather than replace them (this route being faster, cheaper, and doesn't disrupt production and cash-flow generation like a full-fledged remove and replace field action would.) Unfortunately, this also means the fix will only be as good as the worst mechanic in the Toyota dealer system.
My 2008 4Runner was made in Japan. Thank Tokyo for that !
"That would seem to contradict the facts of the case, as Denso, Toyota’s gas pedal supplier for Japanese-built models, has not been involved in the recall. According to Inside Line, the issue with pedal return damping that has plagued CTS-supplied, US-built Toyotas has not turned up in Denso-produced gas pedals. Separately, AN [sub] reports that blueprints for the redesigned pedal were finalized earlier this week, and are now being shipped to Toyota plants." Not really; having to change the drawing implies there is something fundamentally wrong with the design more than it does a problem with CTS' process. There may be a number of reasons why the Denso parts aren't affected, for example they may be of a slightly different design which allows commonality with related Right Hand Drive models, which would be the majority of Japanese production. By the way the term 'Blueprints' died out with 1960's spy thrillers. Nobody in the industry uses it.