Ask The Best And Brightest: How About Those Repaired Toyota Pedals?
Nearly a month ago, Toyota’s Jim Lentz was asked by National Public Radio about the then-new “shim fix” for sticky accelerator pedals.
NPR asked: “if I’m a Toyota owner subject to this recall and I say ‘I don’t want a repaired accelerator pedal, I want a new one.’ Is that an option?” To which Lentz replied: “it will be looked at on a case-by-case basis.” When NPR asked for Lentz to clarify what he meant by “case-by-case basis,” he said “It’s really up to… between the dealer and the customer. We would like to see customers get this fix done with the precision cut steel bar and see how that is. I think the customers are going to be very satisfied with overall quality of the pedal and the feel of the pedal.”
At the time, this was interpreted as a not-so-great sign for Toyota’s “precision cut” shim fix. Reinforcing the impression that some might not be happy with the fix, a Toyota memo to dealers has surfaced today at the AP [via Google], which requests that:
If a customer is not satisfied with the operation and/or the feel of the accelerator pedal after the reinforcement bar has been installed, please assist us by assuring a replacement pedal is provided at no charge to these customers
Which makes us wonder: is there anyone out there who has had the shim fix done to their recalled Toyota only to have the problem reoccur? Has anyone requested a replacement pedal instead of the shim fix, and had a Toyota dealer turn you down? Toyota is probably playing it safe by asking dealers to provide new pedals, but we’re cant help but wonder why they would cast suspicion on the shim fix this way. Any ideas?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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My wife and I have owned Toyotas since 91 when we bought our first Tercel. Since then we've owned various Tercels,Corollas,Camrys and 4Runners,some bought some leased. With the exception of a Jeep GC Laredo in 99 which was a steaming pile. And in almost 20 years of Toyotas I have replaced 1 starter in a 99 4Runner and a heater fan motor in a 2001 Corolla,thats it,aside from regular maintainence. And I use my 4Runners hard during 7 months of various hunting seasons,and they take a beating. So yeah,Toyota has earned my business,I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe it's all in the angle of the dangle.
A friend of mine is a service director at a Toyota dealership. He said the part cost is about $275, so the shim is considerably cheaper -- probaly costs less than a buck. The labor is the same either way. "Case by case basis" is a way for Toyota to avoid putting a new pedal in every vehicle -- they will wait for the customer to complain about the shim. No complaint, and Toyota saves $275. The shim must meet the legal requirements for the recall (or Toyota convinced the Feds that it does), so Toyota isn't obligated to replace the pedal. With millions of vehicles affected, that adds up to a lot of money saved for Toyota
Hey porschespeed -- not sure what it costs Toyota to buy it from the supplier, hopefully more than $5! Either way, $275 is what they would have to reimburse the dealer for installing it. Manufacturers sell the parts to the dealer, and then reimburse the dealer for the dealer cost plus a markup. (I spent some time at a dealership in parts and service). Some of that $275 is Toyota margin when they sold the part to the dealer, but most of it is money out of their pocket. Also since they already put the spacer in, each pedal replaced would be a new labor charge -- I think my friend said it was about 2 hours labor -- many dealers are close to $100/hour, so the total to Toyota is almost $500 per vehicle. So every 2 million vehicles would cost them about $1 Billion. Even for Toyota that's some real money!