John: Toyota recalls models in accelerator scare

Feb 11 2010 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

GLITCHES of one sort or another are specific to certain models of car, as any roadside breakdown person will tell you.

I remember my old Hillman Imp kept having radiator problems – largely because, I was told, the manufacturers had strapped it on top of the engine and rear wheel drive shaft where it vibrated its little grommets loose in no time.

It was, in effect, a design problem and the world and his wife knew about it.

The last roadside rescue man I spoke to – a genial RAC chap called Paul – said that patterns in various makes and models quickly emerge.

“There’s a fair chance that if you’re called out to a stalled Piglet, it’s going to be alternator trouble. They’re known for it,” he said.

I’m glad I don’t drive a Piglet.

In life, politics and motoring, the man on the ground is always the man to ask.

The roadside mechanics spot these glitches first because they are out there, sleeves rolled up, under bonnets every day of the week.

They often work with the manufacturers, carrying approved replacements for the parts that are likely to go wrong.

When my car ‘died’ last summer, the RAC man who turned up said they were getting the same problem all over the country with the same model.

He handed me a cautionary leaflet that the manufacturers had given him, in this instance, on how to care for your battery.

Yet, as I reported at the time, my own garage said the problem was a one-off. Mine was the first car to be brought in with that kind of trouble.

Then, last month, suddenly the dealers are calling their owners in to have a faulty part replaced.

Guess what? It turned out my ‘one-off’ wasn’t a one-off at all. It was a genuinely faulty electrical part and it was causing potential mischief in thousands of cars the same make and model as my own.

I’m recounting this now because Toyota has just mounted a huge recall of vehicles – possibly the biggest ever – where in the US alone the owners of 3.8 million vehicles have been asked to come in to their dealers.