Dear Valued Toyota Customer,

We wanted to take a moment and update you on the progress we’ve made completing open recalls for the gas pedal and floor mat entrapment that was so widely publicized in early February. Since early February we have literally performed thousands of recalls on affected vehicles. While Toyota originally anticipated late summer of 2010 before all of the models would have parts available, we are happy to announce that Toyota advised us that by June of 2010,  Toyota expects all models involved in the 90L recall, will have parts available for completion. As confusing as some of the parts releases have been, below is a chart that will help you quickly and easily determine whether or not your model was involved.

The following is the most current information available, please note that the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) determines whether or not the vehicle is involved in the recall:

AOA recall – Accelerator pedal steel reinforcement shim, all models below have parts available

2009-2010 RAV 4 models

2009-2010 Corolla models

2009-2010 Matrix models

2005-2010 Avalon models

2007-2010 Camry models

2010 Highlander – (Hybrid models not included)

2007-2010 Tundra models

2007-2010 Sequoia models

90L recall – Possible Floor Mat entrapment recall

2009-2010 Corolla – Parts release in June

2009-2010 Matrix – Parts release in June

2009-2010 Venza – Parts available

2008-2010 Highlander – Parts available

2005-2010 Avalon – Parts available

2007-2010 Camry (Gas and Hybrid) Parts available

2005-2010 Tacoma – Parts release in June

2007-2010 Tundra – Parts available

2004-2009 Prius – Parts available

For any other recall information on any other model or condition, please call any of our service staff with your VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) and we will gladly look up your vehicle and give you the latest information available. For more information on any Toyota recall please go to Toyota.com/recall for the latest information.

If you have been waiting to bring your vehicle in because of the volume of cars being recalled and our shop being too busy, you should know we are finished with over 50 % of our recall volume in just 3 months. Our service hours have been extended to 9:00 pm Monday through Friday and as always, we’re open 7 days a week. 

It has always been our policy to provide the very best in service. We believe you are driving one of the highest quality vehicles on the road today. We will work on any Toyota regardless of where your vehicle was purchased. We also work on other makes and models as well. Our customers have ranked among the very best in the country, the state and the Tampa market. Thank you for your continued support and business.

Our direct service line is 813-375-3050. Our direct e mail is service@toyotaoftampabay.com.

Hot off the market, this brand of hybrid car is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Prius stands for prize in most people’s book when they think about hybrid cars. And that’s not just because a Toyota Prius looks pretty. In terms of hybrid cars, the Toyota Prius has tons to offer car consumers. And it’s not as if potential hybrid car buyers don’t know that. News of the Toyota Prius is everywhere in the media.

Why? Well first of all, the Toyota Prius is a great kind of hybrid car. The model I speak of is Toyota’s petrol and electric hybrid model. It’s sharp, stunning, and is a best seller among hybrid cars. In the United States, the Toyota Prius got an award that was very comparable to the car of the year award given in Europe.

But the Toyota Prius hybrid car isn’t selling off the lots because it is the fastest car around. Some Toyota Prius’s have some pretty high profile owners. Among them are Leonardo Dicaprio, Harrison Ford, and Susan Sarandon. With these people driving this particular hybrid car, off course it’s selling like a hotcake. And the stars are doing a world of good for the sales of hybrid cars in general.

But while the success of the Toyota Prius is good for Toyota, it isn’t so good for its competitors who have yet to manufacture a hybrid car. Now Nissan, GM and other popular car manufacturers are trying to quickly get their act together and come up with their version of the hybrid car.

Some of these other manufacturers just did not believe that people would put their faith in the hybrid car as a solution to the constant fluctuation of oil prices. But the number of sales for the Toyota Prius hybrid car has certainly caused a change of tune for competing car manufacturers.

But as far as Toyota goes, claims have been made that in the near future, all Toyota engines will come with hybrid options. And Toyota also believes that it’s only a matter of time before all cars are hybrid cars or at least have hybrid engine options.

Soon it may expand its manufacturing plants to locations in places like California. Surely, there are plenty of movie stars there who can be persuaded to buy this hybrid car.

The Toyota Prius is certainly making a name for hybrid cars, and hopefully the buck won’t stop with the Prius. Toyota probably has some other models of hybrids cars that are fast making there way to having top sales as well.

Source: [Green Living Home Guide]

Toyota’s Prius has been a runaway success for the company. First introduced as an ‘01 model in 2000 in the United States market, the hybrid has continually gained in sales, gotten larger to accommodate American tastes, and has become more powerful and more fuel efficient.

According to a recent report from Motor Trend magazine, a new variant of the Prius will take boost passenger space and cargo capacity even further. Toyota is reportedly working on an “Alpha” minivan, which will share its platform with the current third-generation Prius.

The Alpha is said to ride on a wheelbase that is one inch longer than the current Prius hybrid’s 106.3 inches and overall length will be roughly a foot longer at around 187.6 inches. The Alpha will also have an extra row of seating bringing total passenger capacity to seven (up from five in the current Prius hatchback).

Although the Alpha will be larger and heavier than standard Prius, some of the added weight is expected to be offset by the use of a lithium-ion (li-ion) battery pack instead of the heavier nickel-metal hybrid battery pack currently used. According to Motor Trend, a li-ion pack would be roughly a third the weight of the existing battery pack.

Still, the Alpha is likely to get worse mileage than its more lithium propelled counterpart. The Prius hatchback is rated at a combined 50 mpg, so a heftier people mover based on the same platform would probably score somewhere around 45 mpg by our estimates.

However, that would still put it ahead of small family haulers like the Mazda 5 and Kia Rondo, which are rated at 24 mpg and 22 mpg, combined respectively.

Source: [Daily Tech]

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Toyota in recent months has blamed its quality lapses on its rush to top the world  in sales and said it will refocus its goals. But for now, Job one seems to be selling more cars and trucks. The company announced today that it will extend heavy incentives at least through May 3.

The incentives drove a nearly 41% sales rise in March, after recall publicity produced a February slide. So it will continue the lease deals for eight of its best-sellers and continue 0%/60 month financing on six of them.

It also will expand its two-year free maintenance offer.  “We’re extending the two-year complimentary maintenance program, that proved to be very popular with existing Toyota owners in March, to all buyers in April,” says Bob Carter, GM of the Toyota Division for Toyota Motor Sales, USA. “We are pleased by our customers’ continued vote of confidence, and want to thank them for their loyalty by adding value to our products.”

Source: [USA Today]

Toyota promised to respond faster to customer complaints as it held its first meeting of a quality experts committee set up to help salvage a reputation battered by massive recalls and reports of runaway vehicles.

Toyota Motor Corp. appointed chief quality officers in key regions – including North America – where the biggest problems have surfaced to convey customer complaints quickly to its headquarters. It promised to add outside experts, including former U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, in evaluating quality measures.

“Listening to consumer voices is most important in regaining credibility from our customers,” said Toyota President Akio Toyoda at a news conference after the quality committee met. “We are setting up a system to respond more quickly to complaints.”

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world since October for defective gas pedals, faulty floor mats and braking software glitches. Most of them have been in the U.S., where Toyota sales fell 9 percent in February, according to Autodata Corp.

The quality committee meeting brought together 70 executives and autoworkers from Toyota’s global operations at the automaker’s headquarters in central Japan.

Toyota said the company needs to listen more carefully to proposals for better quality, including what drivers are saying.

The company said the quality panel of outside experts will issue its first evaluation report in June, and the quality committee will meet regularly to exchange insights and tackle safety issues.

But Tatsumi Tanaka, a crisis management expert who heads Risk Hedge in Tokyo, said Toyota needed to show that its regional businesses will have the autonomy to act and do more than just communicating complaints to headquarters.

“It’s not enough to say officials got together and met. You need to put people’s worries to rest,” he said.

The quality officers denied anything had been seriously amiss before, or that the new panel signaled radical change.

“I’m actually very excited about the new process. I represent the voice of the customers from North America, and it’s my job to make sure it is fully understood,” said Steve St. Angelo, the North American quality official.

But it was unclear how Toyota can hope to resolve lingering worries that the problem of unintended acceleration in some of its cars may be rooted in an electronic or software defect – an allegation that Toyota has repeatedly denied.

“It is in Toyota’s best interest to find the cause as quickly as they can, using all the help they can get. Trying to save face will ultimately fail,” said Bob Landman of H&L Instruments, an electronics company in North Hampton, New Hampshire, who has been a vocal critic of Toyota’s handling of recalls.

Landman is among the experts who have argued that software glitches and a short circuit caused by the use of lead-free materials in car parts are among the possible explanations for unintended acceleration.

Also Tuesday, Toyota said it will add a brake override – a system that allows the brakes to work if they are pressed together with the accelerator – to new models starting this year. That follows reports in the United States of vehicles speeding up on their own.

Under an effort to beef up quality checks, Toyota said it will set up four additional facilities to train employees in quality controls – in North America, China, Europe and Southeast Asia – modeled after the training center it already has in Japan.

The company said it will expand the use of “black box” data recorders that can help analyze the causes of accidents and speed up communication among quality control teams to make faster decisions on recalls.

Toyota showed reporters its facilities at headquarters, which are designed to check on possible defects in vehicles and parts targeted in consumer complaints.

Among the tests were an X-ray machine that presented three-dimensional computer imagery, an area that simulated heavy rains with water squirting from 400 nozzles, and a room that got both freezing cold and steaming hot to check how vehicles react under extreme weather conditions.

The media tour was intended to illustrate the hard work at the automaker to ensure quality control and respond to driver complaints. Toyoda has acknowledged that the company may have failed to be as quick or responsive as consumers would have liked about defects, especially overseas.

Toyota’s North American sales appear to be recovering this month. Toyota, which generally does not offer big incentives, has begun offering zero-percent financing deals on some models in the U.S. to bring customers back into showrooms.

Toyota’s bottom line is expected to suffer, perhaps by billions of dollars, from a spate of lawsuits being filed by consumers, including some who say they suffered damages from defective Toyota vehicles.

After the crash of a Prius hybrid in New York this month, police said the driver, not the car, was to blame. Officials are investigating another Prius that reportedly accelerated on its own in California.

“To ensure quality, we need to feel we are always at risk,” Shinichi Sasaki, the Toyota executive in charge of quality checks, told reporters. “We should be so worried about our customers we should be having nightmares.”

Source: [Yahoo News]