Automaker Toyota Promises Repairs on 735,000 Vehicles, Extends Warranties

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it will extend 235,000 RAV4 vehicle warranties and take care of complaints about the steering on up to 500,000 late-model Corolla and Matrix vehicles in the United States.

Toyota will repair the cars without issuing a recall tracked by regulators in the United States because it does not view the alleged problems as safety risks.

Owners of model year 2001-2003 Toyota RAV4 SUVs equipped with automatic transaxles could experience a “harsh shift” or see a dashboard warning light turn on to indicate a malfunction, Toyota reported in a notice sent to U.S. dealerships.

In the meantime, owners of roughly half a million Corollas and Matrixes from the 2009-2010 model years could experience drift in the steering, the automaker said.

Toyota dealerships in the United States will repair the steering problem for drivers who complain, according to Brian Lyons, a Toyota spokesman. He claimed the issue was a customer-satisfaction problem, not a safety risk.

In February, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a preliminary investigation of complaints about steering problems on the Matrix and Corolla.

When the investigation began, NHTSA had gotten 168 complaints from consumers about the steering problem linked to eight accidents and 11 injuries.

Toyota has reported that the Corollas produced in Europe and Japan came with different steering components than the impacted models sold in the North American market.

Lyons did not offer an estimate on how costly the repairs would be for Toyota.

The carmaker estimated that correcting the steering defect would require about four hours of labor, resulting in a bill of approximately $350 per vehicle based on average dealership costs.

Shifting Problems with the RAV4

Meanwhile, RAV4 drivers protected by the extended warranty will receive a letter this month instructing them to bring their vehicles to a Toyota dealership to be looked over if they have noticed a shifting problem.

Toyota will foot the bill for the repairs and extended warranties of the impacted RAV4 vehicles, the letter sent to dealerships reported.

U.S. Toyota dealerships received notice of the vehicle-repair campaign on Monday. Reuters obtained a copy of Toyota’s “Customer Support Program.”

Large carmakers frequently extend warranties or inform dealerships that they will pay for repairs that they deem to be irrelevant to the types of safety concerns covered by vehicle recalls.

The RAV4 extended-warranty campaign arrives after a string of conspicuous recalls that has hurt the carmaker’s reputation for high-quality vehicles. Roughly 10.8 million Lexus and Toyota models have been recalled worldwide since the fall of 2009.

Toyota reported that the solder in the RAV4’s engine control module circuits may peel over time.

Most of the time, dealerships would be able to repair any problems with the vehicle by installing an new engine control unit, Toyota reported.

With some vehicles, however, dealerships may also have to replace the RAV4’s automatic transaxle, Toyota said.