Freeport News Reporter
With Toyota's recall affecting thousands of vehicles in Canada and the United States, Quality Auto Sales, the only dealership on the island, said that the problem has no impact here.
Store manager, Whitfield Bain, told The Freeport News yesterday that the recall does not apply to vehicles sold locally and in the country at Quality Auto Sales.
The problem, he said, is mainly in the European, United States, Canada and China markets.
Bain explained that local Toyota vehicles would not be affected because our vehicles are Caribbean built and specified for our local Caribbean market.
"They build the same vehicles but they are processed out of different factories. The problem is not the car, the problem is the part that they use that deals with the brakes."
Bain said that a letter from top Toyota executives confirmed that the models sold to the national company ( in Japan) are not affected by the recall exercise.
"The accelerator pedal component of the affected models used in the U.S. markets are different from the Toyota models sold in your country by your company. We would like to advise that there is no cause for concern of this matter," a letter informed, according to Bain.
The store manager said that Quality Auto carries about eight different models of Toyota vehicles, none of which were affected.
"Toyota happens to be one of the most popular cars because they are some of the more reliable cars that are offered," Bain said.
"USA Toyota worldwide did not hesitate to pull their vehicles out the market if they thought for one minute they would be a risk. We would have done the same here in Freeport if we had any idea or any suggestion or any fact to say that any of our vehicles was at risk to any of our customers here in Grand Bahama. We would have pulled it off immediately."
Despite all of that, Bain said that naturally many persons were concerned about vehicles that they had purchased and they were able to explain to them exactly what was going on.
"We made them aware that they were not at any risk at all and we have never had to recall any vehicle in the history of Quality Auto Sales."
Bain said that those who should be concerned are the persons who may have purchased Toyota vehicles di-rectly from the United States.
If residents do fall into that category, Bain said that Quality Auto Sales is waiting for Toyota to issue the necessary parts for repair for them to assist those persons, but he encourages persons to contact their U.S. dealer for further advice.
" As it stands right now the main focus is on the U.S. Anyone who purchased from the U.S. should notify their dealer and they in turn will instruct them on what to do.
As Toyota is a brand that the company always carries, Bain said that obviously they will be affected by the recall in one way or another.
"The name Toyota is out there but the brand has always been a good brand. I think that they are doing the right thing because the most important thing is the safety of the customers."
He urged for any customer who might be concerned to call the local office for more information.
Other Caribbean countries that were not affected by the Toyota's recall include: Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Curacao, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St. Martin and Trinidad and Tobago.
