By Andrew Knittle
The Norman Transcript
Norman — With tales of deadly runaway cars and images of its CEO Akio Toyoda apologizing to U.S. lawmakers splashed all over the media, it’s been a rough couple of months for Toyota.
All the way down the line.
Norman dealer Fowler Toyota, which recently built a massive new facility at Tecumseh Road and Interstate 35, is feeling the backlash as well, general manager Rick Burgess said Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re off a little bit, but sales-wise, it’s not so minimal,” he said. “The ones it seems to affect are the people on the fence about which car they’re going to buy.”
Burgess said most of his loyal Toyota buyers aren’t too concerned about the bad news parade, but admitted that new customers may be difficult to lure right now.
“They hear all this negative stuff and a lot of them are scared off,” he said.
Toyota has recalled millions of cars since late 2009 and it was estimated during a House Oversight Committee hearing in Washington that about 40 people have been killed because of a faulty gas pedal in several popular models, including the top-selling Camry and the Prius hybrid.
Burgess said sales were further hurt in late January when Toyota stopped selling several models of popular cars and trucks for 26 days.
“Out of the 350 new cars I had on the lot, I probably had less than 100 I could sell,” he said.
GM incentives questioned
With more bad press than it knows what to do with, the last thing Toyota needs is more problems. But now, it appears the U.S. government is the latest to toss a hurdle in front of the world’s largest automaker.
Paul Atkinson, president of the Toyota National Dealer Council and owner of a dealership in Texas, issued a statement Tuesday blasting the federal government — which owns roughly 60 percent of General Motors, one of Toyota’s biggest rivals in the North American auto market.
Atkinson said GM’s aggressive campaign to lure away Toyota owners spooked by the rash of recalls is unjust, calling the U.S. government’s involvement “reckless, unfair and detrimental to the entire auto industry … and to the country.”
“It is time for the U.S. government to stop funding these predatory incentives that discourage fellow American citizens from doing business with me,” he said. “It is outrageous that GM is using our taxpayer dollars against us, making me and other Toyota dealers pay to undermine our own businesses.”
General Motors had been offering interest-free loans and customer-loyalty incentives to Toyota owners during the past several months.
Atkinson said Toyota dealers stimulate the economy, just like any other business, and shouldn’t be targeted.
“These incentives fail to take into account that, despite some recent problems, Toyota still makes some of the best cars, trucks and SUVs on the road in America,” he said. “These low-blow tactics pose a real threat to the citizens of the United States if the government lets these slip by.”
Calls to GM seeking comment regarding Atkinson’s statements weren’t returned Wednesday.
Used Toyotas stacking up
The Toyota brand, once synonymous with dependability, has no doubt suffered during the past few months.
Chad Baker, general manager at Marc Heitz Chevrolet, said his dealership — the largest GM dealer in the state — is definitely seeing a rise in sales to one-time Toyota owners. He said proof isn’t hard to find.
“We’ve currently got 17 Toyotas in our used car lot,” Baker said. “Normally, we have one or two … we took in a Toyota Prius this morning.”
In his 20 years in the local auto market, Baker said he’s never seen anything rivaling the mess Toyota is in right now.
“I don’t think anyone has,” he said. “Has any manufacturer since the beginning of time had this many recalls?
“I don’t think so.”
Despite the bad press surrounding Toyotas, Baker said he isn’t worried about getting stuck with a used car lot full of the Japanese autos.
“Not at all,” he said.
Fixing the problems
Fowler Toyota’s Burgess said his service department has been busy doing recalls since they were announced late in 2009, adding that his employees handle about 30 recall-related jobs each day. He said remediation of the faulty gas pedals, which are cut down by three-quarters of an inch and reshaped by in-house technicians, is time-consuming because workers also have to redo the carpet under the pedal.
“They have to go in, take out the carpet, take out the (carpet pad) underneath the carpet and replace it with a thinner (carpet pad),” Burgess said. “Just taking off the (adhesive) that holds the carpet takes quite a bit.”
Nonetheless, Burgess said his service department, which is open until 9 p.m., is weathering the storm as well as can be expected.
“We’re taking care of the problem,” Burgess said. “And I think we’ve done it in a way that our customers appreciate.”
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
