Jim Lentz, Toyota’s president and COO sales, continued his national media blitz with a visit to Fox Business Network. Lentz detailed to the network that resolving the pedal acceleration issue will be “measured in months not weeks” and non-recalled models are “doing quite well.”
Here are few excerpts and a video from the Fox Business Network interview:
On a timeline to solve the safety issues:
“I think it’s going to be measured in months not weeks. I can’t tell you exactly how much. At the end of this week, we’ll have a much better idea.”
On recalling the pedal now after months of complaints:
“Initially, we concentrated on the floor mat. In hindsight, it was more about the pedal. We didn’t really understand how customers use floor mats. We didn’t have enough clearance under our pedals.”
“We actually acted quite quickly on that. From October of last year to today, we investigated it, we found a solution, and we implemented a solution….that’s 90 days; that’s pretty quick.”
On the pedal manufacturer feeling like the scapegoat:
“We’re not blaming the pedal manufacture. It’s our responsibility; we are going to take care of the customers. We’ll figure out why it happened down the road.”
Watch the latest business video at video.foxbusiness.com
Article Last Updated: February 1, 2010.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
