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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Toyota pedal replacement parts aimed at fixing potentially sticking gas pedals have started to arrive at Utah Toyota dealerships.
Brent Brown, owner of Brent Brown Automotive Group, says his company received the first batch of parts Wednesday morning.
"We've been meeting with all of our employees and technicians and everybody," said Brown. "Everybody is so committed to this, to making sure this gets done quickly, efficiently and in a manner that the customers will be satisfied with and to work with their schedules."
Related:
Toyota probe deepens amid confusion over risk
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Toyota owners Wednesday they should stop driving their vehicles, then quickly took back his words, adding to confusion over the safety of millions of recalled cars.That means potentially long hours for technicians as customers bring in their recalled vehicles.
"We are closely monitoring in these first few days, in this earlier period of what the customer demand is going to be," said Brown. "We'll stay open as they demand."
He says they would even be willing to remain open 24 hours a day if necessary.
Toyota owners with recalled vehicles are being asked to give their dealer a call to check on the availability of the parts and schedule a time to bring their cars in for the repair work.
Toyota says recalled vehicles that have not experienced problems with their accelerator pedals are safe to drive.
The automaker's comments come after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that Toyota owners should stop driving recalled Toyota cars and trucks. LaHood later told reporters he misspoke, saying drivers of recalled vehicles should take them to dealerships to have them repaired.
Meanwhile, some Toyota owners actually think the concern is overblown, but that doesn't mean they aren't thinking twice about sticking pedals. Peggy Bigenho has a game plan for her '09 RAV-4.
"I have it in my head what I'm going to do if it happens," Bigenho said. "If it happens to stick, I'll shove it into neutral, maybe stick my foot under there and try to pull the petal back up."
She said she's not that concerned about the "worst case scenario." What she is concerned about is uncertainty. She said she has heard little from her dealer or Toyota.
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Story compiled with contributions from Randall Jeppesen, Andrew Adams and The Associated Press.
