TOYOTA’S reputation has not been damaged by its decision to recall 1.8 million vehicles across Europe.
A survey by a leading warranty provider has revealed that more than 75 per cent of people do not view Toyota as a less reliable brand because of the recall over brake and accelerator issues.
Warranty Direct carried out the research on its Reliability Index website – a database that charts the trustworthiness of thousands of used cars by taking into account each vehicle’s rate of failure, cost of repair, mileage and age.
Duncan McClure Fisher, Warranty Direct spokesman, said: “For years Toyota has been one of the most dependable manufacturers and it will rightly continue to be seen as a reliable make by consumers.”
According to the company Toyota sits high in the Reliability Index, with just 12 per cent of its cars hitting a fault in an average year, well under the overall average of 28 per cent.
Warranty Direct rates the Corolla (2002-2007 model year) – Toyota’s most popular car – as being the most reliable motor on the road, with just one in 20 suffering a problem in the average year.
In Britain, Toyota is recalling some 180,000 iQ, Aygo, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Avensis and Verso models because of concerns over the accelerator mechanism.
A number of the latest generation Prius hybrid cars are also to have brake checks.
Toyota dealers across the UK are currently checking up to 6,000 cars a day and the company says that 90 per cent of vehicles involved will have been inspected and any rectifications carried out by early April.