Locals unaffected by Toyota’s million-vehicle recall

The local authorised Toyota dealer said vehicles in Antigua will not likely be part of the worldwide recall of one million hybrids over potential fire risks.
On Wednesday, the vehicle manufacturer said the recall covers its Prius, Prius plug-in hybrid and C-HR SUV models as the car manufacturer intends to repair a problem with the electrical systems of the identified models, which in some cases can cause fires.
More than half of the affected vehicles are in Japan, while just under 200,000 are said to be in the United States. The rest were sold in Europe and other markets.
OBSERVER media reached out to Harney Motors, the authorised dealer here for many years. A representative of the company said that there are less than six of the affected model on the road, however, the owners of those vehicles would have to find out if their vehicles were manufactured during the recall period of June 2015 to August 2018.
“We are not affected, we only do the Rav4. People in Antigua don’t really import hybrids. The company brought in one Prius,” the representative said.
The customary procedure is that Toyota would send the local dealership a list of vehicles that are affected by any recall. The company said Japan would not know where in the world vehicles manufactured for that region would end up so the onus is on individuals who think that they may have an affected vehicle to contact the manufacturer.
A determination would be made on who would bear the cost for workmanship to replace the faulty part.
Toyota said the problem involved wire harnesses that connect to the cars’ power control units. These can wear away over time, generating heat.
The company said it would provide fixes to customers free of charge. The Japanese carmaker has had problems with the Prius before.
In 2016, it recalled more than 1.7 million of the vehicles over issues related to their airbags and parking brakes.
The Prius is a full hybrid electric automobile developed by Toyota and manufactured by the company since 1997, while the C-HR is a crossover resembling a small SUV.