Toyota Extends Warranties, Pledges Repairs

DETROIT - Toyota Motor Corp. said it will extend warranties on about 235,500 RAV4 vehicles and address steering complaints on as many as 500,000 late model Matrix and Corollas in the United States, Reuters reported.

Toyota is taking the action to repair vehicles outside the channel for recalls tracked by U.S. regulators because it does not consider the reported problems to be safety issues.

Drivers of 2001 to 2003 model year RAV4s equipped with automatic transaxles may experience a "harsh shift" or have a dashboard light turn on indicating a malfunction, Toyota said in a notice to U.S. dealers.

Meanwhile, drivers of about a half million U.S. Matrix and Corolla vehicles from model years 2009 and 2010 may experience steering drift, the company said.

U.S. Toyota dealers will fix the steering for owners who complain, said Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons. He said the matter was not a safety issue but one of customer satisfaction.

In February, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had opened a preliminary investigation into complaints over steering issues on the Corolla and Matrix.

At the time, NHTSA had received 168 consumer complaints about the steering issue linked to eight crashes and 11 injuries.

Toyota has said Corollas made in Japan and Europe had different parts for steering than the affected models sold in North America.

Lyons did not provide an estimate of how much the repairs would cost Toyota.

The automaker estimated that fixing the steering would take about four hours representing a labor bill of about $350 per fix based on average dealer costs.