Business News
Toyota mulls discounts to revive sales in Germany
Feb 19, 2010, 11:28 GMT
Hamburg - Toyota confirmed Friday it was mulling discounts in Germany to counter the bad publicity of recent recalls to fix faulty accelerators and brakes.
'Higher incentives are one option,' said Alain Uyttenhoven, the chief executive of Toyota Germany, in remarks to the newspaper Financial Times Deutschland. But he said Toyota would not enter an outright 'discount war.'
Asked what proportion of customers had been put off Toyota by he recalls, he said, 'Seventy per cent of Toyota owners are loyal. The other 30 per cent hesitate and consider buying other brands.'
The company - the world's biggest carmaker - is recalling 8.5 million cars to fix problems that include an accelerator pedal that can become sticky after years of use and remain jammed down.
The Japan-based company must also fix an anti-blocking system that sometimes fails to activate when a car's brakes are applied too softly while stopping on a bumpy or slick road.
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