It appears the ugly headlines surrounding Toyota products earlier this year are quickly becoming a distant memory.
Although the automaker still faces lawsuits over those rare stories of sticking accelerators, vehicle sales are starting to increase dramatically.
Eric Shangraw reports from a Toyota dealership in North Pekin.
Jim Houle is buying his fourth Toyota today. A 2010 Rav 4. Houle drives to Georgia twice a month to visit his grand kids. Despite the government investigation into Toyota safety issues, he remains a loyal customer with the miles to back up his convictions.
"My Matrix has 121,000 miles on it. I bought it in '05 so you know I do a lot of driving and like I said they don't break. I can't tell you any more than that, they don't break," said Houle.
To encourage customers to buy new again, Toyota is sweetening the deal this Spring with zero-percent financing and two years of free maintenance.
Over the last two months, Pat Fort says his dealership sold 120 vehicles, compared to 70 during the same period one year ago. In the first ten days of March, he sold as many vehicles as he did in all of February, when Toyota was in the news almost every day for product problems.
"It was almost overnight, we really had things pick up. Sales have really gone through the roof. We're up almost 60-percent over two months from 2009 to 2010," said Fort.
In the waiting room, Rose Orndorff is getting an accelerator pedal shim put in as part of the company recall to prevent cars from racing out of control.
"I must admit I had times when I got in the car and I had to roll through my safety plans, about what I would do if my accelerator was stuck in the fixed position. But it has not happened. We love our car it is the best car we've ever had," said Orndorff.
Fort says the beginning of the year was tough and discouraging. Now sales are up, moral among employees is up, and the worst seems to be in the rear-view mirror.
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