Servco offering repairs, loaners in Toyota recall

Servco Pacific Inc. is urging drivers of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles with faulty air bags to visit one of its locations for repairs.

Casey Nishimura, Servco spokesperson, said the company has fixed about 14,850 affected Toyota vehicles in Hawaii recalled because of dangerous air bags made by Tokyo-based Takata Corp. Nishimura said Servco is offering repairs for free or, if parts aren’t available, a loaner car to owners of vehicles with the volatile air bags.

“Our goal is to get as many of the affected vehicles as possible,” Nishimura said. “We have been sending mailers out asking customers to set up an appointment with us.”

Hawaii drivers are high on Toyota’s priority list to fix the recalled air bags because of the state’s environment. Hawaii’s humidity can affect the chemicals used to inflate the air bags, causing them to explode with too much force, rupturing their steel containers and sending shrapnel through the vehicle.

The state’s climate can cause the airbag to degrade within six to nine years from the time the vehicle is put in service.

In May, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Office of Consumer Protection filed a lawsuit against Toyota, Ford Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., saying they knowingly sold cars with dangerous air bags.

Nissan representatives in Hawaii declined to comment when asked about how many affected vehicles are in the state and what the company is doing for owners of recalled vehicles. Hawaii Ford representatives did not respond.

Nishimura said Toyota is fixing affected cars in stages, those in an active campaign and those in an interim campaign.

Servco has the parts for all of the vehicles in the active campaign, under recall code G0P or E04. There are 31,500 vehicles total under those codes in Hawaii that were recalled because of Takata air bags, and roughly half of them have been repaired.

Toyota has also sent out notices to drivers of vehicles with recalled air bags under a different, interim campaign because the parts are not available. The recall code for the interim campaign is G1P.

Drivers who have been notified that their vehicle’s air bag has been recalled will get a loaner if Servco doesn’t have the parts.

“You can call our dealerships and we’ll provide a loaner vehicle or a rental car until a solution is ready,” Nishimura said.

He said drivers should check whether their car has been recalled by putting in their VIN number at ToyotaHawaii.com/recall.