Filed under: Recalls, Toyota

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Toyota is sporting one of the biggest black eyes this industry has ever seen thanks to three high-profile recalls involving over 8 million vehicles. Smelling blood in the water, some automakers have taken advantage of the situation by offering incentives aimed directly at owners of those recalled Toyotas. Shady? Perhaps, especially considering that every automaker has more than a few recalls under its belt, some of which were just as embarrassing as Toyota's (We're looking at you, Ford).

Now companies outside the auto industry are trying to profit from Toyota's misfortune. The latest is Evenflo, a baby and infant car seat manufacturer that's offering a $10 discount to any owner of a recalled Toyota model. In a press release, Evenflo CEO Perry Odak says, "The last thing Toyota owners affected by recent recalls need to worry about is the safety of their child."

What Evenflo fails to mention in its press release (after the jump) is its own recall history. The latest one is for seats shipped without proper label stickers, which sounds innocent enough. The one before that was for seats with release handles that were not assembled completely, which could result in the seat separating from the base in an accident. Yikes. There's also one for foam liner that a child could choke on and another one for a handle trigger that could unexpectedly release. There's even a separate page on the Evenflo website just for recalls.

We asked Toyota how it felt about being a punching bag for other companies, to which Curt McAllister, a communications manager for Toyota in the U.S., replied, "We really don't appreciate being a news peg in a press release. We are working hard to assure our customers that their safety is our top priority and, yet, a company that supposedly touts safety is using worry and fear to sell a few extra car seats."

Point taken, and while Toyota shouldn't be excused for the mess in which it now finds itself, other companies, automotive or otherwise, should be more mindful of throwing stones in glass houses.

[Source: Evenflo, NHTSA]Continue reading Can't Recall? Car seat maker tries to profit from Toyota recalls, forgets own past

Can't Recall? Car seat maker tries to profit from Toyota recalls, forgets own past originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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