The defects have forced the company to pull out some eight million cars from worldwide markets. At least 80,000 cars have been recalled from the region.

The crisis is expected to cause the company some two billion dollars in losses.

Effects on the local market?
Out of the 13 car brands with the brake fault defects, two brands are distributed in the Middle East ; the “Sequoia and Avalon.”

Being one of the Middle Eastern markets, what is the effect of the Toyota crisis on Lebanon especially with rumors saying that some of the cars have been sold to local customers?

Officials from Boustany United Machineries (BUMC), the exclusive distributors of Toyota and Lexus Brands in Lebanon, said that the local market is isolated from the latest Toyota crisis as the brands with defects are not distributed in local market “yet.”

The officials said that the company imports its cars directly from Japan whereas the defected cars were detected in factories located in the United States. 

The company officials said that the only problem that might be detected in Lebanon is that “some of the local customers have bought the cars directly from the US market, and those cars might be defected.” The officials said that “they are ready to repair the defects even if they are not bought directly from their local shops.”