Frida; the latest news is that Toyota now has a government approved replacement pedal assembly out and will be shipping those next week. That’s a quick response and, I’m sure a proper fix.
While I have never owned a Toyota, I would not hesitate to own certain Toyota models.
As was said, every car maker has issues, and every car maker has had recalls. If the public perceives that this was handled well by Toyota, then there will not be long-standing problems for that company.
Think about the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire debacle. Even though that problem had to do with internal separation of those Firestone tires (especially when run with low pressure), many people identified this safety problem as a Ford problem, rather than a Firestone problem. In spite of that, Ford is doing very well nowadays, thank you. Take a look at their most recent profit figures if you doubt me. If Ford was able to overcome the HUGE bruhaha over the Explorer/Firestone issue, so can Toyota.
As the Old Testament tells us, This too shall pass.
I read in this morning’s paper that Toyota and NHTSA sources say that the repair is a shim placed into the mechanism that will not stick when condensation occurs. It’s not official yet, so the sources remained anonymous. The official announcement is expected tomorrow. There will probably be a combination of replacement mechanisms and shims, depending on severity of the condition and who owns the car. (Toyota, dealer or you)