Bryan Schiavone ’12
Staff Writer
With six million cars recalled so far, Toyota is in the midst of its biggest U.S. recalls in history, but some Staples Toyota drivers don’t seem to be suffering from the effects of it.

“To be honest, it hasn’t affected my life at all,” said Sammy Reznik ’11, driver of a Toyota RAV4.

Reznik bought his first car from his grandmother in 2009. He had driven the car for less than half a year when he first heard about the recall.

“If it happens to me, I’ll be pretty pissed off,” Reznik said, “but that’s really unlikely.”

After researching online, Reznik discovered that his car was included on the recalled list.

“I did nothing, really” Reznik said, “I’m not really worried about it.”

Reznik’s unconcerned attitude toward the recall is mirrored by that of his parents, who assure him that there is nothing to be worried about.

Unlike Reznik, many Staples students who drive Toyotas have not been affected by the mass recall. As Staples students tend to buy pre-owned first cars, many teenage Toyota drivers find their cars safe to drive.

Larry Abel ’10, who drives a 2002 Toyota Sequoia, is surprised by the recall, but says that even if it were recalled, he wouldn’t have repaired it because it already has 130,000 miles on it.

“To be honest, it hasn’t affected my life at all,” said Sammy Reznik ’11, driver of a Toyota RAV4.

Like Abel, Tyler Jacobs ’11 was not affected by the Toyota recall. Yet, prior to learning that his model was not on the recall list, he and his family worried that he was operating an unsafe car.

“She [my mom] was nervous about my car being one of the types that was being recalled.” Jacobs said.

When the attention from the media died down, it became apparent that his car was safe to drive and Jacobs began to feel comfortable behind the wheel once again.

Like Jacobs, Steve Zion, owner of Toyota of Wallingford, attributes a large part of the problem to the media. Most of his employees drive Toyota vehicles, and a single complaint or accident has yet to be reported among them. The Toyota of Westport did not return any phone calls.

“There’ve been a lot of misstatements made by the press.” Zion said.

As a result of such misstatements, Zion’s says his sales have suffered greatly. Although there have been no reports of the malfunction, Zion has had over 600 people come in for repairs.

Zion also pointed out that, despite the fame of this particular recall, Toyota is only 17th on the nation’s automobile recall list. “Where are the other 16?” Zion said. “You don’t hear about them.”