Toyota Ghana Company Limited as part of measures to curb fake spare parts, has introduced a project dubbed, “Team Toyota” to partner various garages in fighting the menace in the automobile market.

“Team Toyota” is a unique spare parts support project that offers garages the opportunity to partner with Toyota to supply genuine aftermarket spare parts to customers.

Mr Kohji Yanaka, the Managing Director, Toyota Ghana Company Limited, at the launch of the project, said as a business entity with the passion to provide excellence, “we consider it appropriate to periodically engage garages to find common solution to the needs of our mutual customers.”

He said with the growing units of Toyota vehicles in operation and maintenance cost becoming a concern for many transport owners, it had become imperative to identify innovative ways to close the gap for genuine spare parts support between new cars and used ones.

“We conducted a market survey recently and realised that quite several Toyota used car customers prefer second grade parts that are genuine and affordable in the preowned car segment,” he said.

The Managing Director said it was to satisfy the market demand that Toyota Motor Corporation had developed a unique product identified as “IAM parts” under the trade name “Team Toyota.”

Mr Kohji said the principle behind the objective was to create a reliable supply chain for sale of spare parts at very affordable price.

He said members of the association of garages with Toyota on the project would bring immerse benefit to their businesses by way of added cash and technical support.

The Managing Director said to firm the business relationship for the project, some few garages had been selected pioneers and would be issued with certificates of authorisation to commence activity under the “Team Toyota” trade name.

He said the garages would later be branded to reflect the new status and encouraged them to consider the certification as brand ambassadors with a purpose for customer excellence.

Mr Iddrisu Seidu, Aftersales Manager at Toyota Ghana, said the strategy was to focus on quality service delivery through certification of partner garages.

He said it was to provide affordable price parts and reliable service to create a safe and comfortable mobility society, while protecting customers from a threat of fake or poor-quality parts.

The Aftersales Manager said garages would benefit from quality parts supply, marketing support, technical support and quality control.

He urged the partners to endeavour to provide quality service, use the right parts for their services, acquire adequate tools and equipment and operate in safe and comfortable environment.

The garages selected so far are: Iken Auto Tech, Wagner Vehicle Management, Zdegree Auto Services and Klataa Engineering Solutions.