Toyota Ghana educates mechanics on authentic spare parts

Eighty mechanics from 60 garages in the Greater Accra Region on Thursday participated in a day’s training seminar on how best to identify genuine Toyota parts on the Ghanaian market.

     The training was to make the mechanics aware of the existence of fake Toyota parts.

     Mr Eric Dako, General Manager of Toyota Ghana Limited, urged the mechanics to use genuine Toyota parts in their operations, for customers’ satisfaction.

     He assured them of the company’s continued support to promote the auto mobile industry.  

     Mr Leslie Ohene-Ampong, Accra Parts Manager, in a presentation on spare parts enumerated numerous dangers in the use of fake Toyota parts including short life span of the engine, high maintenance cost, uncomfortable driving conditions, safety, security of passengers and vehicle.

     He said the training was to educate the mechanics to appropriately service their customers on the dangers of using fake Toyota spare parts.

     On the benefits of using genuine parts, Mr Ohene-Ampong noted that it was cost effective and would not bring any problems to their vehicles.

     "Some of the Toyota key products imitated include; oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, brake pads, drive belts, spark plugs and shock absorbers," he added.

     Explaining the difference between the genuine drive belt and the fake, he said the genuine Toyota drive belt was rubber coated to prevent cracking while non-genuine belts had simple configuration and inferior combination of materials.

     For the genuine oil filter, it has dual texture elements with high heat resistant gasket which delivers long lasting stable performance while non-genuine oil filter has fine and thin element which could easily tear with low heat resistant gasket that easily deforms making the valves to easily fail causing leakages.  

     Mr Kenneth Badong, Lubes Specialties Engineer at Total Petroleum Ghana Limited, in a presentation on Lubricant Technology, said the function of lubes were to reduce friction in the engine.

     In addition, it prevents engines from rusting and cohesion.

     He advised the mechanics to challenge any Total Filling Station that dealt in fake lubricants and report to the appropriate authorities.

     The mechanics appealed to management to regularly organise training workshops for the junior and senior apprentices to equip them adequately in the industry for the future.

     In addition, management should provide maintenance manual to update their knowledge.

     Special awards were presented to the mechanics for their loyal, dedication and outstanding performance in the promotion of Toyota Genuine parts last year.

     The recipients were Amass Company Limited, for the Gold Award, Modern Garages for Bronze, Solar Auto Works for Silver and Moonic Auto Clinic the 2010 New Discovery. 

     They were grateful to the management for instituting the awards scheme to encourage mechanics to perform better.