The after-sales service sector in Toyota Egypt launched Toyota Lubricants in the Egyptian market to maintain the efficiency of Toyota cars in the market, after the General Administration of Supply Police seized counterfeit lubricants bottled in branded packages for sale in the market, in addition to low price lubricants, which could be recycled oil and sold as new.
Samir Ali, head of Toyota’s after-sales sector, said that the company puts its customers’ interests at the top of its priorities, including the b maintenance of their cars against any damage that may result from the use of refined or recycled oils. The Japanese car maker is the only company to produce its own lubricants, making them more aware of the specifications required for their cars.
He added that his company aims to increase its market share of oil sales in Egypt to reach 5% next year in the case of providing oils for only its 150,000 Lexus and Toyota cars in the local market. He pointed out that other brand owners, especially Japanese companies, can use Toyota oil considering its high quality.
Toyota Egypt provides 10 different types of oil in Egypt with various viscosity for different purposes and uses. The company has introduced a variety of oils for diesel and gasoline engines, and gearbox. The type of oil used varies according to engine type, climate, operating conditions, and distances. Toyota offers all kinds of oils that suit its cars.
All of these oils are available in the after-sales service network of Toyota and Lexus, which covers Egypt with 14 integrated centres, including Toyota’s own centres at licensed distributors, in addition to more than 15 exhibitions selling Toyota spare parts. Ali noted that the company has contracted with more distributors in Egypt to help customers reach the products anywhere.
He stressed the importance of oils to engines, such as the importance of blood to living organisms, pointing out that using the wrong oil reduces the engine’s life or damages it, so the car owners must realise the importance of using the right oil for their vehicles and the optimal timing for change. He pointed out that the original oil of Toyota International has been produced at the highest standards to maintain the smooth and efficient performance of Toyota cars in different operating conditions, as the company’s engineers are constantly developing the ideal oils for Toyota to suit different driving conditions around the world.
Toyota is very likely to manufacture the oil in Egypt if it has the appropriate economic feasibility, stressing that Toyota’s different oil production plants around the world present the highest quality products.
The original Toyota oils have been developed carefully so that the engine works brilliantly through different weather conditions and multiple driving requirements. It has been proven that the use of original Toyota oils has many important advantages, allowing maximum engine power to be achieved with the best economic and smooth performance for all engine components. It reduces wear rate of moving parts and eases pressure on piston and engine cylinder walls, thus achieving the highest performance and a clear increase in mileage per litre of fuel.
Toyota oil protects engines in several ways: first, it cleans engines by removing the impurities and sediments from their components, prevents clogging of important oil tracks, and helps to preserve the sediments until they are removed when changing oil, thus it prolongs the life of engine and helps operates efficiently. Toyota oil also creates a protective layer on the components of the engine to reduce friction between them and thus avoid some expensive repairs when using oils of lower quality.
One of the most important characteristics of Toyota oils is that they work to remove heat from the body of the engine, where the heat is kept away from the hot areas in the engine, such as the combustion room where the temperature can reach more than 300C, and instead redistribute the heat around the engine to be eliminated by the cooling system of the engine.
To ensure that Toyota oils match the best international specifications and quality, Toyota Egypt tested all the categories imported at one of the largest American labs, in addition to being tested by the General Organisation for Import and Export Control (GOEIC), which confirmed that Toyota oils have the highest international quality standards. However, Toyota Egypt has been keen to provide oils at very competitive prices compared to other companies as a special service for its customers.
In order to protect the interests of its customers from any damage caused by non-compliant oils, Toyota uses oil containers that are only usable once, so it is easy to distinguish whether the package has been opened or not, in addition to a Toyota stamp on the down side of cap, which is hard to forge.
Ali explained that as a culmination of the outstanding efforts of Toyota Egypt in the field of customer service, the company won the best after-sales service award from Toyota International for the past three years.
One of the most important reasons for obtaining these awards is investing in manpower, both technicians and engineers, through the implementation of specialised scientific and practical training programmes for Toyota International, which teach the best ways to serve customers, and train them to maintain and repair Toyota cars at the highest technical level.
The company has also established the largest distribution centre in Egypt, built on an area of 30,000 sqm at the cost of EGP 140m and was opened in 2014. It aims to provide the highest quality spare parts to keep pace with the increasing rate of new cars sales. It was designed to provide spare parts for about 500,000 vehicles. The centre also helps to provide spare parts for Toyota customers by over 97% and also helped control spare parts prices to reach Toyota customers at the lowest possible cost.
For Upper Egypt, Ali said that the company has an investment vision and strategy for after-sales service to all Toyota customers there. In addition to the existence of an authorised distributor with an integrated service centre in Beni Suef, the company purchased a 10,000 sqm land in Minya governorate to establish an integrated service centre. It also has a plan to spread and offer its services to Toyota customers in the rest of the region. The company is about to complete the establishment of a service centre in Sharm El-Sheikh and will then head for other cities.
Counter counterfeit spare parts
Toyota is one of the most successful automotive companies in countering counterfeit spare parts. It is making much efforts in this field, given that the use of counterfeit parts is not only a threat to the safety of customers, but also represents a serious threat to public health, the environment, and the Egyptian economy in general. Therefore, the company has made an annual plan for this regard. Among the most important steps of this plan, the company held a number of conferences and training courses for representatives of all concerned governmental bodies responsible for spare parts in Egypt, including the Egyptian Customs Authority, General Administration of Supply Police, and Consumer Protection Authority to explain the dangers of using counterfeit parts and offer training on how to differentiate between the genuine spare parts and fake ones using special tools provided by Toyota International.
Toyota Egypt handed over specialists from the Customs Authority some of these testing tools to detect counterfeit goods before being released in the market. The company also addressed all concerned parties to not allow the entry of any Toyota spare parts before being approved by Toyota Egypt.
To combat counterfeit spare parts that have already entered the Egyptian market, the company, in cooperation with the parent company in Japan and a specialised law office, investigates and searches for counterfeit car parts to report them to the competent authorities, in addition to following up on the cases until they are completed. One of the most serious problems was the lack of an adequate police depot to store the spare parts in custody, so they were forced to keep them in the same stores of the suspected traffickers. We noted that the suspected spare parts dealers deliberately disperse their confiscated spare parts, and therefore the police fine them only EGP 2,000 for wasting products in custody.
For example, in 2016, Toyota Egypt, in cooperation with Toyota International, the Supply Police, and the competent authorities, spotted some major counterfeit traders and sued many of them. The cost of the spare parts confiscated reached EGP 84m. In 2017, the cost dropped to EGP 18m, declining by 70%. This year, only four cases of EGP 8-10m were found. This is a remarkable improvement, which affirms Toyota’s plan in facing counterfeit spare parts.
“The biggest problem not only for Toyota Egypt but also for all other brands is that second hand spare parts are available in the Egyptian market because the Egyptian law unfortunately allows the importation of used spare parts, despite the their danger to the safety of customers and the Egyptian economy in general,” he noted.
