The only Toyota dealership in Mohave County, located in Lake Havasu City, is feeling the effects of Toyota’s suspension of U.S. sales on an unprecedented scale to fix faulty gas pedals.

Anderson Toyota owner Jason Anderson said 75 cars from the 280 vehicles on the dealership’s lot have been pulled since the announcement late Tuesday.

“I think it’s another show in their effort to put the customer first,” Anderson said.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced late Tuesday it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration, according to the Associated Press.

Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles.Toyota is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1.

It gave no date on when production could restart, the Associated Press reported.

Anderson said locally no customers have complained about the faulty gas pedals, however many local Toyota owners started calling Wednesday asking questions about the recall.

He said in his roughly nine years of selling Toyota cars in Mohave County, this is the largest recall he has experienced.

Anderson purchased the Toyota dealership in Kingman in 2001, and opened the new lot here in May 2009, he said.

Anderson said he expects to hold onto the recalled vehicles until hearing the official word from Toyota on their repairs. He has not heard how long it might take to receive the green light to start repairing the vehicles.

The Associated Press reported the Obama administration said it pressed Toyota to protect consumers who own vehicles under recall and to stop building new cars with the problem.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told WGN Radio in Chicago “the reason Toyota decided to do the recall and to stop manufacturing was because we asked them to.”

LaHood said the department urged the company to act and credited Toyota for going “a step above” by stopping production.

David Strickland, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told reporters in Washington that the Transportation Department had been in regular communication with Toyota about the recall.

He said the company’s decision to stop selling the vehicles was “an aggressive one and one that is the legal and morally correct thing to do.”

“Toyota was complying with the law. They consulted with the agency. We informed them of the obligation and they complied,” Strickland said.

Strickland wouldn’t address why Toyota failed to stop selling the vehicles five days earlier when it announced the recall.

The suspect parts are made by a U.S. supplier, but they are also found in its European-made vehicles, an official with the automaker said Wednesday.

Toyota said it hasn’t decided what to do there.

The supplier is CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind., and the problem part was manufactured at its plant in Ontario, Canada, according to a report Toyota handed to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week.

CTS Corp. said Toyota told it about fewer than a dozen cases in which drivers struggled with pedals. It knows of no accidents or injuries tied to the problem.

The supplier also said it’s not aware of any cases where the pedal became stuck after drivers pushed it down, potentially causing unwanted acceleration.

The new equipment has been tested and is being shipped to some Toyota factories, according to the parts company.

Toyota’s report says it first received reports in March 2007, of gas pedals being slow to come back in the Tundra pickup, and fixed the problem in February 2008.

Starting in December 2008, similar problems were reported in Europe with the Aygo and Yaris models.

Toyota said it lengthened a part and changed the material to fix the problem, starting in August 2009.

The latest problem emerged in North America, culminating in the decision for the recall earlier this month, Toyota said in the report.

The timing of the recall and production suspension could not be worse for Toyota.

Two years ago, the company beat out General Motors Co. to become the world’s largest automaker.

Now just weeks into 2010, it is stopping some sales in its biggest market, the U.S., at a time when it desperately needs to sell cars here after reporting its first-ever annual loss last year.

The sales and production halt involves several best-selling U.S. models, including the Camry and Corolla sedans and the RAV 4 crossover, a blend of an SUV and a car. RAV 4’s sales surged last month.

Today’s News-Herald reporter Jackie Leatherman contributed to this report.

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com