Toyota Australia has taken action to reduce the cost of smash repairs on its popular Echo light car - a move it says will directly benefit the smash repair industry.

For a short time a 45 per cent reduction in price of selected Toyota Genuine airbags, airbag sensors and seatbelts means cheaper replacement part costs for damaged vehicles, leading to fewer Echos being written off by insurance companies and more work for repairers.

"The discounted prices on selected safety parts will benefit the businesses of smash repairers, ensuring more Echos can be repaired," says Matthew Callachor, divisional manager, Toyota Customer Services Division.

"For example, under the new pricing scheme, one particular air bag sensor, listed at Toyota's original list price of $90.50, is now priced at just $49.77*.

"Similarly, the price for a particular seatbelt has dropped from $417 to $229.35^."

Once a certain percentage of an Echo is damaged, insurance companies often consider the vehicle's replacement parts too costly to repair given its overall value and the vehicle is written off, providing little value to repairers.

This is despite the fact that the car, for the most part, may be repairable back to pre-accident condition.

By reducing the costs of key Toyota Genuine safety parts, it is more likely that a damaged Echo will be repaired and returned to the road.

"It is in the interests of smash repairers to take another look at Echo parts pricing, as it may allow another job to be successfully quoted and completed rather than written-off," said Mr Callachor.

Toyota Genuine Parts are developed to meet Toyota's own standards and quality requirements.

"When it comes to passenger safety and true peace of mind, there's only one option when buying replacement parts and that's to use the right part for the correct vehicle," said Mr Callachor.

"For Toyota vehicles that means using Toyota Genuine Parts."

By using Toyota Genuine Parts, smash repair workshops can be sure of a perfect fit every time, eliminating extra time spent potentially altering non-genuine parts to make them fit.

Although discontinued, Echo is still popular, with nearly 82,000 vehicles on Australian roads.

For further information, please contact your parts representative at your preferred Toyota Dealer.