ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 15, 2010—After a PR nightmare with its brake pedal recall, dealers at the Toyota franchise meeting today pressed for guidance on the message they should give to their local media.

“We said, ‘Tell us what to do,’” said one Midwestern dealer, who added that the overall mood of dealers at the meeting was one of support for Toyota. Dealers asked Toyota to provide them with facts they could share with the press, and Toyota executives encouraged dealers to address media inquiries, the dealer added.

After a closely guarded meeting, executives and a number of dealers from Toyota held a press conference. Toyota auto operations senior vice president Don Esmond said he apologized to dealers today for the brake pedal problems. “I said I’m sorry, and I believe that, but we’re moving on.”

As part of the recall, some 50,000 units are being repaired daily, and more than 500,000 units have been repaired so far, said Toyota group vice president and general manager Bob Carter. Of 112,000 units that are placed on hold right now because of the recall, 88,000 have been fixed and can go back on sale, he added. Toyota dealers said they are working hard at the store level to repair brake pedals.

Dealer Neale Kuperman, Rockland (N.Y.) Toyota, says he and his staffers have let customers spar it out over the recall—for instance, when one customer came in upset, another customer defended Toyota.

Dealers also said they are frustrated by what they perceive as sensational media coverage of the recall. “I live and breathe my brand,” said Bill Stringer Jr., a manager at Twin City Toyota in Herculaneum, Mo. “My livelihood has been greatly affected in the past few weeks.”

Toyota is working with the engineering and consulting firm Exponent to analyze Toyota and Lexus vehicles that have the Electronic Throttle Control System with intelligence to pinpoint the cause of unintended acceleration. An interim report dated Feb. 4 said Exponent could not induce unintended acceleration in any of the vehicles it tested.

Click here for all NADA-TV Convention Videos