Nice New Toyotas

The Toyota Motor Corporation is the largest car manufacturer in the world, but they didn’t get there by building cars of an inferior quality. Toyotas have long been considered the benchmark by which all other makes are judged, but in recent months that advantage has largely disappeared.

Toyota’s problems are being blamed on a number of factors including a relentless quest to displace General Motors as the world’s largest car company, management infighting where Toyoda family members battled to regain control of the company and a management disconnect between what takes place in Japan and elsewhere in the world.

But I’m not writing about these problems specifically. Rather, what must Toyota do to regain the customer’s trust in their products?

As an automotive writer who attends auto shows, meets with industry leaders and keeps his pulse on what customers are thinking about through my Auto Trends website, I can offer the following suggestions on how Toyota can win back customers and put its present crises behind it:

Come clean. It isn’t enough for Akio Toyoda to offer one thousand apologies for Toyota’s screw ups. While having the chairman of the company take responsibility is laudable, ‘fessing up can go much further. Specifically, Toyota has to admit where it went wrong even at the risk of huge lawsuits. Toyota will end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and legal settlements, but they’ll also save themselves billions in lost sales.

Shake up. Toyota is much too concentrated in Japan. The entire board consists of paternal, Japanese executives who understand the home market but are out of touch with what goes on in the rest of the world. Google the name Jim Press and see what he has to say about Toyota management. You’ll learn that the company is great at selling vehicles, but not at identifying problems quickly. Someone needs to shake up the way the company is managed and run.

Get real. Toyota has a perceived culture of not being transparent and some have gone on record as saying that the company covers up it problems. An AP investigative report accused Toyota of this much, something Toyota has to counter. They can do that by always letting customers know what is going on and avoid posturing. If you’re believable, customers will trust you. If not, good-bye.

If Toyota continues to be defensive, even combative, people will see through it and look elsewhere for their new cars. Volkswagen and a resurgent General Motors are closing back in while Ford, Honda and Hyundai are demonstrating that their vehicles are certainly worth a look.

Matthew C. Keegan

The car manufacturer Toyota is not having a good year so far is it? And it’s only February! Several million Toyota cars had been warned and then recalled about a floor mat issue that caused the gas pedal to get caught. Then the recall was expanded to more models and years plus the public was informed it was more than a floor mat issue; it was mechanical.

Why did Toyota wait so long to tell the public the truth? By waiting to divulge that it wasn’t floor mats, but a mechanical part in the gas pedal they may very well have caused more injuries and lives to be lost. At least now they seem to be doing the right thing by getting all the cars in and fixed. But does this action come too late to restore the public’s confidence in Toyota?

By first saying the problem was a floor mat, and then identifying the problem as the gas pedal while expanding the recall, many Toyota owners have to be wondering if their car is safe or will it be recalled as well. Is Toyota sitting on another mechanical failure without telling anyone?

Well, it’s not looking to good because the Toyota Prius is the next Toyota car with problems showing up. There have been rumors and stories floating around the Internet that the new 2010 Toyota Prius has braking issues. Toyota states they have already fixed the problem in the cars on the production line, but they aren’t ready to do a recall yet. Why aren’t they doing a recall? Are they waiting for fatalities to pile up, as the case with the sticking gas pedal?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration isn’t very amused by Toyota’s handling of these recalls, and has issued a formal inquiry in to the 2010 Toyota Prius braking issues. The N.H.T.S.A. has only received 124 complaints but that number will no doubt climb much higher once more Prius owners realize that the braking system is indeed faulty and they aren’t crazy.

This is really turning into a public relations nightmare. Toyota has always been known for safety and reliability, but that is now turning rapidly into distrust and fear. The completely lack of concern over consumer’s lives, consumer’s that bought their cars, is chilling. Yes you’ll lose money in a recall, but aren’t human lives more important than money? I shudder to think at the answer Toyota would give at the moment.

It happened again, just as Toyota is doing everything to do some damage-control in the US, it has now happen in Europe and Asia. For those of you who have no idea whats going on, the problem with the worlds biggest car manufacturer is the defective gas pedals that initiate out of control acceleration.

The report comes at a very bad time for Toyota where it had previously halt production from a few of its factories in North America. The recall has spread to Europe in view of the fact that the defective accelerator pedals were also used in Toyota’s European market.

Its bad enough that Toyota had suffered a blow in their sales because of the global financial crisis but this adverse turn of event will not only further jeopardize their profit but will also place a big scar on their reputation as a maker of top-notch quality cars with dependable attributes. The cost in fixes each month will also cost Toyota hundreds of millions of dollars and this controversy has given other car manufacturers an edge.

In the US, a number of disasters involving Toyota cars have previously happened which caused fatalities. One very troubling one came from a 911 call in the San Diego, California where 4 individuals in a Lexus crashed because of a stuck gas pedal.

It is reported that an estimated 1.8 million vehicles will be recalled in Europe, including the UK, bad news doesn’t stop there. The pending recall in China is also said to total over 75,000 mainly for Toyota RAV4s. All have the same issue of faulty gas pedals.

Can the faulty accelerator pedal be blamed completely to Toyota? Toyota may be receiving the brunt of this controversy but a notable detail is that Toyota gets their gas pedals from a third party supplier, CTS Elkhart. Even though CTS has already made attempts to replace the faulty gas pedals, the reputation of Toyota has already been dented, possibly irreparable.

Toyota has also cautioned drivers of floormats trapping accelerator pedals.

a number of~various~a few} complaints. One of which is in Southeast Asia where several Toyota Innova drivers are complaining about D4D fuel pumps where the MUV has a possible tendency to stop suddenly without the driver braking.

Toyota’s embarrassment doesn’t finish there, there are now reports of a new round in recall and this time its Toyota’s hybrid car the Prius, Toyota’s forefront for green technology. Gas pedals are not the issue with the Prius but its brake pedal instead. where many Toyota drivers in Japan and the US have encountered sporadic unresponsive braking.

The Toyota car models being recalled are 2009-10 Corolla, 2009-10 RAV4, 2009-10 Matrix, 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2007-10 Tundra, 2010 Highlander, and 2008-10 Sequoia. If you drive any of these models, you should inform your dealer and have them take care of the issue. Should you experience a glitch with your accelerator, you must step on the brake pedal with one strong stomp instead of little by little and pull-up the handbrake.

Stuart Pudge writes for Motor-Speak.com whose visitors can catch up on all the latest cool car gadgets and anything to do with cars and driving. Visit today