Ask The Brightest: How Many More Recalls Before Toyota's Quality Rep Is Dead And Buried?
Published: January 21st, 2010
Share
Toyota got hammered by another big recall today, with 2.3m vehicles called back for sticking accelerator pedals. According to Toyota’s release, this recall is
separate from the on-going recall of approximately 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to reduce the risk of pedal entrapment by incorrect or out of place accessory floor mats. Approximately 1.7 million Toyota Division vehicles are subject to both separate recall actions.
How much more of this can Toyota take? One thing is for certain: ToMo has got to pull its current ad campaign which emphasizes the alleged quality of Toyota products. Cognitive dissonance might work in the short term but once consumers wise up they’ll never trust you again. Just ask GM.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
Still talking about floor mats? Did I miss it-- the TTAC story on the the recent (within the past week or so) Chrysler recall, the one where the brakes fail? Affecting Rams, Sebrings, some Jeep POS's.
Let's see if this will affect sales of F-150's http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60K5ST20100121
Toyota's quality rep will be "dead and buried" when it doesn't own 3 of the top 7 spots in Consumer Reports reliability survey...When it doesn't have more recommended cars on their list than any other manufacturer...When it doesn't end up in the top quartile of JD Powers year after year...When it's cars don't routinely make it to 150-200K without major service costs. Much to the dismay of most of the other manufacturers, Toyota and Honda still reign in quality and making noise about a recall or two is not going to move their sorry -sses up the list. Building better cars will. Toyotas biggest concern should be Hyundai, which is producing better values every category and slowly moving up the list in quality.
I don't really have a horse in this quality race -- though both my dad and my brother have Lexus IS's which are being/have been recalled... To me the problem with Toyota is as much on the decontenting side of quality as in the reliabilty side (which I suspect is still, generally, pretty damn above average if not the same as yesteryear's "bulletproof"). I had a camry back in the early 90s, and the quality of the interior (dash, upholstery, touch surfaces, etc.) was pretty damn amazing for a $20k car. Nowadays you can still get a $20k camry and, from my rental car/friend's car experience the interior is an utter mess of hard plastic, etc. Now I know some folks don't care about that, but I think it has a lot to do with the impression of quality -- something that I think is sorely lacking from recent toyotas (and mentioned in the recent venza test).